'A flagrant violation of democracy': ANC tells Mugabe to delay election
It started with three African nations willing to put their heads above the parapet and condemn the actions of Mugabe in Zimbabwe, despite the fact that the leader of the most powerful nation in the region - Mbeki of South Africa - was continuing to offer Mugabe tacit support.
Well, now the leaders of the ANC have broken ranks with Mbeki and issued their most powerful criticism of Mugabe to date.
Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa's ruling party, has said that Zimbabwe's elections were now totally "discredited". Mugabe has been planning on pushing ahead with the elections and claiming legitimacy based upon them.
Zimbabwe's economic dependence on South Africa gives Mbeki a unique ability to influence what is occurring here and there are many of us, myself included, who have been angered by Mbeki's insistence that this is a matter requiring mediation rather than the outrage on democracy that it actually is.Mr Zuma's African National Congress said it was "deeply dismayed by the actions of the government of Zimbabwe, which is riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights of the people of that country.
"As democrats, the ANC cannot be indifferent to the flagrant violation of every principle of democratic governance."
The statement was in sharp contrast to Mr Mbeki's silence on Zimbabwe, where a campaign of terror orchestrated by Mr Mugabe prompted the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to pull out of the election. And it marked a break between the two movements which were once close allies in the struggle against white rule in south.
Most African nations have been reluctant to break with Mugabe as they see him as a former comrade in the fight for independence, but slowly even that loyalty appears to be slipping away, as the level of Mugabe's brutality towards his own people becomes apparent.
The SADC chairman, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa, has clashed with Mr Mbeki over his mediation of the crisis. He complained this week that President Mbeki was not keeping him informed of the process and he had to rely on his own intelligence reports for information. This was after Mr Mbeki visited Mr Mugabe last week. The Zambian leader, who has been one of the African leaders to speak out against Mr Mugabe, said he had tried to contact Mr Mbeki but the latter had not returned his calls.
And there are signs that African nations are prepared to hit Mbeki where it most hurts if he continues to support Mugabe's actions:
Mr Mugabe's opponents made a threat last night to campaign for a boycott of the 2010 football World Cup, to be hosted by South Africa, in protest at Mr Mbeki's support for "tyranny".The World Cup is supposed to be Mbeki's moment in the sun, a boycott of it because he is supporting "tyranny" really wouldn't suit Mbeki at all.
There really is some hope here that African nations can force Mbeki to do the right thing, for his own sake, as well as the sake of the people of Zimbabwe.
Now stirred, it is vital that African governments do not return to their silence. Mr Mugabe departed from the common African cause a long time ago. The continent's leaders need not fear breaking from the past in condemning him. In doing so, they will not only pull the rug from under a brutal regime, they will also open a new chapter in African self-confidence.Click title for full article.
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