British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to hold talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki on Friday on the last day of his farewell African tour, with Zimbabwe likely to figure on the agenda.
Blair, who leaves office on June 27, was due to receive an official state welcome at the Union Buildings in the capital, Pretoria, before heading for discussions with the president.
The 54-year-old premier’s Africa trip has in general been aimed at refocusing global attention on African issues such as debt, poverty, HIV/Aids programmes as well as climate change before the Group of Eight summit in Germany next week.
He has also held up South Africa — which has strong trade, cultural and tourist links with Britain — as a ”beacon” of democracy for Africa and an example of the benefits of good governance for the rest of the continent.
But the crisis in Zimbabwe has cropped up on several occasions since Blair arrived in South Africa from Sierra Leone and Libya.
In a keynote speech on Thursday, he called on the international community to help fund the rebuilding of Zimbabwe, which he said has been ”shattered” after decades of repression under its veteran President Robert Mugabe.
”The world is waiting, wanting to re-engage with a reforming Zimbabwe government,” he added.
Blair has been one of the most outspoken critics of 83-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled the former Rhodesia since it gained independence from Britain in 1980.
On a radio phone-in programme in Soweto, Blair defended those criticisms, saying it has nothing to do with Britain’s colonial past and more to do with the hardships suffered by its people through dire economic mismanagement.
In an email interview in the Sunday Times last weekend, Blair vowed to raise Zimbabwe with Mbeki because the crisis is now spilling over into neighbouring countries and putting them under strain. Blair supports Mbeki’s so-called ”quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe and the efforts of other Southern African states.
But some of his ministers and those in his governing Labour Party have criticised South Africa for not taking a tougher line on Mugabe’s human rights violations and suppression of opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Blair’s office said the pair would also discuss the role of South Africa — which currently has a seat on the United Nations Security Council — in helping to end violence in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur.
They would also talk about South Africa’s role in helping to tackle climate change, after United States President George Bush’s announcement on Thursday to work for the first time with G8 partners to strike a new deal on cutting global warming.
Blair said on Thursday it was ”imperative” the world acts, because areas of Africa — many of them unstable and impoverished -‒ have been shown to be at greatest risk.
Before meeting Mbeki, Blair was to meet students from across Africa at Pretoria University and see their research into the effects of climate change on the continent. ‒ Sapa-AFP