OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki’s office has rejected criticism of the president’s leadership and his policies on race, Aids and Zimbabwe by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The institute, in a report issued in London, said Mbeki’s ”shaky stewardship” of South Africa had helped to create a ”regional leadership vacuum,” while his ”tepid diplomatic reaction” to land seizures in Zimbabwe reflected ”his inclination to curry favour with his predominantly black constituency”.
The think tank said Mbeki had ”pitted blacks against whites and implemented racially divisive programmes to secure elections”, and labelled his questioning of the link between HIV and Aids as ”idiosyncratic and scientifically dubious”.
The presidency, in a statement issued by representative Bheki Khumalo, said on Zimbabwe: ”That he is not prepared to conduct his diplomacy with a megaphone has been appreciated and accepted by much responsible opinion, including the South African business community.
”The alleged South African lack of leadership will be news to the Commonwealth, which has chosen to entrust an expanded role of chairperson to the president of South Africa; to the Non-Aligned Movement headed by South Africa; to a whole range of bodies where South Africa plays an acknowledged leadership role in the interests of peace and security in its region, continent and the world,” the statement said.
”The picture of South Africa given in the IISS study, according to media reports, is also at odds with the progress made in productivity, in greater economic growth, in crime detection and combating, in rural and urban delivery, etc., that has been so obvious in democratic South Africa.
”The IISS criticism of the president over HIV/Aids fails to take account of the very real progress made in launching and sustaining a government programme based on the very thesis that the IISS implies he rejects, the role of HIV in causing Aids. The IISS view should be measured against this comprehensive and costly programme, led at presidential level, to curb HIV/Aids.” – AFP
International Institute for Strategic Studies
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