Mbeki and SADC discredited for denying Zimbabwe crisis

By Tererai Karimakwenda
05 April, 2008

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and regional leaders who met in Zambia this weekend, took a position on the Zimbabwe electoral crisis that was a slap in the face for the voters who are being denied the outcome. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has still not released results of the presidential poll, two weeks after the elections and there has been no acceptable explanation. Failure to criticise the delay discredits SADC leaders when they speak of democracy and peer review as regional principles. With reports of increasing violence, murders, intimidation and arrests of opposition supporters, it is offensive for anyone to say there is no problem in Zimbabwe. Mbeki does not seem to understand that.
It was encouraging on one hand that the summit in Zambia carried on until the early hours of the morning, clearly showing there was much debate and probably disagreement - but the final communiqué was ultimately very disappointing.
The post-election evictions of farmers and farm workers, the arrests of journalists and the violence being perpetrated against the opposition were not mentioned anywhere in the SADC statement. One observer said this denial was reminiscent of the time Mbeki denied that the AIDs virus existed.
Mbeki met Tsvangirai on Friday and was completely informed about the current situation in Zimbabwe. He then met Mugabe on Saturday in Zimbabwe, passing through on his way to the emergency SADC summit. Soon after meeting Mugabe he made the statement that there was ‘no crisis in Zimbabwe’ and ‘we should just wait’ for the results. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ANC President Jacob Zuma have taken a different line, calling for the urgent release of the presidential election results.
The SADC leaders’ final communiqué commended Mbeki for his assistance in the Zimbabwe crisis and ZEC for running peaceful elections.
Criticism of Mbeki at home started almost immediately after the summit position had been publicised. The opposition parties in South Africa blasted him for making South Africa the laughing stock of the world.
Reports quote Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille as saying; "Mbeki has shown himself to be a lame duck president at home. He has now lost the opportunity to show that he can be an effective leader in the region."
Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Pieter Mulder is quoted as saying: "South Africa is suffering irreparable damage on an international level as a result of Mbeki's disappointing and short-sighted handling of the issue.”
Leader of the Independent Democrats Patricia de Lille appealed to Mbeki “to stop misleading the world, or, if there is something he knows about the current crisis in Zimbabwe that makes him appear so relaxed, to take us into his confidence and tell us what it is.”
Tawanda Mutasah, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, wrote that: “In the past eight years Pretoria has helped sustain the dictatorship in Harare in a number of ways, including voting at the UN Human Rights Council and its predecessor to block discussion on human rights in Zimbabwe; seeking to block the expulsion of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth; certifying fraudulent elections in Zimbabwe as “legitimate” and thus providing Mugabe with much-needed political oxygen in his battle for electoral legitimacy;

Mutasa also criticised SADC, saying: “African and international leaders should demand that Mugabe respect the will of the voters and that the rule of law be restored in Zimbabwe. Mbeki should join these leaders in calling for a genuine return to legitimacy in Zimbabwe through the creation of human rights and democratic conditions such as Mbeki would expect in his own country.”

Mbeki and SADC have never taken a tough line on Mugabe and Zimbabwe so perhaps it was foolish to have expected otherwise in Zambia this weekend. But the only thing Zimbabweans have left, is hope.