If the optimists are right and the sides in the Zimbabwe negotiations really are close to an agreement, even Thabo Mbeki's harshest critics will be forced to give the man credit for his role in keeping the sides at the bargaining table and thus facilitating an agreement. Certainly Mbeki will still be vulnerable to accusations that he took too long, dragged his feet too much, and favored Robert Mugabe too obviously. But those critics should also recognize that short of the use of force that one has a hard time envisioning ever having been able to happen, Mbeki's actual options were more circumscribed than many might want to acknowledge.
If the talks really do lead to an agreement (and you can consider me still dubious as to whether this will happen) it will go down as a high water mark of Thabo Mbeki's presidency and of South African diplomacy. An agreement will almost certainly not be sufficient to help rehabilitate Mbaki's image — that might be an impossibility — but it will give Mbeki a crowning moment of glory in his last few months as South Africa's president.
