Johannesburg — South African president, Thabo Mbeki, travelled to Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this week on a whistle-stop diplomatic mission. Zimbabwe is in crisis and the DRC hopes it will be able to put behind it a five-year conflict. In both cases and in other trouble spots in the region - Pretoria is increasingly applying diplomatic pressure and using shuttle-diplomacy to try to resolve the problems.
On Monday, Mbeki accompanied Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Malawian leader, Bakili Muluzi, to Harare for talks with President Robert Mugabe. They held separate discussions with the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The visit came amid feverish speculation that Mugabe may be contemplating early retirement. The official purpose for the presence of the African presidential delegation in Harare was to get the two rival sides in Zimbabwe to talk.
South African foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, told journalists Tuesday that "both parties are ready to start the dialogue. We welcome that development. The future of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of that leadership in (Mugabes) Zanu-PF and the MDC."
Dlamini-Zuma dismissed concerns that dialogue seemed to been blocked by pre-conditions for talks by both protagonists. "Everybody has their opening lines in negotiations. That can be overcome. You cant send a country to destruction because of that, I am sure," said South Africas top diplomat.
So, how should one characterise South African foreign policy in the region? In the early days after liberation and the first non-racial elections in 1994, Pretorias Africa policy was considered by some analysts as somewhat erratic, having limited success.
Mbeki has since assumed the mantle of the champion for Africa and the continents renaissance. Western governments increasingly look to him, and to South Africa, to find workable African solutions to African problems. But does the coat fit and has the impression of a hit-and-miss approach by South Africa, in how it tackles Africas woes, been erased?
The Pretoria government now has peacekeeping troops in the DRC (under a United Nations banner) and in Burundi, as part of an African Union (AU) force. Mbeki, his deputy president and ministers have been deeply involved in negotiating peace deals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, in Burundi. And South Africa has taken the initiative even further afield with Mbeki as the inaugural chairman of the African Union (AU) which replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in the South African port city of Durban last year.
AllAfrica.coms Ofeibea Quist-Arcton discussed these questions with Bheki Khumalo, Mbekis presidential spokesperson. Excerpts:
Did Monday's visit to Zimbabwe go well?
I think the talks, in our view, went very well. President Mbeki, as you know, met President Mugabe for three hours with President Muluzi and President Obasanjo. They then proceeded to meet with the leadership of the MDC - with Morgan Tsvangirai, with Welshman Ncube and two others.
I think that, for the first time, both sides - the Zanu-PF leadership, the government of Zimbabwe on the one hand and the MDC on the other hand, emerged out of those talks with one statement: that dialogue must resume and that theyve got to sit down around a table and talk about the future of Zimbabwe.
I think it underscores what we have been saying all along, that the Zimbabwean problems cant be solved by outsiders. But the people of Zimbabwe themselves - in this case, the MDC and Zanu-PF, the two main protagonists - will have to sit around the table and thrash out various areas of agreement. And thats what has happened and that is what will happen.
The African presidential delegation to Zimbabwe said that both sides were prepared to talk. But we saw that positions didnt change. President Mugabe is still saying that the opposition MDC will have to drop its legal challenge to his disputed re-election last year. The other side, meanwhile, has refused, saying this is a normal route and that the MDC will pursue it. So, how can you get the two parties together around the table to talk when this impasse remains?
I think that there was an expectation which we think was unrealistic that was created before the meeting. People started writing about the so-called 'exit plans [for Mugabe] and that kind of thing or of a regime change in Zimbabwe.
I think that if you are beginning a process of dialogue that will culminate in dialogue between a number of parties, you anticipate that as people begin to get together there will be areas of difficulty. Certainly that area is one area of difficulty that all of us must grapple with.
But we can say, with utmost certainty, that both Zanu-PF and the MDC are bound to come together and resume dialogue and that will happen.
How soon?
Well, we cant tell.
Well, how much progress was made on Monday during the talks in Harare to bring the two sides together for you to reach that conclusion?
We think that significant progress was made. But I think you must accept as well that you cannot expect instant results. I think that it will take quite a bit of time and we are working very hard on this matter, even after this meeting, to try to nudge the process forward.
You say there has been no talk of an 'exit plan or a departure plan or possible early retirement for President Mugabe, but he himself has mentioned it. Was the subject broached at all in the talks in Harare?
No, the subject was not broached at all. I think that really was a figment of the imagination among sections of the press.
It was not really a figment of anyones imagination, because President Mugabe himself has made reference -
Let me carry on! Let me carry on! I think everyone - and President Mugabe himself - accepts that he will have to step down at some point, but the matter was not discussed at the meeting. It was not the subject of the meeting. I mean he himself has said that and I think people have got to accept that.
I believe Morgan Tsvangirai has said, to date, that he will not accept any pre-conditions to talks. But if you have President Mugabe telling the media after the talks that the oppositions legal challenge would have to be dropped before talks can proceed, how can you possibly move forward?
I think lets leave that matter to the presidents who are seized with the matter, that they will deal with that and that dialogue will resume.
Can we move on to the Democratic Republic of Congo, because President Mbeki made a lightning trip there, also on Monday, after Zimbabwe, flying back early on Tuesday. What was the objective of that trip?
In the DRC, President Kabila had asked that he wanted to see President Mbeki to discuss the transitional government and the establishment, thereof, of a transitional government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But over and above that, they discussed the subject of the transitional government, the appointment of ministers, the appointment of the national assembly, the appointment of the senate, the timetable - for instance - leading to the elections and the whole issue of the establishment of a joint army.
Clearly President Mbeki indicated that he was going to take this matter of the formation of a joint army to the peace and security organ of the African Union, which he chairs, so that then we could see what we can do to assist the DRC in having this transitional government and the joint army, because those are very difficult questions. He even said that parties in the Congo themselves must discuss the matter.
I just want to add just a last point. I want to mention that there is a follow-up committee. As you know, that was agreed in the terms of the Sun City, the Pretoria agreement. All members of the follow-up committee, from all parties, are in Kinshasa at the moment and are keen to really establish that interim government. So we are quite buoyant.
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How much of a slap in the face was it for South Africa that President Kabila did not attend the signing of the agreement in Pretoria? There was a lot of back-slapping among the South African negotiators and mediators the DRC parties, but President Kabila wasnt there. Was that a blow?
No, not at all. President Kabila had told us before the Sun City talks that he would like to celebrate in Kinshasa with the people of the Congo. He said that he watched the signing ceremony live on television and that he was rejoicing with them. He had asked that he be excused and the president had granted him that. So we are not worried, it was not a slap in the face.
South Africa appears to be busy with African foreign policy - the DRC, and Burundi, with the swearing-in of a Hutu president recently and what many see as a shaky peace deal between the government and rebel groups there - and the involvement of Mbeki as AU chairman in the crisis in Cote dIvoire. Has President Mbeki got too many irons in the fire?
No, I think that if there is a time to solve Africas problems, then that time has arrived. If we are ever going to get Africa right, its now. We want to convert the century; we have said that this has to be an African century. And I think if it has to be an African century, it has to be a century that deals with all those things. So we dont have our hands everywhere. I think we have the capacity and the capability to resolve these matters.
Is it a case of President Mbeki trying to get everything done before he hands over the chairmanship of the African Union?
No, no, no. Its a long struggle. Its the beginning of a long struggle.
