A senior government minister on Tuesday defended South Africa’s quiet diplomacy toward Zimbabwe, saying that foreign intervention to bring about a regime change risked unleashing turmoil like in Iraq.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told lawmakers that South Africa — the top regional powerbroker — was not in a position to dictate political and economic policy to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
”We must encourage Zimbabweans to solve their own problems. That is the most we can do because the decisions have to be carried by Zimbabweans into perpetuity,” Manuel said in a heated exchange in Parliament.
”For those who don’t understand, I ask that [United States] President [George] Bush recruit them and send them to Iraq,” a visibly angry Manuel said amid heckling from opposition lawmakers. ”Then they will understand what regime change is about.”
President Thabo Mbeki has long advocated quiet diplomacy toward Zimbabwe. Since March he has acted as mediator between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition, but so far there has been no visible progress.
In the interim, there has been an upsurge in the number of desperate Zimbabweans crossing into neighbouring countries to escape the meltdown.
Mugabe has intensified his clampdown on the pro-democracy movement. He has worsened shortages in the stricken economy by trying to enforce massive price cuts, which has led to the arrest of hundreds of store owners who insist they can’t afford to sell their goods below cost.
The Zimbabwe government has stopped publishing inflation figures, which in June stood at 4 500%. The International Monetary Fund has warned inflation might hit 100 000% by the end of the year.
A summit of the Southern African Development Community last week asked finance ministers from the 14-nation regional bloc to consult with the Zimbabwe government and ”draw up an economic plan to support Zimbabwe”, mindful that the catastrophic state of its economy is torpedoing the regional drive toward integration.
Manuel — one of Africa’s most experienced and respected finance ministers — said that South Africa would not squander South African taxpayers’ money by bailing out the ailing Zimbabwe economy.
”We cannot … decide what kind of economy the Zimbabweans must have. They must get the prices to work, they must drive the changes. We can’t commit financial resources …”
Zimbabwe’s official media have hailed the outcome of the Southern African summit on Friday as a victory for Mugabe. The closing summit communiqué welcomed the negotiations mediated by Mbeki and encouraged the ruling Zanu-PF party and Movement for Democratic Change to narrow their differences to enable elections scheduled for next year to take place in ”an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity”.
But critics say there is little prospect of this, given the ban on opposition gatherings and the general atmosphere of violence and intimidation.
In an article in the South African based ZimOnline news service on Tuesday, a former newspaper journalist detailed his 71 days in detention after he was arrested in a raid on Movement for Democratic Change headquarters in March and imprisoned because of his writings against Mugabe.
Luke Tamborinyoka, news editor of the banned Daily News and an opposition activist, wrote that he had seen more than 10 people die of malnutrition-related diseases during his detention in a Harare prison.
He was released in June.
”It was a place where one had to adjust to tough conditions such as leg irons, dirty khaki shirts and shorts, substandard food, tight security, the company of hardened criminals and scowling prison officers,” he said.
”Harare Remand prison represented the dark rictus of death. It was an odd place for hardened criminals and innocent prisoners like me, whose persecution arose simply because of our relationship with Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party.” — Sapa-AP