Johannesburg — GOVERNMENT should stop its unsuccessful behind-the-scenes attempts to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis and start vociferously condemning what was happening in that country, businessman Warren Clewlow said yesterday.

Clewlow's sentiments, a clear indicator that the private sector is getting increasingly impatient with government's "quiet diplomacy" policy on Zimbabwe, were echoed by Business Unity SA (Busa), the umbrella body for all business organisations in the country.

Clewlow, who serves on the boards of four of the top 10 listed companies in SA, in cluding Old Mutual, Sasol, Nedbank and Barloworld, said the Zimbabwean political and economic crisis was "a monumental tragedy right on our doorstep and an albatross around the neck of an African renaissance".

As the company's chairman, he said in Barlowold's latest annual report that SA's efforts to date were fruitless and that the only means for a solution was for SA "to lead from the front. Our role and responsibility is not just to promote discussion... Our aim must be to achieve meaningful and sustainable change."

He said in an interview yesterday that taking economic steps such as sanctions against the Zimbabwean government would "just make more people suffer".

What SA needed to do was to vociferously condemn the situation in Zimbabwe, he said.

Zimbabwe had probably gained satisfaction from the fact that SA had not done this, he said.

The South African government missed an opportunity to speak out against injustices in Zimbabwe again last week when it declined to comment on a damning African Union commission report on human rights violations in that country.

South African Chamber of Business policy executive Bill Lacey said the "softly-softly" approach clearly did not work and SA "should implement economic measures against the Zimbabwean government".

Busa chief operating officer Vic van Vuuren said government should adopt a proactive role in facilitating a solution, although it was up to Zimbabweans themselves to solve the problem.

Government should be more open about the actions it was taking to resolve the situation, he said.

Van Vuuren, who was in Zimbabwe recently on an official visit, said the mood among businesspeople thre was "very, very despondent" -- and the situation was deteriorating.

"We see no light at the end of the tunnel."

Many South African companies, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, had lost export and import business to and from Zimbabwe.