YOUR LETTERS

FIRSTLY, I thank you for printing my letter in defence of Mugabe - probably the only letter in defence of the Zimbabwean president printed by any newspaper in Europe! I trust you will forgive me for commenting on the Editor's remarks. The election was democratic insofar as both parties were on the ticket and the electors did have a clear choice. They chose Mugabe because they agreed with Mugabe's opinion that the alternative party was simply a front for western interests. As to the editor's belief that Mugabe has ruined his country I would ask you to bear in mind the massive economic and financial blockade being imposed by the west similar to the USA's blockades of Cuba, North Korea and Yugoslavia. Also maybe by European standards Zimbabwe is in a mess. But prior to Mugabe, very few black Zimbabweans earned more than 10 pounds a month for a twelve hour day seven days a week and living in slum conditions working on vast white-owned farms. These indigenous Zimbabweans will scarcely notice any diminutions in their living standards under Mugabe. One example of this is that in pre-Mugabe days in Johannesburg I hired a Zimbabwean night watchman for my office for 5 pounds a week. This was a third more than he had been receiving in Zimbabwe as a school teacher. This man spoke five languages fluently and I spent many an hour with him discussing among other things, James Joyce, Capitalism versus Communism and the educational needs of Africans from Cape Town to the Congo. Yours truly,

David Lee