Zimbabwe crisis talks end in failure as power-sharing deal is rejected
I can't even feign the slightest amount of sympathy for the position which Thabo Mbeki now finds himself in, as it was one entirely of his own making.
Efforts by southern African leaders to end the Zimbabwe crisis by breaking the deadlock between President Robert Mugabe and his arch rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, failed last night.
The stalemate was a personal defeat for Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's President, who assumed the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday vowing to get a deal during the summit.
Mr Mbeki, who faces criticism at home and abroad for his handling of the crisis, said that talks would continue.
Even after their gathering had officially ended, he summoned Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai back for a last-ditch attempt to get a deal, but to no avail.
Who could have guessed that the man who sent death squads on to his own streets to beat and kill people to force them to vote for him wouldn't give up power easily? I mean, seriously?
Mbeki has done everything in his power to mediate with a man who has shown a brutality which is breathtaking, and we are expected to act as if we are shocked that Mugabe has revealed himself to be everything we always assumed him to be?
Indeed, in the end Mbeki spent most of his time trying to get the winner of the first election, Tsvangirai, to agree to a power sharing scheme in which Mugabe held almost all of the power and Tsvangirai was given the position of "ceremonial prime minister".
I don't know what hold Mugabe has over Mbeki but history will remember Mbeki's intervention here as shameful.
There are many African nations who have been saying that enough is enough for a long time. Both the ANC and Mandela have come out against Mugabe's brutal rule and Mbeki has been almost Mugabe's sole defender.
He perhaps hoped he would hailed as a peacemaker, but events have not transpired that way. Instead, he is shown to be a fool and someone who was too weak to stand up to Magabe and tell him that his time is up.
Will he continue to resist imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe? Does he still, to this day, think that "quiet diplomacy" will bear fruit with this brutal dictator? Nothing Mbeki does anymore will surprise me.
But his failure here has been total, and even he must know it.
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