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New global consensus gives hope
BULAWAYO – The MDC leadership has expressed hope concerning the emergence of a new consensus about Zimbabwe in the international community.
“This replaces the assumed approach sculptured by Tony Blair at the G8 summit in mid 2005 when the G8 renewed its commitment to helping put the Zimbabwe economy back on its feet and its support for the approach proposed by the South Africans. After the Gleneagles summit, SA president Thabo Mbeki has had a go
at getting Mugabe to step aside and allow reform and recovery on three separate occasions and on each occasion he was frustrated by the local leadership,” said a political analyst.
“The MDC was never happy with the approach being adopted for the resolution of the crisis over the past year and is quite happy that the Blair/Mbeki approach has failed. In its place a much more principled and robust approach has now been crafted and seems to have suddenly gained acceptance across the globe,” he said.
It is four years since US President George Bush announced in Pretoria that Mbeki was the “point man” on the Zimbabwe crisis. It was a logical choice – he had the power to coerce the Zimbabwean leadership, and his own country had just been through a dramatic transition assisted by the global community. Mbeki accepted the role, but then tried to use his position to secure an outcome that would have left a so-called “sanitized Zanu PF government” in power. The reasons for this were purely domestic and had little to do with what was best for Zimbabwe.
“The country now lies in ruins. Mbeki has failed. But there are hopeful signs on the horizon,” said the analyst. – Staff reporter