When Nicolas Sarkozy secured the release of Belgian nurses from Libya, every western media celebrated and feted him and congratulated him on his "quiet diplomacy".

The ANC was never a partner-in-struggle to ZANU_PF. When ZANU-PF came into power in 1980, Thabo Mbeki was a junior official in the ANC media department. Robert Mugabe was then invited to the White House and congratulated for being a bastion against "communist onslaught" in southern Africa. The ANC enjoyed a diplomatic presence in Zimbabwe and never s military presence. The ANC ZANU-PF marriage is contrived and has not basis.

Mbeki is an elected head of state of South Africa with a limited mandate to the state of South Africa. Zimbabwe is not our 10th province however, appetising the prospect. It is a sovereign state 14 years older than ourselves. We are not the askaris of the west to their their bidding and kill our own leaders at their behest. Ian Douglas Smith died a peaceful death ins spite of the huge suffering his policies caused to millions in Zimbabwe. When someone tells me deal severely with a thief who steals a chocolate bar in the same manner as a murderer, then something is morally wrong. Yes I do not condone Mugabe's excesses but compared to Ian Smith's they pale into insignificance.

Yes South Africa is an economic power house but we dont want it to be the policeman of Southern Africa. We prefer working in concert and in tandem with other "weaker" states in SADC; for obvious reasons we have a very large white Rhodesian population which came into our country in 1980. These former Selous Scout and Special Branch people would love to go back to Zim and settle scores with Mugabe. But because of the democratic dispensation in South Africa they have been unable to do so. There is a growing resentment against Mbeki for not unleashing the dogs of war to terrorise Zimbabwe. White South Africa did it in Mozambique and Angola and Namibia. Indeed some whites are waiting to put on black polish on their faces and do what they have always done best and exceptionally well from Kenya to Rhodesia i.e. create a counter insurgency war, and devastate the country in the pretext of fighting Mugabe and personal game.

yes I agree that the War Veterans have plunged Zimbabwe into a crisis but what is the difference between the theft of the War Veterans and the theft of the settlers who invaded your country in 1897-1899 with 300 Royal British Police from South Africa and guided by an alleged gay 30-something Englishman called John Cecil Rhodes? Does illegal ownership and good stewardship and passage of time make the theft any better or absolved? I would prefer that these issues be tackled through the rule of law and Britain be held accountable for this. Yes, white people brought commerce, civilisation and christianity but was it necessary to charge these things at the cost of humiliating and oprressing Africans? The fact it could have been done without making Africans sub-humans and that is why colonialism had no moral basis and had to fall one day.

Mbeki is a mediatior appointed by SADC. Could he do this job while at the same time vilifying Mugabe to please a white expatriate "Rhodesian" audience in South Africa? Mugabe knows his rights under international law and would tell him to get off. He is not stupid, you listen to how he argues his case given any platform. His scathing attack on George Bush went unanswered because truly they are both in the same league: stealing elections and killing innocent people.

My take on the matter is that the MDC has failed to give leadership to Zimbabweans. We only see Zimbabweans flocking to South Africa and going home every month end and coming back again; and an MDC that has failed to provide a vangaurd role in harnessing the human capacity to resisit Mugabe's regime. We were all in exile, I have never heard an ANC leader telling us to blame an African head of state, be it Kaunda, or Nyerere or even Mugabe for the delay of our freedom. It is very strange indeed to see so much of the MDC efforts being spent at pressurising Mbeki. Zimbabwe has all shades of opinion and people some really like Mugabe for the wrong or right reasons. It is simplistic and childish to think there is a genie called Mbeki who at one stroke would make everything have a fairy tale ending.

Given the love of South Africa by Zimbabweans I see in the next 10 years a generation of young Zimbabweans who will be 120% South African and will have nothing to do with Zimbabwe or the Shona language. These are the telling weakneses of a leadership obsessed with Mbeki. Mbeki is not privy to ZANU-PF meetings, he does not need a Zim farm (as you maliciously insinuated)and does not have one.

We welcome Zimbabweans in South Africa because they are our brothers. They have enriched our country through their amazing intellect and education, skills, and virile gene pool indeed when all is said and done we have benefited immensely from the Zimbabwean intelligentsia. We have not coerced them to come but we have recognised that these are post-liberation problems. Had they come in the 1980's they Pretoria government would have drafted them into a counter insurgency unit perhaps headed by Morgan and reigned mayhem and murder in the Zimbabwean country side and cities. And the American bible-belt would have provided the bibles and arms.

That's why whites are exasperated by Mbeki's efforts. From Afghanistan to Iraq that is the patent way white people deal with a political crisis. They wonder why in Zimbabwe we are wasting time and humouring Mugabe. According to them he should be toppled, imprisoned and hanged. IN contrats in South Africa we have forgiven our ersatwhile torturers it is not unusual to meet the arrogant SB policeman who decorated his office wall with your deceased son's T-shirt at the shopping mall on a Saturday. We did that not because we were fools or cowards, but because we could not just walk in topple whites and hope it ends there. We had elders who knew how peace could be built. The South African cyberspace is full of disgruntled whites who criticise anything done by black politicians. At least it is criticism the demkon of war was buried and his tomb sealed by the TRC (Truth Reconciliation Commission).

As for Moeletsi Mbeki I have my doubts that he is a true son of Govan Mbeki. His sibling rivalry with his elder brother is astounding. But he is a silent beneficiary and director of the Endomol, a later year imperialist company that pillages Africa through its many enterprises. I hope one day when his brother has stepped down he will account to African children why his global behemoth has ravaged their inheritance, not only in South Africa but everywhere accross Africa.

Mbeki has his failings and if people of Zimbabwe do not want him to mediate in their problems, he must gladly step down. The Zimbabwe problem, like the Iraq problem has been over simplified. In Iraq the US mantra was get rid of Saddam and all his cronies in government but the problems are more severe than they were 5 years ago. I am yet to read an analysis from Zimbabwe that will deal with all the factors in this crisis, how to heal the rifts between ZANU-PF and others including the MDC. It is perhaps the enormity and sheer size of the problem that drives the MDC to look for a saviour, a miraculous saviour in the name of the South African governmentand Mbeki. When i compare the leadership of people such as Oliver Tambo i realise how fortunate we were in South Africa, because exile would have swallowed us up and the struggle in South Africa would have dissipated itself like a damp squib.

Morgan has more work to do. maybe he is right in blaming Mbeki but what has he done himself? I dont like Mugabe; booing him and vilifying does nothing but also humiliates me as an African. In South Africa Mugabe bashing is used by whites to discredit the liberation struggle history. On a point by point basis whites have killed and munrdered more people, humiliated more people and oppressed more people in Africa. It is an illogical clever ploy to use Mugabe in order to rewrite that history.

There is a stupid bumbling US president called George Bush I am yet to hear any western head of state vilifying him in public. It seems only Africans think they can prove their credentials by spiteing themselves. Yes he is lampooned by journalists but never by a G8 head of state. They still use quiet diplomacy to sort things among themselves.

Look any western country keeps a formidable arsenal because its survival depends on the international trade routes and the supply of raw materials. You stop that even the mighty US will succumb and will have political instability. Sanctions do not prove economic incompetence, they simply must be understood in terms of the moral basis on which they are implemented. With the confication of Zimbabwe assets (property and funds) internationally, I imagine no country would have survived. But it is an insult to be told that "look how incompetent Mugabe is!" Given the power any country in the world can be brought down to its knees.

Yesterday we saw the spectacle of Jacob Zuma (and ANC NEC members), who is not yet elected as a South African president, going to No.10 Downing Street to explain himself and that his policies would not deviate from Mbeki's economic policies. And yet to hear whites saying Mbeki's legacy will fall because of his "friendship" to Mugabe. That is one incident that makes Mugabe a hero in Africa. he has never stooped so low like a cringing puppy to white interests. Yes we would like to continue with Mbeki's economic legacy but why should we go cringing to Britain and say that? why not tell our own people? IN South Afrtica as a boiy I worked in a warehouse each time you packed groceries your own way, the Baas would make you undo them and have the pilchard pictures on the tin face left or right. Each time you wanted to do something you went cap in hand and asked: "Baas can I pack the pilchards now?" There is something galling about African leaders who still go to the west and ask: " Baas, can I think now?" "Baas , is my economic policy hurting you?" This is what makes Robert Mugabe a hero, he knows when to tell the west to get off.

But we need to resolve the situation in Zimbabwe in a manner that will make Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Angola and Namibia and South Africa happy. We trust Zimbabweans have the right leadership to pull it off. The risk is not South Africa but other neighbouring countries who could finance a low key deadly civil war. And we need to be sober minded and forget about the vociferous and disgruntked anger of white people. Last year I watched Zambia TV and saw an economic summit in Lusaka attended by Zambia, Zimababwe, Malawi and Angola. When MUgabe walked in he was given a standing ovation. This piece was never shown by SABC or international TV. It said a lot to me and I kept asking myslef if it was true. It is easier to blame Mbeki but the real players in Zimbabwe, people whose consent and goodwill is needed are elsewhere in the SADC region. And you will learn this the hard way.

Khayakh

You seem to be coming from the school of thought which believe: '' I am black therefore I am right''. You seem to be so colour conscious. You assume the position of speaking on behalf of all blacks in South Africa. Those who don't share you perspective are labelled as consorting with whites.

A leader is elected to deliver. If he fails he must go. Mugabe has failed to deliver regardless of what the whites and colonisation has done. A typical looser will start pointing fingers and blame others when he has failed.

Mbeki has been shielding Mugabe all this time. It is not true that he is being pragmatic because he is a mediato, no!

Was he not amongst those people who were crying '' free and fair'' when Mugabe stole the last elections. By then he was not a mediator.

I am afraid Khayak,you and all those you speak for are still stuck in the past and are holding everyone from moving on. It not only the whites who were not listening to black majority, the present day ANC led govt. especially Mbeki lookes down upon black majority in South Africa.

We don't blame Mbeki for anything.

The rest of the world is just bitterly disappointed that the African leaders fail to recognise the plight of the bautiful and intelligent Zimbabwean people.

Why is that?? - does it have something to do with the colonialism of the past.

Get over it.

We need to see some real leadership from Africa. Unless that happens I'm afraid the African governments will always be dismissed as inferior and unintelligent.

We simply cannot comprehend how you can stand by and let a tyrant ignore the result of a democratic election. It is beyond belief and very very disturbing.

Nita, you can try to put up a lot of “hot air” and seem like you are decisive and act swiftly and not achieve a damn thing. A lot of Anglos think that SADC leaders should act faster like the UK and USA did on Iraq. But, if you actually analyze what was achieved in Iraq, you find that really the UK and USA achieved nothing. In fact it is an example of bad actions, motivated by local politics in western world capitals. SADC leaders are to be praised for acting within their limits and looking for long term solution, not quick fixes that lead to total failure and complete break down. President Mbeki convinced Morgan Tsvangirai to participate in the elections, when he was planning to quit. And now Tsvangirai’s party will control both parliamentary houses. Yes, we are not Europeans and our way of doing things may not fit the western world, but you cannot ignore the African culture in the way problems are solved. Quick fixes by the USA/UK were also tried in Sudan, but no good results there as well. In Kenya, the Africans have decided to us other African elders and statesmen and the results are much better, than the talking machine of the UK/USA.

What Nita is saying is not hot air. Even in the olden days people took their grievances to their chiefs and they did not spend the day scratching their heads and being mute but swiftly saw and solved the problem. What is there that is so difficult to solve? Mugabe democratically lost the election, has refused to release the results - -so what is so difficult for African leaders including Mbeki , to tell Mugabe to release those results?

To be fair I have heard that in the culture he (Mbeki) was brought up in, I asume nguni,he has to respect his elders, no matter what, he cannot tell them what to do.Pity he has not passed on this value to his juniors. Then there's the old freedom fighters club/clique

To be fair I have heard that in the culture he (Mbeki) was brought up in, I asume nguni,he has to respect his elders, no matter what, he cannot tell them what to do.Pity he has not passed on this value to his juniors. Then there's the old freedom fighters club/clique

Think about it--about idiots, hell no......

hmmm. it appears that this is a pretty good debate going on. if i may give some input... i am too young to be "trapped in the past." i was not born on the continent of Africa, but i try to stay abreast of what happens on my motherland. i have not been very successful at this, so i ask that you all please bear with me... i am of the opinion that magabe has his faults. i think we all agree on this. to say that another government should go in and topple his regime is to say that the other government has taken the responsiblity for being a moral leader on the continent. thus, who will that country be? South Africa? i think not. in south africa, whites came in and took control of all the natural resources and even after aparthied that has not changed. the number of south africans dying because of a virus that was consciously created by whites to kill them means that the Africans of South Africa has a more pressing issue in their country to address. clean your house first before even thinking about cleaning someone elses. as for the whites, i don't feel that you have any grounds to talk about what should be done or how it should be done. you and your ancestors have scorched every bit of land you have set foot on. you are responsible for the condition the entire continent/world is in right now. Africa is a land for Africans. You are STILL invaders, not guest and certainly not of us. if you have a desire to help, then HELP. do not try to lead us. and to starthelping, address the atrocities that were caused by your ancestors. address the wrongs of your homeland (britain, belgium, france, spain, portugal, the netherlands, etc.). Question... Who will be the next generation of Black leaders on the African continent if we are at a point of losing almost a whole generation now to aids and war?! in the "global 2000 policy" the 2 things were the 2 suggestions put forth on how to control the population growth. the people that were the ones to war and die from the biological warfare were people of color around the world. we need to start thinking about the future generations of Africa, and put this silly sh-t about who stole what on the back burner.

Do not be fooled - all africans are behind Mbeki on the ZIM issue! Africans just hate colonialism,neo colonialism and so the western world should be aware that Africans will never be subjected to the old and tried trick of Divide and Rule.THOSE DAYS ARE OVER!!

With the chinese easy funding now available... africa does not need to beg anyone...! Basically africans can now do anything that they like Because they are only answerable to themselves.

So you think the Chinese want nothing in return for their, "easy funding"? Still I guess you get to pick whom you're colonised by this time. Too Funny!