The winds of change have, once again blown across the Republic of South Africa. Another historic event after the 1994 birth of the rainbow nation, followed by a black icon president Nelson Mandela setting a world class reconciliatory government, and voluntary giving-up of power, and preaching to the world that “it was not profitable to keep a man of eighty five years of age in active political office”. Today South Africans have spoken. A new legacy has been set.

Despite the mixed reactions to the Mbeki saga, the principal message reads very clear, “dictators are not bigger than the institutions that they represent, than the respective political parties that deploy them into government, the government, and the public that makes the kings. It is common African practice that at funerals accolades of praise are poured unreservedly even in favour of our enemies, the most typical villains, vipers, the ever brutish, treacherous, the ungodly, inhuman and nasty social misfits. This was evidenced in the recent late Zambian president, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa funeral, where his arch-enemy, Zimbabwean tyrant ruler, Robert Mugabe, had the courtesy to humble himself and kneel before the late president’s widow and acknowledge his untainted legacy. Mwanawasa had, instantly, become a good man to Mugabe. Good because now he {Mugabe} would not be hearing anything about “the sinking titanic”. So has Mbeki attracted some both due and undue sympathy with his unceremonial departure. This is not to say Thabo Mbeki meets all the above criteria, but it is a fact that at some stage he was guilty of insubordination to his master, the African National Congress {ANC}. It is also a fact that, highly praised as he might be, of being a competent foreign policy manager, he did both the country and the African National Congress great harm with his vodooistic HIV/AIDS policy and utterances at a time when the international community was fighting a brave war against the same. A matter that warranted his summary “call back” by the respective party. A philosophy very shallow, multi-murderous, and resented by the entire modern world, backed by one of his lieutenants, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, also known as “Dr Beetroot”. A grave approach to HIV?AIDS that attracted international condemnation. Millions of South Africans, African National Congress voters who had voted for good health, poverty eradication, food security, peace, justice, among other things, died avoidable deaths, and no one knew that this was not official African National Congress policy until now that they {the ANC} have disassociated themselves with it, and count it among the other causes of the Mbeki recall.

Mbeki has also been highly praised for successful conflict mediation. Such examples are the Democratic Republic of Congo {DRC}, the Comoros, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Yes! Competence deserves mention and good will. But over the Zimbabwean deal Thabo Mbeki enjoys undue praise. A clumsy and fraudulent settlement was reached in that country in favour of Thabo Mbeki’s democratically losing colleague, Robert Mugabe, at the expense of the democratically winning Morgan Tsvangirai. A legacy empowering losers against winners was set by Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki is being hailed for successfully trivializing the electoral process in Zimbabwe, and showing democratically rejected dictators on how they could continue to hinge on to power after defeat. Not surprising because he had also started to size-up the “cooking” of the South African constitution to give himself a third term, or do away with the presidential term limit requirement. The Mbeki cronies who had tried to champion that politically unholy cause, have reason to panic with his departure and voluntarily, pack their bags along. It is a matter of conscience as one goes down memory lane. It is his {Mbeki’s} Mugabe pupilage that messed him up. In Zimbabwe Mugabe lives above both ZANU PF and government. Mugabe and his cronies have stinking legacy of living above the confines of the law. He seeks to be very pleased both in the party and government. Any reasoning/ questioning that he considers to be unpleasant would be just enough to send such offending member “biting the dust” at the ZANU PF paupers grave-yard. Thinking of succession remains a “taboo”. Mbeki played a clumsy and poorly calculated game in the process of transforming his rule into a full-fledged dictatorship in the lines of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The African National Congress is a very mature democracy by virtue of its over-stay in the struggle. It just said “no to one man brutal/ retrogressive rule”.

Mbeki has always openly taken sides with Africa’s most brutal dictatorships. He has backed dictatorships against their respective citizenry. This is how he became a favourite in conflict resolution. The Rwandan crisis, the Congo, Somalia, the Sudan, Sierra-Leone and Liberia experienced the devastating rule of genocide. The same in Zimbabwe, Mbeki at one time called “No Crisis. Other time, called it “Crisis”, while others called it “sovereignty”, yet others preferred a “splendid silence”. A few, Botswana, Liberia, Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria openly referred to the Zimbabwean crisis as “bloodshed”. But the SADC, the African Union and the United Nations still felt that Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy would be best for Zimbabwe. Again this was against the African National Congress’ and South African credentials. One wonders how the world and Mbeki would account for a settlement in Zimbabwe that leaves the democratically losing candidate with more massive powers as against the democratically winning candidate. Would this be what Mbeki is being praised for? What Mbeki has called “an African Victory” in Zimbabwe, actually remains as a highly prominent “African Fraud”. There is nothing to praise Mbeki, the SADC, the African Union and the United Nations organizations on the resolution of the Zimbabwean genocide.

The good governance custodians have now fallen into the hands of dictators. The dictators are now playing and winning a game of numbers in the SADC, the African Union and the United Nations. The “Us Against Them”. A mafia-style form of gangsterism now dominates these institutions as against good governance. The good governance institutions, in this way, have continued to slide into adopting the laws of the jungle at a tremendous speed. They are going obsolute. They face inevitable decay as they continuously accept the politically nausea-inflicting “African solutions” as a new tool to oppress and suppress popular citizenry will, in favour of dictatorial primitive, self-serving, brutish and nasty rule. That is to summarise Thabo Mbeki’s treacherous achievements in Zimbabwe.

Reginald Thabani Gola is a Zimbabwean political analyst, civil society and human rights activist.

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