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Mbeki fails to ease Zimbabwe crisis, opposition leader contends
Barry Bearak, The New York Times
February 14, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/world/africa/14zimbabwe.html?_r=1&ref=africa&oref=slogin

Johannesburg — The leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Wednesday that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa had failed as a mediator in laying the groundwork for fair elections in Zimbabwe and urged him to show "a little courage" and stop his "quiet support for the dictatorship" of President Robert G. Mugabe.

The broadside by Morgan Tsvangirai, the longtime leader of the opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change, was unusual. He is ordinarily deferential to Mr. Mbeki, who is powerful in the region.

But the March 29 elections are approaching, and Mr. Tsvangirai, like many civic and religious leaders in Zimbabwe, says he expects the vote to be rigged by Mr. Mugabe, 83, who has held power for nearly 30 years.

Mr. Tsvangirai (pronounced CHANG-guh-rye), at a news conference here, asked Mr. Mbeki to demand an open campaign and an honest vote count. "President Mbeki," he said, "if you won't do it for us, if you won't do it for Africa, do it for your own country. Do it for your legacy."

Mr. Mbeki was designated by the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of nations, to mediate the conflicts between the Movement for Democratic Change and the Mugabe government.

Some agreements were reached concerning press freedom and opposition political activity. When negotiations hit a seeming impasse, Mr. Mbeki, who had previously left much of the mediating to aides, went to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. But no further deals were made, and Mr. Mugabe, amid protests from rivals, set the elections for March 29.

Mr. Mbeki seems to have concluded that his mediation was a great success. Last week, he told fellow leaders of the Southern African Development Community that the Zimbabwe dispute was mostly settled, citing "commendable achievements."

These claims defy reality, Mr. Tsvangirai said Wednesday, in Johannesburg rather than Harare, where most news coverage remains banned. "Nothing has changed, he said. "Just this past weekend, an M.D.C. rally, legal in any democracy and now legal in Zimbabwe, was broken up by armed riot police in the town of Kadoma. Changes in the law, negotiated by President Mbeki, have not changed the behavior of the dictatorship."

Later, Mr. Tsvangirai said that he hoped Mr. Mbeki would ask other African leaders to send election monitors to Zimbabwe. "Unless he requests it, it won't be done," Mr. Tsvangirai said.

Mr. Mbeki is in the final year of his second five-year term, and if a failed mediation in Zimbabwe besmirches his legacy, it will not be the only stain.

In December, he lost control of his party, the African National Congress, to a bitter rival, Jacob G. Zuma. In January, the nation lapsed into an electricity crisis that has sapped the economy and outraged the citizenry, with the government admitting that it did not act in time to avoid power failures. Two weeks ago, Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and a Mbeki ally, was placed on leave amid corruption charges.

Mr. Mbeki's chief spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, declined to comment on Mr. Tsvangirai's remarks without reading them in context. He did not reply after being sent the text by e-mail.

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