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South Africa's support for Mugabe
James Myburgh
July 13, 2007

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page66309?oid=146756&sn=Detail

In much of the writing about South Africa's policy towards Zimbabwe, there continues to be an implicit assumption that our government is acting rationally and working towards reasonable goals. This truly represents the triumph of hope over experience, for the ANC has remained unwavering in its support for ZANU-PF - regardless of the ever-worsening situation in that country.

A standard riposte to criticism of the government on this issue, is to suggest that there is no real alternative to the softly-softly approach, that nothing else really could have been done. The ANC is thus painted as the innocent bystander silently watching a robbery in progress - helpless to intervene - rather than as the accomplice acting as look-out for the gang.

For instance, it is not clear what the goal of Thabo Mbeki's "mediation effort" is, other than to fob off Western pressure. For as long as the ANC government remains opposed to a change of regime across the Limpopo it is difficult to see what it can ever achieve.

For obvious reasons the Movement for Democratic Change wants free and fair elections next year. The current ruling elite in Zimbabwe will not willingly acquiesce to this demand - for the simple reason that it would result in their rapid exit from power. Does anyone really believe that the Zimbabwean people would voluntarily re-elect the agents of their utter immiseration?

The unseriousness with which ZANU-PF regards the whole enterprise was illustrated by their failure to turn up for a scheduled meeting last weekend. Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette notes that this was the third meeting they had "not bothered to attend since March 1, when SADC tasked the South African leader to mediate between ZANU PF and the fractured opposition party."

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Zuma, did not seem too perturbed by their absence, stating that there "must have been a good reason as to why they did not turn up. I will find out because they are committed to that mediation. I don't think it was any sign of them wanting to pull out or anything."

When South Africa has an opportunity to act against Mugabe, it chooses not to. It could, for one, stop demanding his inclusion in the African Union's delegation to the European Union's Africa Summit in Portugal later this year. As The Economist noted in an editorial last week: "It is shameful that African leaders continue not only to shield but also positively to promote Mr Mugabe in this way."

There is no sign of this happening. At a press briefing on July 5 Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Aziz Pahad, reiterated that: "Africa will not move from its position that you cannot determine what constitutes the African delegation. There's a lot of fear. Today its Zimbabwe, tomorrow it could be us and the next week it could be someone else."

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