oft approach to his mediation attempts were doomed from the start. Zanu-PF has no intention of negotiating, and they have used the talks to try and placate the rest of the world and to stem further sanctions, says a statement from the Democratic Alliance, SA’s main opposition.
President Mbeki’s mediation efforts were snubbed by Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa who said, “there can be no justification to make us (engage in) dialogue.”
Chinamasa made Zanu-PF’s lack of desire to negotiate even more blatant by stating: “political reform is not necessary in my country because we are a democracy like any other democracy in the world.”
The treatment of President Mugabe at the SADC summit has shown that there is no real political will to hold the Zimbabwean leadership accountable for their actions. The Zimbabwean President was treated to a hero’s welcome in Zambia, and the SADC executive secretary Thomaz Salamao blamed much of the economic woes in Zimbabwe on sanctions.
This is a further indication that government’s approach to the Zimbabwe crisis is unhelpful and inappropriate. Zanu-PF’s attitude and tactics will not be changed by quiet diplomacy or a weak stance by our government. President Mbeki’s mediation and other methods have failed.
How many more futile attempts to coax Zanu-PF to behave in a responsible manner will it take before President Mbeki agrees to take a stronger more critical stance on the matter? In the meantime, Zimbabweans are suffering and even dying. A young boy was killed recently in a stampede for sugar. This is a sign of the desperation of the Zimbabwean people, and it must be taken very seriously.
However, government appears to be blindly committed to its current approach, despite all evidence pointing to the utter failure of the mediation and negotiation.
The answer is to create a robust culture of criticism of human rights, democratic and economic abuses among the SADC leadership. President Mbeki should be leading the way, instead of timidly allowing the Zimbabwean government to perform acts that no genuine democracy should ever have to endure.