23 September 2008
editorial
Kigali — Newshounds have for the past couple of weeks been focused on the southern part of Africa for two completely different reasons:
The first is what has come to epitomise post-independent African politics, and it is being played out in Zimbabwe; a contested election, a contested power-sharing with a sprinkle - not to mention floods - of bloodshed here and there, civil strife.
Neighbouring South Africa is also in the full glare of the spotlight after Thabo Mbeki's resignation because of coercion from his party, Nelson Mandela's legendary African National Congress (ANC).
While Mbeki's "resignation" could be termed as a creeping palace coup, at least it was bloodless and he left peacefully and gracefully, something that many world leaders, especially African, should embrace.
Mbeki's decision not to usurp the exceptional executive powers to fight and subdue his enemies and cling to power, should by now be making his neighbour Robert Mugabe shake his head in wonder and disbelief; "very un-African," he must be musing, "a very bad precedence".
But this is a positive sign that Africa has outgrown liberation politics where, after attaining independence, liberation and post-liberation heroes turned against the core beliefs of freedom and turned into nothing more than 'village tyrants', a term coined to describe Uganda's dictator, the late Idi Amin Dada.
Without speculating whether the ANC was right or wrong to force him out, Mbeki has earned the right to be inducted into Africa's Hall of Fame. He has single-handedly erased the slur that has come to symbolise African and third world "super glue" politics.
The home of Cape of Good Hope which gave succour to lost sailors is now beaming its beacon northwards for others to follow suit.
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