Tsvangirayi needs some basic lessons in diplomacy. After insulting SADC how does he hope to present his case to the AU when SADC is the only logical route to the AU? After all the chairman of AU is a member of SADC! And he plays these meaningless games while the people suffer - shame on him. When will he wake up to the obvious fact that he is the best placed person to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe? After giving up the chance to be President, his next best chance is as Prime Minister. The Post of Zambia is correct in observing that if he pushes his luck too far, then he will soon make himself irrelevant to the people who matter - the ordinary suffering masses.

You give the JOKE of Zimbabwe too much credit, street cred: ANTECEDENT to the lesson in diplomatic protocol or horse sense, the sprinter should take FIRST ORDER LOGIC at the Ecole Normale or, if that proves too taxing, as most reasonable should assume, a Yankee community college MAY be just what the doctor of fools ordered.

Unfortunately there is truth in what you are saying. Tsvangirai has not shown the diplomatic skills that were needed of him.

What you are saying is not useful to the problems of Zimbabwe. You must be sitting pretty. What diplomacy do you need in challenging a court or similar decision in a case you think otherwise? With a judgement it's either you win or lose; if you lose you can challenge the judgement based on facts or point of law. Tsvangira is doing the right thing by challenging the decision of SADC and saying his true opinion about the leadership of that body. If the leadership of SADC had acted long ago a number of issues could have been brought under control. How many years should an organ take to bring peace in a country where guns are fired on innocent people by its government. Can such an organ bring peace in DRC or Somalia??? Those who act, they do so by deeds. It took a few months for Koffi Anani to bring peace in Kenya where tribes/political parties were at each others throat. You should be encouraging your Mugabe to bow down,he has no more options. Rava damba rawa, hari dzokeri mumuti. You are busy talking bad about the West at the same time accpeting their AID. With the exception of Botswana which other nation in SADC had given you AID? That's goes to show you how MDC can influence and what it can do to serve the people. ZANU PF even took ages to declare national emergency for the cholera breakout yet they are full of PhDs and loaded with technocrats. So, how and what does education help the country when the so called educated can use it to serve the nation. Delearn your party members all to grade zero, put civilisation in them before education. It's not about diplomacy, its about what is right for the people. Diplomacy have grounded Zimbabwe. If Mbeki was not playing diplomacy we could have been somewhere better today.

I believe you are making the error that Tsvangirayi and his MDC-T are making - treating SADC and AU or even the UN as if they are courts of law. They are not - they are just voluntary associations of sovereign countries. Their decisions are only binding to the extent that they are accepted by the people of Zimbabwe. The ordinary people in Zimbabwe represented by the majority (ZanuPF and MDC-M together represent more than 50% of the votes) accept the SADC decision. If Tsvangirayi and his MDC-T were democrats and diplomats they would have respected the decision of the majority.

Katz, Tsvangirai may not be the great diplomate, but I do admire his ability to talk about freedom and human rights. That said he has some communication issues and at times he seems to move forward in one way, then change course and then back again.

Tsvangirai needs support from others like Simba Makoni and others to help him shape a steady course. Most SADC leaders still have misgivings about him and his fight with Former President Mbheki has weakened him in some members of the ANC. That is why I feel strongly that the AU and UN should now start playing a leading role. Maybe, even UK could start engaging in a more constructive way than in the past.

Phiri - whilst I have the utmost admiration and respect for Morgan Tsvangirai's honesty, personal courage and tenacity, I suspect that he will turn out to be the Lech Walensa of Africa. Those admirable attributes that he possesses will see the eventual undoing of Mugabe and possibly we will see a ground swell of change in Angola, Gabon, CAE, etc as a result. However, Walensa was not the right man to bring Poland into the modern world; in the same way so many liberation leaders (Mugabe being one obvious example) make very poor peace time leaders. It will take a Makoni or someone else to lead Zimbabwe once the scourge of zanu-pf has been washed out of the social fabric.