Sad, sad, day today. And since we??re on summer break and I??m not going to get called into any foreign relations classes on campus, you??ll have to indulge me. Or ignore me, if you see fit.
You see, Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew his opposition candidacy for President of Zimbabwe over the weekend because he could not ask his supporters to cast a vote for him, when doing so could very well cost them their lives. Robert Mugabe, the ruler for the past 30 years, has led a vicious and violent attack on members of Tsvangirai??s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Party since the earlier primary, which MDC claimed to have won outright. This all but assures Robert Mugabe five more years of brutal rule, and the people of Zimbabwe will continue their slide from one of the wealthiest countries in Africa to one of the poorest countries on Earth (inflation, for example, is currently ??sitting? around 150,000%).
While I feel for the people of Zimbabwe, that??s not the most compelling nor disappointing part of this story. That the election would not be fair was predictable, to say the least. What??s sad is that the one country that had a chance to make a difference in Zimbabwe let the rest of the Continent down ?? South Africa.
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), a group of 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa of which both Zimbabwe and South Africa are members, chose South Africa??s Thabo Mbeki to be the chief negotiator between the two rival parties. Mbeki failed to hold Mugabe to the fire (or even force to do anything), even to the point where Mbeki was ready to allow a shipment of guns (from China) into South Africa that were to be transported to Mugabe??s people in Zimbabwe. It wasn't until the pro-union dock workers of South Africa refused to unload the boat, and the Chinese, to stave off international embarrassment before the Olympics, told the boat to turn around that the arms were kept from the hands of those who intended to use them to force the outcome of an election.
Mbeki has even gone out of his way to block talks on the UN floor about the situation in Zimbabwe. There are other leaders in Africa that have taken to the pulpit against Mbeki, such as Zambia??s president, Levy Mwanawasa, however, none of them have a seat on the UN Council, like South Africa. This was a huge opportunity missed for South Africa to take a leading role in shaping the continent. The SADC should now replace Mbeki as the negotiator (and let Kofi Annan do it), not recognize the result of this week??s election, and not allow Zimbabwe at seat the SADC table until they hold a proper and fair election.
And, as punishment for the accomplice role South Africa played, FIFA should strip South Africa as the first African host of the World Cup as they have shown that they are not fit to truly represent a Democratic Africa, but that??s for later.
