Zimbabweans feel South African President Thabo Mbeki has betrayed them, compromised his efforts to lead the search for a solution to their political crisis and openly sided with their dictatorial president.
The sharp criticism came on Thursday, a day after Mbeki told reporters that Zimbabwe had complied with all the regional protocols meant to ensure fairness in its March 31 parliamentary elections.
”I have no reason to think that anybody in Zimbabwe will act in a way that will militate against elections being free and fair,” said Mbeki, who has pursued what he calls a policy of ”quiet diplomacy” with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly isolated regime.
Arnold Tsunga, the director of Lawyers for Human Rights in Zimbabwe, said in a telephone interview that Mbeki’s comments ”disregard the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans in the face of a dictatorship”.
”It is deceitful and unworthy of the president of such an important country on the African continent,” Tsunga added.
Tsunga said ordinary Zimbabweans who endured hardships as Zimbabwe helped finance the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa feel betrayed by South Africa, especially Mbeki.
”His comments seriously discredit the leadership of Thabo Mbeki,” said Tsunga.
”Zimbabweans have become increasingly exasperated with Mbeki’s inability to act as a bona fide mediator.”
The United States, human rights groups, independent analysts and civil society groups have widely condemned the fairness of Zimbabwean elections, that are restricted by repressive laws and held at polling stations controlled by the army.
Mbeki’s spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, said the South African president stood by his comments on Thursday and would work with the people of Zimbabwe to help find a solution to the political crisis.
Last month, Mbeki’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told reporters she was satisfied that Zimbabwe was taking steps to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections and said she had seen signs that campaigning has been less violent than in previous years.
Mugabe has enacted measures that opponents say deny freedom of speech, freedom of the press, equal participation in the political process and freedom of association.
Opposition candidates do not have equal access to state media, and voter registration lists have as many as 2-million illegitimate names, analysts said. The army and the police will provide election officials and decide where polling stations will be located.
While political violence has been reduced since the presidential election in 2002, which was marred by widespread intimidation and vote rigging, opposition candidates and supporters say they are still regularly attacked by security forces and the country’s youth militia.
They are also regularly arrested for violations of the Public Order and Security Act, which requires prior police approval for any political gathering or discussion.
Lovemore Madhuku, the leader the National Constitutional Assembly, a Zimbabwean civil society group, said Zimbabweans believe Mbeki’s objective has always been to give legitimacy to Mugabe.
”He wants to assure that Mugabe gets an electoral victory that is seen as legitimate in the eyes of the world to end the Zimbabwe crisis,” Madhuku said in a telephone interview.
Britain and the United States have both said they would follow Mbeki’s lead as he engages with Mugabe to find a way to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
But Western powers also have recently appeared to grow weary of the approach some critics call ”silent diplomacy” and seem to be pushing for more pressure on Mugabe.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently listed Zimbabwe as an ”outpost of tyranny.” Mbeki, in an interview with The Financial Times, called that an exaggeration.
In its annual human rights report, the US State Department said Mugabe and his party continued to use intimidation and violence to maintain political power. It also said the electoral process was tilted heavily in favour of the ruling party and the government manipulated the process to effectively disenfranchise voters.
Dianna Games, a Johannesburg-based researcher and commentator on African affairs, described Mbeki’s comments to the contrary as outrageous.
She said Mbeki ”as good as declared the elections free and fair before they even happened”.
”You can’t have anybody in a mediating role who openly takes sides like that,” she said. – Sapa-AP