Many of us would feel a lot better if President Thabo Mbeki, the most credible and influential leader in the region, would phone Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and give him a firm and irrevocable deadline to move out of office. It would enable us to feel that the fundamental human rights values,for which we fought in the struggle against apartheid, are alive and well. The problem is that South African foreign policy does not work like that.
The last time The Open Championship visited Royal Troon Colin Montgomerie was the hottest golfer in Europe. Over the past three years two South African golfers — Ernie Els and Retief Goosen — have usurped Montgomerie’s hegemony of the European Order of Merit. Last week Goosen leapfrogged Els to lead the standings.
Australia’s cricketers, currently playing Sri Lanka, are in unfamiliar territory. The Test venues are small and seedy. The surrounding jungles and mangrove swamps are infested with leeches, and sparsely peopled by simple peasants, some of whom are heavily armed and distrustful of foreigners.
The All Blacks should edge the Pacific Islanders at set pieces but believe countering their swarming play at the breakdown will be a different matter in Saturday’s rugby test at North Harbour stadium. The tackle and ruck areas have been areas of concern for New Zealand in their past two tests, after their convincing wins over Argentina and England.
In American television they call it ”stunting”: the publicity-seeking novelty aimed at luring viewers back to a series they haven’t watched for months. Think cameo appearances by Brad Pitt on Friends. And now John Kerry’s campaign for the United States presidency did some stunting of its own. He, too, introduced a new character.
Although the trial of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad is gripping theatre, attention should not shift from matters of fundamental importance. Basic questions remain about the longer-term prospects for post-Hussein Iraq, and these ought not to remain out of focus. The former dictator’s trial should not be allowed
to draw attention away from the fierce armed struggle still raging in Iraq.
The club thuds on to the metal table and rolls heavily out of the plastic bag marked ”evidence”. Almost a metre of dark wood, its head is studded with nails, many of them mangled and flattened from the grisly use to which it was put. The evidence room at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is full of these relics of the unimaginable.
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma backed Zimbabwean government moves to stifle an explosive report on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. At the same time, there is mounting evidence that Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge lied when he claimed his government had not seen or had a chance to respond to the report.
As we mark the first week of Iraqi sovereignty, the world is only just beginning to appreciate the full significance of the historic handover ceremony, which was rushed through in secret two days before it was due and without any of the top people present. It is now clear that this may well be a blueprint for all future state occasions and festivities in this age of terrorism.
Various parliamentary committees have tried over the years to consign the Springbok emblem to the dustbin of history, and only rugby has an official dispensation to retain it. Next week South Africa will take the field in New South Wales with a new jersey bearing a new Springbok logo.