The international community must stop legitimising despots' regimes in Africa | Nelson Chamisa

The bright future of younger generations is being perpetually postponed by ageing authoritarian politicians

• Nelson Chamisa is leader of the MDC Alliance, Zimbabwe's largest opposition party

Africa cannot afford to continue with the despotic forms of governance that still proliferate across the continent. Authoritarian and dictatorial governments are repressive, corrupt and inefficient. Their main interest is to retain power and loot public resources for the benefit of a few political elites, leaving the majority of citizens in poverty. As a result, although rich in raw resources, our continent remains the poorest in the world.

We have seen this trend of authoritarianism in Zimbabwe, and we are now seeing it in Uganda, which has just held a farcical election.