Zimbabwe -- Time to try some noisy diplomacy

Sunday Times (SA) ^ | 2004-07-0 | (editorial page)

[Clive]

The month of June came and went and so did President Thabo Mbeki's self-imposed deadline for the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis.

The idea of the deadline - set by the President a year ago - was that by June 2004 South Africa would be able to cajole Zimbabwe's leaders towards a political breakthrough.

Of course few - possibly including the President himself - took the deadline very seriously. The Zimbabwe crisis is not one of those straightforward problems around which you can casually set deadlines.

A further complicating factor is that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe behaves in a manner that has many wondering about his soundness of mind, while his lieutenants ape his bizarre antics.

This week there were again optimistic noises, with South African officials saying there was light at the end of the Harare tunnel.

But in the year since Mbeki made his optimistic prediction, the Mugabe government has cracked down viciously on the media, intensified repression of political opponents and drastically reduced the space for free political activity. The economy has continued its downward spiral, leading to increased hunger and the breakdown of social services.

In all this time, Mugabe has shown no sign of recognising the existence of a crisis. He even cynically told a television interviewer in May that the World Food Programme should abandon its efforts to feed starving Zimbabweans and find "hungrier people" elsewhere.

Through all this, the South African government has stuck to its policy of "quiet diplomacy", rejecting calls to take a tougher stand against the Mugabe government. Mbeki and his ministers have argued that Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation that cannot be dictated to by a neighbour, and have insisted that they are giving that country's political players maximum support in finding a homegrown solution.

What we do know, however, is that the policy approach has been an absolute disaster. It has neither been quiet nor diplomatic, as evidenced by the open endorsement of the Zanu-PF government by senior South African representatives and their blatant refusal to condemn human rights abuses. The rapid deterioration in the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe is further evidence that the success of quiet diplomacy has been nil.

Mbeki and his government must accept that it is not shameful to admit failure, and take urgent steps to halt Zimbabwe's disintegration.

The government must audibly disapprove of human rights abuses and the erosion of democracy in Zimbabwe. When citizens of a country on our doorstep are denied basic human rights and subjected to repression, we cannot fold our arms.

We should stop campaigning against international action on Zimbabwe, as our government has been doing in recent years. Lastly, South Africa should use its influence and relations with other Southern African nations to build pressure on the Harare government.

[Clive]

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