Thabo Mbeki Is A Disgrace

(to humanity).

Anyone following the elections in Zimbabwe knows that, according to any impartial count, Morgan Tsvangirai has won. Sadly, the government hasn’t yet released a final count (though local tallies have already been posted on the doors of all polling places). The Movement for Democratic Change, which has won the election, said that about 200 of its polling agents, campaign workers and supporters have been arrested, beaten or kidnapped since the March 29 election.

The honorable thing to do now is to pressure the government to step down and allow the winner’s government to reign. Surrounding nations (and the world) should call for this to take place, and should meet with, congratulate, and declare support for the winner, Mr. Tsvangirai.

From the New York Times:

On Wednesday, the opposition standard-bearer and self-proclaimed winner of the election, Morgan Tsvangirai, traveled to Botswana, where he met that nation’s president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama. The opposition spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said that Mr. Tsvangirai would meet with heads of state in many of Zimbabwe’s neighbors “to get them to appreciate the magnitude of the crisis in Zimbabwe.”

Sadly, some enemies of democracy have recently shown that they cannot be trusted to call upon Robert Mugabe’s government to do what is right.

But South Africa, the one country most likely to hold sway in Zimbabwe’s crisis, took pains on Wednesday to distance itself from the [winning party]. A spokesman for South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, said he had no plans to meet [election winner] Mr. Tsvangirai, although a spokesman [..] said Mr. Tsvangirai had requested a meeting.

Separately, South Africa dismissed calls for an international effort to address Zimbabwe’s crisis in the United Nations, saying the political situation there was an internal political matter. [...] Mr. Mbeki, Africa’s favored mediator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis, has sometimes been accused of treating Mr. Mugabe’s harsh rule with kid gloves. Asked Wednesday whether South Africa had again rebuffed Mr. Mugabe’s opponents, Mr. Chamisa replied, “Time will tell.”

The outspoken Mr. Mbeki

The world should condemn Thabo Mbeki in his failure to support the election winner. Though I understand that South Africa prefers Zimbabwe’s rule under a dictator to another civil war in the region, Mbeki needs to understand that this election outcome could and should proceed as a peaceful handover of power, not unlike the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which shared many similarities with this development including vote rigging and a potential runoff.

Update:

According to a breaking MSNBC article, the Southern Africa Development Community (a regional alliance of governments) is to hold a meeting with Mugabe, Mbeki, and Tsvangirai in attendance, and Tsvangirai may meet Mbeki beforehand, contrary to earlier reports:

“Tsvangirai, who was traveling throughout the region to ask Mugabe’s peers to push him to end the standoff, was headed Thursday to South Africa to meet with President Thabo Mbeki, Mlilo said. “If Mr. Tsvangirai is in town and before the president leaves for the next meeting and his program allows it, it is important to hear what Mr. Tsvangirai has to say,” said Aziz Pahad, South Africa’s deputy foreign affairs minister.

Regional Leaders to Meet on Zimbabwe – NYT
Zimbabwe opposition opts out of runoff – MSNBC