Zimbabweans have always been identified with South Africans and have great respect for them. This could be a result of being neighbors and also of having common roots because both peoples have the same origins.

 

The Ndebele migrated from South Africa around 1840 and they have strong ties with South Africa. During South Africa’s apartheid era, Zimbabweans sympathized and empathized with the oppressed South African people.

When the legendary Nelson Mandela was released from prison to head the South African government, all Zimbabweans rejoiced.

 

Most of us did not understand why Mandela, having been imprisoned for 27 years, would retire after only one term in office. We were accustomed to Mugabe who demands to be compensated for all the years he was in detention.

 

Then Mbeki appeared on the South African political scene. Most ordinary Zimbabweans knew very little about Mbeki when he ascended the throne, but since he was hand-picked by Mandela, one of Africa’s greatest statesmen, Zimbabweans quickly indorsed Mbeki.

 

When Zimbabwe started its economic meltdown and Mbeki was appointed by SADC last year to mediate between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, Zimbabweans felt that SADC had chosen the right person for the job.

 

As Zimbabwe continues its economic retrogression Zimbabweans and the international community have been following Mbeki’s moves on Zimbabwe closely.

 

The refusal by Mugabe to release the March 29, presidential election results has brought Mbeki on the lime light and Mbeki has been saying things.

 

A couple of weeks ago, when Mbeki was at Watford in England and was pressed for comments about Zimbabwe’s elections, he categorically and rightly so, declared that “Zimbabwe is not a South African province”.

 

On Saturday, April 12, in Zambia, at an emergency SADC meeting called by President Levy Mwanawasa to discuss the Zimbabwe elections impasse, Mbeki shamefully declared that there was “no crisis” in Zimbabwe.

 

On Wednesday 16, at the UN Security Council Session in New York, which Mbeki chaired, he scratched Zimbabwe from the agenda, and went on to tell journalists that confrontation would not work with Mugabe.

 

Zimbabweans know that Mbeki is human and can be forgiven for his errors of misleading the international community about Mugabe and the problems bedeviling Zimbabwe, but to declare that there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe, whilst the old dictator has been sleeping on the presidential election results now for three weeks, and has unleashed his thugs to rape women and terrorize innocent villagers, is Mbeki’s unforgivable sin.

 

Yes, Zimbabwe is not a South African province”, but when Mbeki begins to silence other leaders who want to discuss the Zimbabwean issue one wonders if Mbeki meant what he said. Why does Mbeki do that to millions of Zimbabweans who are being persecuted by Cde. Mugabe? Many reasons have been given for that.

 

Reasons

 

1. People have argued that South Africa is benefiting from Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. Shortages of basic commodities in Zimbabwe have forced some Zimbabweans to buy food from South Africa and this has given South Africa a reliable market for its commodities.

 

With unemployment at 80% most Zimbabweans have crossed the Limpopo River, either legally or illegally, in search or greener pastures.

 

Some Zimbabweans work in South African farms for meager salaries. Recently, South Africa has been recruiting professionals from Zimbabwe. The economic minded Mbeki might not want to see the end of Zimbabwe’s economic and political woes since his country is benefiting.
 
2. During South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, Zimbabweans supported South African Nationalists. Probably, President Mbeki feels very much indebted to Mugabe to the extent of failing to correct him.

 

3. Mbeki, like other African leaders, worships Mugabe. Mugabe is the only African leader who challenges the West. Mugabe says the things which other African leaders wish to say but lack the political “immaturity” which Mugabe has in abundance, to say them.

 

Mugabe represents what Mbeki would like to be. Mbeki wants to redistribute land among the landless South Africans, but he has no guts to face the consequences. So, whatever Mugabe does as long as he stands up to the West, then Mbeki will support him.

 

4. Some people have said that most world leaders, who are tasked to mediate between two or more disagreeing groups, have no qualifications in negotiating. President Mbeki could be one of those leaders. It could be that he does not know what he is expected to do.

 

People tend to erroneously think that all politicians have studied politics, which is not a fact. People credit President Thabo Mbeki with the pursuit of “quiet diplomacy”, a negotiating attitude whose meaning President Mbeki might not know.

 

My Opinion

 

President Mbeki was right when he told the world that “Zimbabwe is not a South African province…” What he meant was that he has no political jurisdiction over what is happening in Zimbabwe and is not concerned about the plight of the suffering Zimbabweans.

 

But for President Mbeki to openly declare that there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe is not only a gross diplomatic misdemeanor, but also an unforgivable and inhuman misrepresentation of the Zimbabwe economic and political situation.

 

As if that was not enough, President Mbeki prevented the UN leaders on Wednesday from discussing the Zimbabwe electoral impasse in which President Mugabe, who is widely believed to have been defeated by Tsvangirai, is desperately clinging to the Presidential election results which was held about three weeks ago.

 

The same Cde Mugabe is reportedly waging a war against Zimbabweans for “divorcing him”, and against democracy, for compelling him to call for an election which he lost, yet President Mbeki sees “no crisis”.

 

With all due respect, I think that President Mbeki should give heed to Tsvangirai’s call for his stepping down from being the mediator between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. He has failed to handle the Zimbabwean political impasse.

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to know that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, and that Mugabe has let down Zimbabweans. As Zimbabweans, we respect President Thabo Mbeki, but this time he has failed us.

 

He opts to support a geriatric despot, who squanders the precious and scarce forex in importing zhing-zhong guns from China, whilst Zimbabweans starve.

 

If the guns were for the defense of Zimbabweans, it would make some sense, but for an 84 year old ruler to declare war against his own people, for not voting for him, in an election which he fast-tracked, defies all logic.

 

If President Mbeki has reservations in telling the world the truth about Zimbabwe, he should just step down from being the SADC mediator.

 

History knows that South Africa was among the last African States to accept democracy as a better ideology than apartheid. The struggle for democracy took a long time to bear fruits in South Africa because of some world leaders who behaved like President Mbeki does. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison because there were people who went around the world preaching that there was “no crisis” in South Africa.

 

Despite the misrepresentation of the truth by those who supported apartheid in South Africa, some world leaders declared that there was a crisis in South Africa, and consequently the international community intervened.

 

Nelson Mandela came out of prison because other people declared that it was wrong to keep him incarcerated, and Mandela became the first black president in modern day South Africa. Thabo Mbeki is now the President of South Africa because some world leaders declared that apartheid was inhuman.

 

Thabo Mbeki finds himself in the position of a world leader as far as the Zimbabwe’s electoral impasse is concerned, and he cannot tell the world the truth.

 

We respect Mbeki but no one has the right to force him to tell the world, the truth about what is happening in Zimbabwe. The only favor he can do Zimbabweans is to step down from the role of principal negotiator between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

 

He should allow other members of SADC or even UN to take over from him. President Mbeki should stop hiding behind the so-called “quiet diplomacy”, which I think is not a politico-philosophical negotiating tactic, but an excuse for failing to deliver the goods.

 

Can anyone tell me the difference between doing nothing and pursuing “quiet diplomacy?” Probably President Mbeki can.

 

By Maria Vhakacha (mariavhakacha@yahoo.com)