At least in part at the behest of Zimbabwean Prime Minister (and longtime antagonist of President Robert Mugabe) Morgan Tsvangirai, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met today to discuss encouraging the Western powers to end sanctions against Zim. Already the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided Zimbabwe a $510-million loan, its first loan to the beleaguered country in a decade.
South Africa and especially President Jacob Zuma, meanwhile, continue to push for the main parties to continue power-sharing negotiations. The prodding is especially necessary for Mugabe and his ZANU-PF, which has the most to gain from foot dragging and the most to lose if meaningful negotiations go forward. Tsvangirai and the factions of the MDC desperately want meaningful negotiation to continue.
Jacob Zuma seems to be taking his regional leadership role seriously. Part of that role is symbolic, as in Zuma’s recent trip to Umkhonto we-Sizwe’s Pango Angolan military camp in which he talked of the “blood ties” between South Africa and Angola. But Zuma’s take on his country’s role as a regional and cointinental power also represents real leadership capacity, as in the Zimbabwe situation. The only real power South Africa has in Zimbabwe is the power to persuade (and maybe mildly coerce) both the main players in Zimbabwe as well as the region’s heads of state and SADC. But Zuma appears willing to take that role seriously, not only in Zimbabwe, but across the region as well. He needs to tread lightly — power tends to breed wariness and resentment — but perhaps the Zuma years will mark a real renaissance in South Africa’s role on the continent.
