While President Thabo Mbeki on Friday lashed out at the Commonwealth’s failure to address the root cause of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, the Democratic Alliance says he has ”completely lost the plot”.
Writing his weekly column posted on the African National Congress website on Friday, Mbeki wrote that except when used to highlight the plight of the white farmer, the land issue in Zimbabwe is no longer discussed.
”At the Abuja Chogm [Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting], the land question in Zimbabwe was not discussed. Indeed, the land question has disappeared from the global discourse about Zimbabwe, except when it is mentioned to highlight the plight of the former white landowners, and to attribute food shortages in Zimbabwe to the land redistribution programme,” wrote Mbeki.
Mbeki said Zimbabwe’s subsequent suspension from the body is contrary to the goal of assisting the country to unite to find an urgent solution to its economic and political crisis.
DA spokesperson on Africa Graham Mcintosh said Mbeki’s letter offered a ”fascinating but frightening insight into the president’s disturbed logic and devotion to lost causes”.
”Any informed individual who has visited Zimbabwe and seen the reality of the Mugabe regime’s disastrous policies and programmes will agree that the sentiments expressed by President Mbeki is utter nonsense.”
He said Mbeki’s letter is a disgusting defence of a disgraceful tyrant.
”He should be ashamed of the way he has used race and smear tactics against the other members of the Commonwealth and its secretary general and the astonishing trashing of the world’s commitment to human rights as ‘a tool of US foreign policy’.
”President Mbeki has completely lost the plot.” — Sapa