In what has to be among the most disappointing news from southern Africa in a long time, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has chosen to acquiesce to Robert Mugabe's rule. A meeting that beforehand was hailed as preparing to take a stance against a regional despot instead ended up asking "The West" to ease sanctions and engage in dialogue with Mugabe. Almost dumbfoundingly, the meeting called "for the lifting of all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe".
Perhaps most disturbingly, SADC also appointed as mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki. Implicitly South Africa has continued to advocate a "silent diplomacy" that in the end would result in Zimbabwe's betterment. Instead what we get is a ratification of the same. Let these words ring through your head: "The extraordinary summit reaffirms its solidarity with the government and the people of Zimbabwe." That's right. Given a chance to push change, indeed under circumstances in which they all but promised to do so, SADC has declared its fealty to Robert Mugabe. They stared Mugabe eyeball to eyeball. And somehow they blinked.
Imagine the state of the resistance, however divided, in Zimbabwe today. A dictator was validated while Zimbabweans suffer. A dictator was validated, and in the process SADC has effectively given the go-ahead to the oppression of his opposition. A dictator was validated and so SADC failed. And in so doing, SADC abdicated every claim it might have to reponsibility in Zimbabwe. Catastrophe looms. I think it is safe to say that SADC had its moment to help determine the course of contemporary Southern African history. It failed. And it did so egregiously.
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[...] Thabo Mbeki, whom leaders of the Southern African development Community (SADC) appointed to act as mediator between Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) when it held its summit in Tanzania last week, appears remarkably sanguine about the crisis in Zimbabwe, all in all. In a recent interview Mbeki, when asked if he believed it likely that Robert Mugabe would peacefully renounce power at some point, responded, “I think so. Yes, sure. You see, President Mugabe and the leadership of [the ruling] Zanu-PF believe they are running a democratic country. That’s why you have an elected opposition, that’s why it’s possible for the opposition to run municipal government [in Harare and Bulawayo].” [...]