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Zimbabwe: Mbeki Stands Alone On Crisis
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Financial Gazette (Harare)
OPINION
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 24 April 2008
Mavis Makuni
Harare
THE decision of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC) to go over the ineffectual Thabo Mbeki's head to embark on a parallel mediation initiative in Zimbabwe, finally exposes the South African president for the imposter he is .
South African newspapers reported at the weekend details of a plan by the South African ruling party to intervene directly in the Zimbabwean crisis following Mbeki's roundly condemned utterances in the face of the almost month-long electoral stalemate in which the outcome of the voting that took place in Zimbabwe on March 29 has been withheld from the electorate.
Mbeki stirred a global hornet's nest when he declared following the Southern African Development Community (SADC) emergency summit in Lusaka, that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe.
His subsequent attempts to claim that he had been misquoted only served to dent his credibility further because the withholding of election results from voters for any reason whatsoever constitutes a crisis. The situation was exacerbated by Mbeki's clumsy and amateurish attempts to sweep the Zimbabwean problem under the carpet during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, which he chaired.
The world press reported on how Mbeki had been isolated when other leaders insisted that the Zimbabwean situation constituted a crisis and should be put on the agenda. Although a banner headline, "Hands of Zim, UN told" appeared on the front page of the state broadsheet, The Herald, at this time, UN general secretary Ban Ki-Moon insisted that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe, which the world could no longer ignore.
However, the most damaging sentiments to Mbeki's reputation and credibility are those that have been expressed in his own country by various stakeholders.. Writing in the Sunday Times issue of April 20, the paper's Editor, Mondli Makhanya, lamented the lack of political will on Mbeki's part with regard to his handling of the Zimbabwean issue.
Makhanya said if the South African government had the political will to resolve the crisis, it would have diagnosed it correctly eight years ago.
"The diagnosis would have shown that the problem lay with a dirty ZANU-PF hierarchy bent on plundering the country. It would have shown the remedy lay elsewhere -- in the nergy that resides in business, trade unions and other civil society formations."
The Sunday Times Editor added that if there had been political will and principled leadership on Mbeki's part, South Africa would not have "looked away as journalists, cleargy, judges, doctors and activists were hounded, We would not have stymied Commonwealth leaders, including Olusegun Obasanjo, who were appalled by the oppression of Zimbabweans."
A contributor to the Sunday Times, Mpumelelo Mkhabela, deplored in the same issue, Mbeki's "tacit support for his Zimbabwean counterpart" which he said has cost South Africa dearly.
He asserted that what at first seemed to be Mbeki's sophistication in handling the Zimbabwean problem had "turned out to be nothing but sophistry".
He said: "If anything, Mbeki has given (President) Mugabe what he lacked: credibility in the face of defeat. And thus what appeared to be Mbeki's sophistication in handling the Zimbabwean situation turned out to be nothing but pure sophistry."
Mkhabela wrote that as a result of his dithering and equivocation, "Mbeki now seems to stand alone against the whole world on (President) Mugabe and in this manner he is destroying the little legacy he had left After Polokwane."
Apart from being side-stepped by the ANC, Mbeki's own cabinet is reported to have contradicted him in his absence by declaring the electoral impasse in Zimbabwe is a crisis and calling on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the results of the presidential election.
These developments unfold against the backdrop of a raging debate among ordinary Zimbabweans about Mbeki's motives for his perceived collusion with their government over the last eight years of "quiet diplomacy" at the expense of the suffering populace.
One popular joke, made in exasperation that the head of state of Africa's powerhouse would behave in such an amateurish and dishonourable manner, is to ask whether the South African President has been offered a farm in Zimbabwe.
This is an allusion to ZANU-PF's vast political patronage system under which farms seized from whites have been allocated to undeserving recipients as a way to buy their loyalty and support.
Another theory bandied about is that Mbeki has been deliberately prolonging the political stalemate in Zimbabwe because of the economic benefits accruing to South Africa.
Mbeki's perverse conduct has been criticised in the past both at home and internationally.
In 2004 Mbeki clashed with retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu after the respected cleric had questioned his failure to adopt a more robust stance on Zimbabwe. The South African president accused the Archbishop of speaking out of turn and resorting to empty rhetoric.
Four years later, Mbeki is no nearer to a resolution of the Zimbabwean problem but still pointing accusing fingers at anyone who questions his ineffectual mediation.
In 2004, Mbeki's younger brother, Moeletsi, slammed the South African government for failing to come out clearly in support of justice and democratic governance in Zimbabwe. The older Mbeki turned a deaf ear to all this.
He was even less prepared to listen as long as expressions of outrage and discontent came from quarters such as the MDC in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of South African Trade Unions in South Africa, churches and civil society.
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Most of these stakeholders were dismissed as not having the right liberation struggle credentials. Now, however, Mbeki's duplicitous conduct and failure to deliver is being questioned by his colleagues in the ANC and his Cabinet.
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... [Read Full Text]
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... [Read Full Text]
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... [Read Full Text]
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,... [Read Full Text]
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... [Read Full Text]
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.
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