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Zimbabwean dimension to Mbeki's misery
Bekithemba Mhlanga, Zimbabwe Times
September 22, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=4659

To Many Zimbabweans the JFK factor with Thabo Mbeki was when he shrugged of his shoulders and wondered about the existence of a crisis in Zimbabwe. Everyone remembers where they were that Saturday.

That was the problem with Thabo Mbeki - aloof and believing that he held the intellectual superiority so much that he did not understand why people could not see the logic of his thinking. If there was no crisis in Zimbabwe then that was the case.

But entwined with this was his political skullduggery that so irked the ANC to demand his resignation, preferably signed with his blood.

In the last ten years Mbeki has walked down the route of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe-s problems. The mounting of the crisis grew inversely proportional with the decay in Zimbabwe-s economic and social position. The quieter the discussions got the worse Zimbabwe-s problems became. In this cloak and dagger arrangement Mugabe assumed some political license to hunt down and kill his opponents with impunity.

When the rest of the world pleaded for stronger and streamer action against Mugabe, Mbeki used or rather abused South Africa-s position on the UN Security council to block any moves of this nature. It was this type of abuse of office that provided the ammunition to the ANC NEC to move against Mbeki last week on the domestic front.

The ANC NEC argued that he was causing tension and disgruntlement in the ANC and had to be removed. If they had only driven across the Limpopo they would have seen the tension and disgruntlement that he was sowing in Zimbabwe.

The late Zambian President, Levy Mwanawasa, pretty much summed up Mbeki-s untrustworthiness in April following the March parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe. Having agreed with Mwanawasa on how to proceed against Mugabe and his cabal after the elections, Mbeki backtracked on all agreements and denied the existence of any deal.

To accept that Mbeki acted in this manner without the influence of Mugabe, to accept that Mugabe held onto illegal office without Mbeki-s knowledge is to accept that the NPA in South Africa decided to charge the then Deputy President of South Africa Jacob Zuma without Mbeki-s knowledge and blessing.

In exasperation of his double-dealing ways, the MDC wrote a letter to Mbeki saying it had lost confidence in his position as a mediator and were asking him to recuse himself from the process. Typically Mbeki style - the existence of the letter was denied and the concerns of the MDC were ignored. Again going back to typical Mbeki fortress - if his logic is right why was the MDC was bent on irritating him - creating the impression that the President of South Africa cannot do anything which is morally wrong or illegal.

Thabo Mbeki leaves his office with Zimbabwe in the same mess as he has left the ANC - riddled with tensions and disgruntlement. But worse still for Zimbabwe a legacy of an unworkable 'deal- thought up by the pipe smoking and whisky swirling intellectual leader of South Africa who was born in the struggle but was consumed by the struggle at the end.

Interestingly though, the ANC has said that the removal of Thabo Mbeki from office is not a punishment at all. Mbeki will still be able to carry on his mediation role in Zimbabwe. Let-s hope this was just a tongue in cheek statement. It-s not like Zimbabwe is the region-s official dumping ground.

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