Zimbabwe election: What South Africa must do

Posted: March 31st, 2008 | By Ray Hartley | Posted in General | Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,
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NOW that it is apparent that Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC is about to take over the leadership of Zimbabwe, South Africa must take stock.
Based on results posted outside polling stations yesterday, it was apparent that the MDC has a clear majority in Parliament and that Tsvangerai is in a substantial lead over Mugabe in the presidential election.
The outcome will ask serious questions of South African foreign policy.
By consistently siding with President Robert Mugabe through rigged elections, economic destruction, hyper-inflation, repression and the assault on independent media, President Thabo Mbeki has placed this country at odds with the majority of Zimbabweans.
The opportunity to correct this wrong presents itself as news of the opposition’s likely victory breaks.
South Africa must rise to the occasion and, for the first time in over a decade, show clear leadership on Zimbabwe on the global stage.
It is not good enough for Mbeki to sit passively by while a curiously long delay in vote counting continues.
It is clear that the delay is unseemly, irregular and a recipe for discrediting the result.
In the absence of proper independent monitoring, the stage has been set for Mugabe’s thugs to steal another election, turning a moment of opportunity into a setback.
South Africa needs to call on the Zimbabwean government to see to it that the official results are released speedily and that there is acceptance by all of the outcome.
Mbeki need look no further than himself for an example of how to behave when the electoral chips are down.
The ANC’s Polokwane leadership elections in which he was beaten by Jacob Zuma were conducted independently and all accepted the result without qualification.
South Africa must insist on democracy.

Related posts:

  1. Zimbabwe election: Is Mbeki really delusional?
  2. Zimbabwe election: The high road and the low road
  3. Zimbabwe election: Mugabe makes first public appearance
  4. Zimbabwe: Kenya-style meltdown on the way
  5. Zimbabwe election: Doomsday scenario now likely

 

Comments

 

Bianca

April 21, 2008 at 7:29 am

What are we as Zim’s neighbours waiting for, why are we not putting pressure on Mbeki to stop being such a pathetic “mediator” and act and act now! I want to organise a protest, which will get real attention – Who’s in?

 

Broer Bald

April 21, 2008 at 9:29 am

Oh pissoff Malamba. You are littering these blogs with the same post over and over again. We read you the first time. You may think you have the holy grail, but to the rest of us it is a used condom on the pavement.

 

EC

April 21, 2008 at 12:46 pm

Malamba….The British may be wrong in not keeping their promise for money…fine…but how does that translate in Mugabe killing his own people to stay in power?

 

Sipho M

April 21, 2008 at 4:11 pm

More needs to be done to educate the youth, and maybe everyone else, on what is really going on in zim and the world because all some of us see and hear are pieces of information with no apparent link. Most of it is bs. This is why most of you come up with these comments you seem to think are intelligent. We dont really know much!! We need more information to reach us so we can all come up with solutions and not just rely on lies&opinions. Maybe then we would all stop talking and actually do somkething. Right now it just seems we’ve lost the plot completely.

 

Peter Provins

April 22, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Dear Sipho,

With all respect, I do not think that young people will be easily convinced to act even if they knew what is happening in Zimbabwe. They see that their own leaders, who are aware of what is happening, are ignoring the situation and unless they can feel the pain of the people of Zimbabwe through greater and more intense media scutiny of the situation, they will simply go back to Facebook and things which have more meaning to them. We are a media driven society with greater ability to publicise world events than ever before but no one seems to be willing to really speak out or lay down the facts.
As I mentioned in my last posting, it all hangs on economic or military significance in the end and Zimbabwe has neither.

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  • About

    I am Ray Hartley, the editor of The Times, South Africa, a daily newspaper which was launched in June 2007 under the Sunday Times umbrella. I'm also the editor of Times LIVE.

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