Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon on Monday called on President Thabo Mbeki to urgently review the government’s approach to Zimbabwe after Sunday’s arrest of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
”The arrest and detention … [of] Tsvangirai should serve as a final wake-up call to President Mbeki that he simply cannot afford [to] continue with a business-as-usual approach to … the growing crisis in Zimbabwe,” Leon said.
The South Africa government should condemn this latest crackdown on a legitimate democratic protest and call for the release of Tsvangirai.
His arrest was a negation of the multi-party approach that Mbeki had held up to the world as a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.
”If we fail to act and to speak out, then it will become clear to the international community that the South African government’s policy of ‘silent diplomacy’ is nothing more than ‘quiet approval’,” Leon said.
Pretoria should also send the message that the Zimbabwe government would be held accountable for any injuries to Tsvangirai or to the group of up to a 100 people arrested on Sunday.
”Mr Tsvangirai’s arrest and alleged beating at the hands of the Zimbabwean security forces is another in a long list of examples of brutal and unwarranted attacks on its own citizens by the [President Robert] Mugabe regime.
”This incident, combined with its total ban on any public demonstrations, is the clearest indication yet that the Mugabe government is becoming increasingly desperate in its attempts to cling to power,” he said.
Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy had yielded little or no progress in resolving the impasse in Zimbabwe.
In fact, every commitment Mbeki had made to a number of international actors, including United States President George Bush, about an imminent resolution of the conflict had failed to come to fruition.
”It is now clear that President Mbeki has all but given up trying to resolve the conflict.
”This is an extraordinary derogation of duty by the region’s most significant power, the disastrous consequences of which are being felt by both Zimbabweans and South Africans everyday,” Leon said. — Sapa