Airstrip One

Zimwatch: Client State - 27th August 2003, 6.56

The South African Development Community agreed to intervene in its members to maintain internal peace, up to and including the use of force. Under a veneer of regional communalism, the Republic of South Africa has managed to persuade its neighbours to adopt a de facto status as client states.

With their call for sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted, it is not difficult to see troops entering the former Rhodesia to preserve the regime of ZANU-PF, if internal resistance were to prove too burdensome for the governing authorities.

The Seychelles have wisely decided to leave this 'empire' before it gets started.