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Mandela 'solution to Zim crisis'
20/08/2007 15:10 - (SA)
Lusaka - Zambian Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande thinks there may be only one way to influence defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe - enlist the help of African liberation giants like Nelson Mandela.
He said: "Perhaps with a bit of pressure from President Mugabe's good friends like Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia's founding father) or old people like Mandela perhaps, you can see that things can be done differently without anybody losing out."
Magande's comments were tacit recognition that Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders failed during their meeting last week to pressure Zimbabwe's long-time leader into enacting political and economic reforms.
Critics said that inaction had tainted regional leaders, raising questions about their commitment to democracy and easing the suffering of millions of Zimbabweans struggling to survive the world's worst economic crisis outside a war zone.
Lack of free, fair elections
Chileshe Mulenga, head of the Institute for Economic and Social Reseach, a Lusaka think-tank, said: "SADC has a credibility problem because of its failure to adhere to democratic rules.
"It is a club of presidents who support each other regardless of the suffering of the people because they all behave like monarchs.
"There are no real principles, which guide SADC and this is why they are showing solidarity for Mugabe because of a lack of free and fair elections."
The group, experts said, was also awed into silence by Mugabe's place in history.
To the western world, Mugabe was a ruthless dictator whose people were victims of his mismanagement of what had been southern Africa's breadbasket.
But, southern African leaders looked up to him as a respected liberation hero who still took on the United States and former coloniser, Britain, even though he was accused of bringing Zimbabwe to its knees in the process.
His past was one reason Mugabe received the loudest applause after he stood up at the SADC summit, and it insulated him from criticism by leaders who grew up regarding him as a legend.
Zambian Information Minister Mike Mlongoti said: "Mugabe is far more experienced than this younger generation of leaders and he knows exactly what he is doing.
"What can they do? They can't pressure Zimbabwe because it is a sovereign state. Sanctions have not achieved anything and only hurt Zimbabweans."
As the new chairperson of SADC, Zambia, would be under more international pressure to face up to Mugabe.
President Levy Mwanawasa was the first African leader to speak out against Mugabe, saying Zimbabwe was a "sinking Titanic" earlier this year.
'SADC can't work'
But he had since toned down his position. Western diplomats said he was deeply worried about the turmoil in Zimbabwe and was seeking the help of SADC countries to resolve the issue.
But it didn't take Mwanawasa long to realise how difficult that might be.
A Western diplomat said: "He raised the subject of Zimbabwe at the summit and got no support at all. He is isolated. All of this proves that SADC can't work."
Asked if SADC had confronted Mugabe on human rights, Mwanawasa suggested it's a taboo subject, as a nearby Zimbabwean official looked on at a news conference: "We have discussed them and we are satisfied with the answers which were given."
Mugabe had succeeded in mixing emotionally charged political issues with economics, making it more difficult for Southern African leaders to criticise his policies.
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa spent two hours at the summit explaining how all of the country's problems - the world's highest inflation and severe food and fuel shortages - were linked to land stolen by Britain since the late 1800s.
Few SADC leaders could argue with him. To do so would be a betrayal of the collective suffering of the region.
Magande was seen as one of the region's best economic managers. But he, like others, argued that a hands-on approach by SADC in Zimbabwe would only backfire. It's up to Mugabe and opposition groups to resolve their differences, he said.
- Reuters
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