The South African team led to the Comores this week by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was multitasking.
Dlamini-Zuma has been charged by the African Union with driving the process to dig these islands at the mouth of the Mozambique Channel out of the constitutional sand.
In this wearying task she was assisted by her counterparts and officials from Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius and Tanzania. She also drew on the services of the newly elected AU commissioner for peace and security, Said Djinnit.
The visitors saw Azali Assoumani, President of the Comoran Union and the Presidents of the three autonomous islands — Abdout Soule Elbak of Grande Comore, Mohamed Bacar of Anjouan and Mohamed Said Fazul of Moheli.
The elections that put these men into office last year regularised the Comores position with the AU. The Comores was red-carded by the Organisation of African Unity in 1999 after Assoumani seized power in a coup.
The limited democratic progress made in terms of an all-party agreement signed in February 2001 has brought little relief to the islands historically known as the lands of the warring sultans.
The union president is at loggerheads with the three autonomous leaders, who accuse him of hogging the power and — more importantly — the slim pickings, mainly from customs revenues.
The all-party agreement does not adequately address these matters.
Dlamini-Zuma invited the autonomous leaders to South Africa last month to introduce them to provincial premiers in the hope that they would learn that second-tier governance also has its values.
What she and the AU counterparts most wanted out of their meetings in Moroni was a commitment on an election date. The legislative poll planned for April this year was postponed because of the bickering.
In addition to the multilateral specialists Dlamini-Zuma brought to the so-called “islands of the moon”, the minister had a team of South Africans eager to get to the root of a new flurry of interest in this geopolitical zone.
France has always been the leader in this region, carefully retaining control of Mayotte against the protests of the rest of the Comores.
China is also showing an increased interest in these volcanic islands that eke out an existence from exports of vanilla cloves, ylang ylang and perfume oil.
The tourism industry has hit rock bottom, despite the gorgeous climate and beautiful scenery.
The Comores still owes South Africa $50-million of a soft loan for hotel building during the apartheid era.
Mired in debt, Comores has no chance of repaying the South African loan, which constitutes half of its annual repayments to other creditors.
The previous South African government had maintained a presence in the region to watch African National Congress activities in Tanzania and to inject Renamo cadres into Mozambique.
The South African embassy closed nine years ago but there are plans to reopen a mission later this year.
Morocco, which has a thriving cottage industry in farming out the troops that King Mohamed VI is too scared to keep at home, is preparing to deploy a group here as presidential guard to Assoumani.
The most worrying new interest in the Comores and the Indian Ocean islands is that of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi.
After his Aids-as-African-saviour rant at the AU summit in Maputo last week, Gadaffi left in his armoured stretch limo with Marc Ravalomana, the President of Madagascar.
The message was clear. Thwarted at every turn by the union, Gadaffi is determined to make his influence felt in new fields.
Libyan and other interest here fuels growing speculation that there is oil in the Mozambique channel.
If this proves true it will take more than a tight-knit team of Africans to sort out the islanders’ problems.