Indelible Ink scandal

The SA commission has a long report whitewashing the Zimbabwe election...but did find one problem: They used indelible ink unwisely...
In it, the MPs point a finger at Britain for "biased" international views of Zimbabwe and also state that they could not find evidence of intimidation prior to the election.

The final report is far from unanimous as the mission leader, ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, said from the outset that no minority views would be included in the final report.

Ah, no...can't have someone point out you are ridiculous...it might embarass you...tch tch...

After only two days in Harare, the Independent Democrats representative, Vincent Gore, pulled out in protest. Other opposition parties later broke ranks when their views could not be accommodated by the 12 ANC members.

Well, that's one way to keep the whitewash unanimous...

From its daily reports attached to the main report, it appears the MPs were able to verify one one case of intimidation. While listing several allegations almost daily, it states in each case that it could not be verified. It is not clear from the report whether they tried, what methodology they used and whether in fact the allegations were refuted.

Only one case of intimidation? Maybe because all the other cases of intimidation were too intimidated to complain?


It could also find "no verifiable evidence" of the allegations about "food for votes" and the use of traditional leaders to influence voters, nor of the fact that not all parties had equal access to the media.

I mean, just because you jail journalists, openly stop NGO's from distributing food fairly, and control the opposition media doesn't mean that there is "evidence" you did it...as Rummy would say: Absense of evidence is NOT evidence of absence...


Apart from "a more economic use of indelible ink", the only other recommendation to Zimbabwe was "to reduce the number of people turned away on voting day, political parties should also play a role to ensure voters are registered correctly".

Yup...5 million people in danger of starvation, but let's get our priorities straight. Stop overusing indelible ink....