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.