Mugabe avoids SADC bashing

Asked about troubles he has caused in the GNU that have cut off all communication with the Prime Minister, the response was forthright.

“I’m here to learn,” Mugabe said. “Southern African leaders can teach others about building peaceful societies. But they must also learn more from others about how to build their own.”

A fortnight ago, a more combative Mugabe was on display when he demanded an

election saying he was fed up with the “nonsense” of the GNU. Since then, Mugabe seemed to be accelerating his relentless drumbeat against the MDC, whom he has accused, among other things, of calling for sanctions on him and his cronies; and conspiring with Western countries in a plot that’s posing a threat to his presidential tenure.

Troika no shows

The 86-year-old Mugabe, a lifelong Marxist, has attributed his country’s woes to economic sabotage by capitalist powers. He blames “neocolonialism” for social tensions in his nation of 12.5 million, mostly poor tribal people, and denies his rival’s

charges that his mismanagement and populist policies have wrecked the country. At the weekend, on the sidelines of the official opening of the SADC Headquarters, the SADC troika was scheduled to take Mugabe to task for his contempt for the Prime Minister, and unilateralism in the GNU. But SADC leaders failed to discuss the festering constitutional crisis in the GNU because Zambian President Rupiah Banda — who is chairman of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security, and his deputy, Mozambique President Armando Guebuza — failed to attend the meeting.

Luke Tamborinyoka the PM’s spokesman said: “Why did the SADC secretariat invited us to a troika when they knew that the two Presidents were not around? So

much about the competence of (SADC executive secretary) Mr (Tomaz) Salamao and his team.”

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has stopped drinking tea and biscuits with Mugabe, and last week boycotted Cabinet in protest. The troika surely had reason for concern. The troika chairman and his deputy were not alone in their refusal to engage in plain talk with Mugabe. Not one SADC statesman, except Botswana President Ian Khama, has publicly criticized Mugabe. Why?

Refusing to share

“It isn’t necessarily because of any great admiration for his accomplishments,” said the MDC spokesman. In his 30 years of power since Britain formally granted Rhodesia independence at the Lancaster House talks, Mugabe has steadily run his economy to the ground through profligate government spending and governance that is negligent of poverty alleviation and delivery of social services. A GNU was expected to solve the political crisis, but Mugabe has refused to share.

Political analysts say part of the reason Robert Mugabe has been able to sustain his politics of confrontation is that it has long been traditional for African leaders to wilfully overlook the follies of their contemporaries.

SADC and the African Union, both guarantors of Zimbabwe’s power sharing pact, actively discourage internal criticism of their 14 and 53 member states respectively. There is worry among Zimbabwean political watchers that SA President Jacob Zuma, SADC’s point man in the Zimbabwe dialogue, has not sufficiently distanced himself from Mugabe’s contempt for the GNU. Zuma says the problems in the GNU must be dealt with in a “cooperative and non-confrontational manner.”

SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao told reporters: “After the Troika summit failed to take place, it was agreed that President Zuma should go to Harare again where he would hold talks with the three parties in the (global political agreement). After that he would be expected to make a recommendation to the chairperson, Rupiah Banda, on the next date for a Troika summit.”

However, these visits have in the past drawn blanks. Since the 27 January 2009 SADC summit and communiqu, political progress has been painfully slow. Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have ignored several subsequent SADC resolutions, directives and deadlines in what the MDC says is “purely out of their lack of respect for African mediation and wisdom”. The confidence of Zimbabweans about the possibility of an imminent, lasting solution to the crisis is slowly fading to nothing.