SADC snubs South Africa, Mbeki
posted at 8:00 am on June 25, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) met today to formulate a policy on Zimbabwe, as the violence and oppression grow daily in the stricken country. Swaziland hosts representatives from Angola and Tanzania, but they have pointedly rejected input from the Thabo Mbeki government of South Africa, once seen as the main conduit for diplomacy with dictator Robert Mugabe:
Southern African leaders met Wednesday for talks on the Zimbabwe crisis as President Robert Mugabe indicated he was open to negotiations with the opposition, but only after this week’s run-off election.
The talks in the Swaziland capital opened without South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been appointed mediator for Zimbabwe by the region and has faced criticism over his quiet diplomacy approach
South Africa said there was no need for a military intervention in Zimbabwe as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) defence and security committee — made up of Angola, Tanzania and Swaziland — started its meeting in the Swaziland capital.
“President Mbeki is not a member of the troika,” said the president’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, adding he “has not been invited to the meeting.”
Mbeki has squandered the standing of South Africa in his attempt to provide diplomatic cover for Mugabe. Mbeki announced in April, when Mugabe refused to release the results of the election, that he saw no crisis in Zimbabwe — even as violence began against opposition activists and trumped-up charges of treason got levied against MDC leaders. He has repeatedly counseled for inaction and tried to pressure Morgan Tsvangirai into a ludicrous “power-sharing” arrangement with Mugabe that would have made the real winner of the March election a hostage to Mugabe’s security goons.
At one time, South Africa demanded, and received, action from around the world to force an end to its apartheid regime and allow for democracy and freedom. Now, thanks to Mbeki, South Africa stands with a murderous thug against the will of the Zimbabwean people. Did the world act just so we can have another voice defending oppression and brutality in Africa?
The SADC has finally shown some embarrassment for its role in propping up Mugabe. Mbekie and South Africa should continue to get marginalized, and not just by the SADC. Other nations should consider a replay of their South African diplomatic isolation from the 1970s and 1980s while Mbeki remains a Mugabe toady. At the very least, everyone should follow the SADC lead in finally recognizing that South Africa and Mbeki are part of the problem, and not part of the solution.
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Obama and McCain respond.
JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 8:13 AM
The RSA is sliding towards the Zimbabwe end state just as Rhodesia did. Again – a prime example of the feel good liberal agenda giving into the old communist/socialist manifesto.
Hard to see as the South Africans and Rhodesians I know are good hard working people.
Thanks jimma (welcome to barack world if he gets POTUS)
Colonel_prop on June 25, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Sad and entirely unsurprising to see South Africa deteriorate from a high-functioning, beautiful country with an entenable, racist form of government, to the Marxist thugocracy which is favored by most of Africa’s leaders.
When people asked what could be worse than apartheid, you all knew the answer: this. Winnie Mandela, roving gangs of murderous youth, Marxist government policies, support for tin pot dictators whose followers rape and murder the wives of political opponents.
Jaibones on June 25, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Mbeki controls the sea ports China needs.
shaken on June 25, 2008 at 8:47 AM
Mbeki is a tool.
He has asserted that the HIV virus does not cause AIDS.
That’s a great asset to Africa.
drjohn on June 25, 2008 at 9:13 AM
YUP, and China is a big trading partner of Zimbabwe. Cutting off Zimbabwe denies South Africa Chinese port fees, duties, and sailors spending their pay on some food and drink onshore.
Sekhmet on June 25, 2008 at 9:14 AM
The US was instrumental in keeping the ANC away from power until the Cold War was over, and Mandela would no longer be in a position to put the diamond mines under Soviet control. Siberia is almost as big a source of diamonds as South Africa.In fact, anybody remember “Eternity” rings? You know, the ones really popular in the late 80’s early 90’s with multiple small diamonds around the band? Most of those diamonds were Siberian. There was a huge amount of Siberian diamonds mined in the latter part of the 80’s as pressure was increased to make the DeKlerk government step down.
The ANC was less a democratic movement in South Africa than partially a way for tribes brought down originally as slaves to the Zulu to unite politically combined with a Soviet plot to gain control of the diamond industry. I’m not surprised they have turned out to be less than ethical in their dealings.
Sekhmet on June 25, 2008 at 9:21 AM
In a real world, thugs like Mug-abe would be called “dictator”, not “president”.
And “People’s Republic of China” is a joke, too.
So is the “Fairness Doctrine”.
jgapinoy on June 25, 2008 at 9:25 AM
More misnomers.
jgapinoy on June 25, 2008 at 9:27 AM
Gee, anyone else see parallels to Russia and China in our dealings with Iran? How’s that working out?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on June 25, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Yes. And in a rational world diamonds, one of the most common crystalline-lattice minerals on earth, would be valued only for their use as tool material due to their hardness. As opposed to being lauded as “rare”, “valuable”, and “Forever”, as de Beers would have it.
The “special status” of diamonds as gemstones due to their “rarity” is one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetrated. Many other types of gemstone are significantly rarer; ruby and sapphire being cases in point. If not for the artificial inflation of the “perceived value” of diamonds, de Beers would never have become a major power in economics, and states like Angola, RSA, and now Zimbabwe wouldn’t have had the economic clout to force the rest of the world to put up with their local political and social psychoses as long as they have. And “conflict diamonds” would never have become a steady source of funding for their internecine wars.
A good source for some of the actual facts about diamonds, compared to other gemstones, can be found in the novel Shock Wave by Clive Cussler. While the story is entirely fictional, Cussler’s research on diamonds is factual.
cheers
eon
eon on June 25, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Does anyone see what is really wrong with these countries?
Bambi on June 25, 2008 at 10:42 AM
Anyone with a passing remnant of a brain stem knew years ago that Mugabe was a henchman of the first order. The fact now, years later and thousands dead and millions impoverished I could care less what happens in that part of Africa. In fact if you told me today that last night the entire area disappeared I would continue reading the sports page. I would figure that the good went to heaven and the bad are burning. Either way it is better there than here.
Africa for the most part is a godforsaken shit hole run by tribal leaders who pretend to walk on two legs. I repeat what I said years ago, Mugabe should be shot on sight.
As for South Africa, it is heading where every one predicted.
patrick neid on June 25, 2008 at 12:55 PM
South Africa is not free. Its a Communist democracy.
Yes.
aengus on June 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
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