South Africa blocks UN from sending envoy to Zimbabwe

By Tichaona Sibanda
30 April 2008

South Africa once again showed on Tuesday that it was in bed with the regime in Harare, when it blocked attempts by the United Nations Security Council to send an envoy to investigate atrocities against MDC supporters.

President Thabo Mbeki has come under attack at home and abroad for his softly softly approach to Zimbabwe, when the regime is butchering unarmed civilians as punishment for voting for the MDC in last month’s elections.

Other nations who spoke up against any Security Council discussion and action on Zimbabwe were China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam. Burkina Faso said that Africa should take the lead and the Southern African Development Community should be given the opportunity to mediate in the crisis.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti was in New York at the UN where he briefed the council on the post-poll crisis. He had called for a ‘strong and decisive’ resolution from the 15-member Security Council against the Mugabe regime, as well as for the dispatch of a UN envoy or fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. ‘The meeting was frustrating,’ Biti said, in reference to South Africa’s position to block the Security Council from taking any action against the regime.

The MDC MP for Harare East has openly accused Mbeki of sympathising with Mugabe. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa called the Security Council’s failure to take action against the regime a ‘tragedy’. Last week the MDC called on Mbeki to step down as the SADC mediator.

At the UN meeting Tuesday, Western countries pressed for a UN mission or envoy to visit Zimbabwe, where the results of the disputed presidential election four weeks ago have still not been released.

The MDC won the parliamentary majority in the elections and says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 vote outright. The party accuses Mugabe of delaying results to rig victory and says a prolonged crisis will lead to further and widespread bloodshed.

Reports from New York indicated that European countries, Latin America and the United States supported sending a verification team, but South Africa, which currently holds the council presidency, said such a move was not a matter for the council.

France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, told reporters the fact the Security Council had met to discuss the crisis sent a signal to the regime that ‘we are looking very carefully at what they are doing’.

The UN under-secretary general for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe, had told the closed meeting that Zimbabwe was in the midst of its worst humanitarian crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.

Countries including the United States and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have said it was clear Tsvangirai won the election.

Political analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga described the stance taken by the South Africans at the UN as demoralising and depressing to all Zimbabweans. He said what would be helpful is for South Africa to make their position clear as to why they are taking that position.

‘All along they were saying it’s a problem that needs to be sorted out by Zimbabweans and yet people in Zimbabwe did just that on the 29th March when they voted the MDC into power to change the country’s fortunes,’ Mhlanga said. People are now beginning to seriously question the moral compass of the South Africans.

‘At his inaugural speech when he took over the South African presidency Mbeki said he was proud to be an African walking the streets of Mbare (Zimbabwe) and Guinea Conakry. What people should ask him now is does he still feel proud to be an African seeing all the atrocities in Zimbabwe? asked Mhlanga.