(TALKZIMBABWE) Mbeki: a victim of mindless ambition?

Mbeki: a victim of mindless ambition?
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Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:18:00 +0000

"Mr Mbeki, please help Zimbabwe. We need your help. We also need the help of and support of the SADC," MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa told AFP yesterday. THE plotters of former South African President Thabo Mbeki might have had their day on the day he was recalled by the African National Congress, but their joy was short-lived when the implications of that ouster became apparent.

Overambitious politicians in both South Africa and Zimbabwe have used Mbeki as a scapegoat in their political misfortunes and their lack of direction and clarity in seeking high office.

The over-ambitious Jacob Zuma found Mbeki as a stumbling block in his quest for high office. Ironically, Morgan Tsvangirai also saw Mbeki as a hindrance to achieving high office, although Mbeki was not President of Zimbabwe.

It was unprecedented for the ANC to use such a squalid platform to oust their President, a humble man who conceded defeat without a fight at Polokwane in December last year – and went on to hug his nemesis.

Mbeki was criticized for what came to be popularly termed “quiet diplomacy” – as if diplomacy, by its very nature is “loud”! Diplomacy is organically quiet. How can it be loud if it’s diplomacy?

Those who criticized Mbeki, I bet, admired him for his unflinching stance of matters of principle, on the African Renaissance (MEPAD, etc) and his pragmatism. He is not a vicious politician and will not strike back at critics, so he easily became a scapegoat.

Many people wanted him to be a Mandela. But there can only be one Mandela, one Robert Mugabe, one Joshua Nkomo. Mbeki was never poised to become a Mandela and so he didn’t.

He quietly inherited insurmountable problems and great challenges, not only in South Africa, but in the region and internationally.

He adopted the Zimbabwean crisis as his own, worked through with the waring teams unflinchingly and led to the historic signing of a power-sharing deal on 9/11, coincidentally. Loopholes or no loopholes, a deal was signed and was unexpected given the divergent views of the two opposing parties involved.

Those opportunist politicians in Zimbabwe who were calling for Mbeki’s replacement in the mediation have been left with egg in face. What better time to ask for a new mediator than now – when his party has recalled him as President?

The politics of populism in the opposition camp has been unpacked and its inadequacies exposed. They were the first to recall Mbeki back to Zimbabwe, yet they were the first to express doubt in his impartiality when he was given the mandate by Sadc.

Those who thought Mbeki was inadequate have found themselves with no solid replacement – no-one in the region (or internationally).

With a recession staring the West in the face, overambitious and populist politicians back home are fast losing ground and “President” Mbeki is shining again as his statesmanship is vindicated, yet again.

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