South African diplomats have quietly begun to acknowledge that after the Commonwealth decision to continue to suspend Zimbabwe from its ranks, and the country’s subsequent decision to pull out of the organisation, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is likely to continue to cling to power.
President Thabo Mbeki had promised the world that by June next year the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe would be resolved. In many quarters this was interpreted to mean that Mugabe would be out of office. But this pledge seems to have been premised on the notion that until then Mugabe would be handled with kid gloves by the international community and allowed to exit from his position more or less on his own terms.
Hope based on this apparent understanding led Mbeki and a few other Southern Africa countries to try to convince the Commonwealth to lift Zimbabwe’s suspension, a position that was widely ridiculed and dismissed.
If Zimbabwe’s suspension was based on its human rights violations, then the situation has not improved enough to justify it being lifted. In fact, the situation has gotten worse said Amnesty International’s Samkelo Mokhine, who was part of Commonwealth People’s Forum, a meeting of civil society organisations active in Commonwealth countries.
As a result of this and a litany of other abuses of power by Mugabe and his cronies, South Africa could not convince the Commonwealth to lift its suspension of Zimbabwe.
In fact, South Africa was humiliated when they were identified as the main backers of a Sri Lankan candidate who opposed Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon, who has been determined to keep the suspension of Zimbabwe in place. Lashman Kadirgamer, an opposition member in his country, was beaten 40-11 by McKinnon.
McKinnon said the vote showed there was no African consensus on how to deal with Zimbabwe, implying that South Africa was simply a loud voice in a small group. Even Tanzania, which had threatened to boycott the summit if Zimbabwe was not invited, made a u-turn and voted for McKinnon. Kadirgamer was always on a hiding to nothing. The fact that was reflected in Canadian Prime Minister Jean ChrÃ