Morgan Tsvangirai is walking a delicate balance for very high stakes in Zimbabwe. While trying, ultimately, to unseat President Robert Mugabe (and let there be no mistake that this has been his goal all along, with the negotiations for power sharing merely a stopping point and not an acceptable final resolution) he also has to make sure that he does nothing to cause Mugabe to revert to form, withdraw from talks, and foment a return to the political carnage over which Mugabe has for so long presided.
An example of just how delicate Tsvangirai's situation is becomes apparent in his comments today. While making clear that he wants Mugabe to make an “honourable exit,” he also asserted in words that could have come from the mouth of Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu during the CODESA negotiations or Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) hearings that Mugabe is “”just as human as every one of us.” Admittedly, Tsvangirai was perhaps less Tutuesque when he qualified his praise by also maintaining “although of course I think he is ignorant, or chooses to be in denial, as far as the violence is concerned.”
As is Thabo Mbeki's wont, the South African President is still optimistic about the end result of the ongoing Zimbabwean negotiations. Mbeki is a member of a small minority on this front.
