SA TODAY

Prompted by the surging violence and state repression in Zimbabwe this week, I sought and held a meeting with the Acting President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, earlier this week to discuss the collapsing situation in our northern neighbour.

While the ANC and the Democratic Alliance believe that there should be a democratic dialogue in Zimbabwe, we differ fundamentally on the means to achieve that result. However, part of the problem with South Africa’s involvement, or lack of effectiveness in Zimbabwe is the continuing mischaracterisation of the situation there by our President.

President Thabo Mbeki came forward last week with a strident defense of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in an article in The Guardian (UK) entitled “Don’t blame Mugabe for everything” (29 May 2003). His words were reprinted around the world.

This brazen apology for tyranny tears to shreds any illusions the world may have had about the effectiveness of President Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy.” In reality, quiet diplomacy has meant silent—and now open—approval.

President Mbeki’s analysis of the crisis in Zimbabwe is full of evasions and half-truths. Nowhere in his article does he ever mention abuses of human rights or the destruction of democracy. He ignores President Mugabe’s virulent racism and blames London for any “racist notions” that might exist in Zimbabwe.

He is at great pains to convince the world that Zimbabwe’s crisis is economic, not political. But Zimbabwe’s economic problems are the result of its political malaise, not the other way around.

In his article, President Mbeki cites economic data from the first decade of Zimbabwe’s freedom. But he says nothing about the precipitous economic collapse in the three years since President Mugabe began his violent land seizures and brutal oppression of the political opposition and the media.

President Mbeki’s prescription is that President Mugabe and his political opponents should “sit down together to agree on a common response to the challenges their country faces.” But President Mugabe has set an unacceptable condition for dialogue—namely, that the Movement for Democratic Change recognise him as the victor of the rigged elections of 2002.

The irony here is that President Mbeki’s own party, the African National Congress, refused to accept the apartheid government’s offers of “power sharing” arrangements because these were—rightly—perceived as attempts to perpetuate minority rule.

There is a further irony in President Mbeki writing in a London newspaper that the solution to Zimbabwe’s problems must come “from the people of Zimbabwe themselves.”

The anti-apartheid movement, as President Mbeki is well aware, was vigorously active outside South Africa’s borders and received critical support from overseas. Back then, the ANC rejected the notion that South Africa should solve its problems in isolation. Yet it rushes to embrace that false premise today with regard to Zimbabwe.

In one respect, President Mbeki is right. We should not blame President Mugabe for everything. We should also blame his cronies and his sympathisers abroad.

President Mbeki falls decisively among the latter. He walked hand-in-hand with President Mugabe after last year’s faulty elections, which a Commonwealth report said were not free and fair but which the South African government declared “legitimate.”

Last December, he embraced Emmerson Mnangagwa, President Mugabe’s heir apparent, who headed the Central Intelligence Organisation during the 1982-87 Matabeleland massacres and was recently named in a United Nations report as the “architect” of the Zimbabwean army’s campaign of plunder in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

More than anyone else, President Mbeki has had the political leverage to push for democratic change in Zimbabwe. And he, as much as anyone else, must bear the blame for the mess that has resulted from his inaction.

In my meeting with Acting President Zuma, I expressed the DA’s concerns about the overwhelming force which the Zimbabwe government has used to meet the current protest and stay-away action by the opposition in Zimbabwe.

I requested that the observance of basic human rights and democratic norms by the Zimbabwe government, in accord with its obligations under NEPAD and the Constitutive Act of the African Union, be observed and communicated.

And I also presented the Deputy President with a report prepared by the Zimbabwe Research Initiative which estimates conservatively that the crisis in Zimbabwe has cost the South African economy R15-billion over the last three years, equivalent to 1,3% of our Gross Domestic Product. The report adds that the crisis has also caused job losses in the range of 20 000 to 30 000, and that 1 500 Zimbabwean refugees are crossing into South Africa every day, adding to the economic burden.

The Democratic Alliance firmly believes that considerable pressure needs to be placed on President Mugabe in order to achieve the South African government’s objective of the restoration of democracy, the rule of law and economic normalcy.

I have suggested to the Deputy President that a ‘road map’ approach be considered in respect of Zimbabwe, whereby both the government and the opposition in that country would commit themselves to a series of clear, parallel goals. These would include the formation of an interim government, the approval of a new constitution and the holding of new democratic elections within a reasonably short time frame.

In the coming days, the Democratic Alliance will develop this proposal further. We are convinced that the ANC government’s vacuous calls for “dialogue” are not enough. South Africa must put forth a concrete plan for restoring democracy in Zimbabwe and must pursue it firmly. The DA’s “road map to democracy in Zimbabwe” may be the answer.

Best wishes,