Leaders finally turn their backs on Bob

Leaders finally turn their backs on Bob

	Peter Fabricius June 23 2008 at 09:32AM

Hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue, said the 19th-century French aristocrat Duc de la Rochefoucauld.

His observation may be relevant to a significant new phenomenon - the growing criticism of President Robert Mugabe by other African governments.

They, and particularly the governments of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), have been strongly criticised for supporting Mugabe or at best turning a blind eye to his depravities. But that is changing, as the following events show:

In April, southern African and other nearby governments refused to off-load a shipment of Chinese arms for Zimbabwe. At the SADC summit in Lusaka in the same month, leaders like Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa were sharply critical of Mugabe.

Earlier in June, new Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga declared that Mugabe was "an embarrassment to Africa". Also in June, Botswana's new president, Ian Khama, called in the Zimbabwean ambassador to protest against Mugabe's violent and repressive election tactics. Last week, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Member, speaking on behalf of the SADC, said: "There is every sign that these elections will never be free nor fair. We have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence." Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula suggested that Mugabe's actions were "an affront to the evolving democratic culture in Africa and unacceptable to all people in Africa". Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused Mugabe of turning the election into a farce and demanded the SADC do something. Swazi government spokesperson Percy Simelane was quoted as saying free and fair elections were unlikely "if even the president himself is inciting violence". And, perhaps most significant, even Mugabe's old ally, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, urged him to "observe the spirit of tolerance and respect for difference and cease all forms of intimidation and political violence". Why is Africa at last turning on Mugabe? About three years ago, I asked then-Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa why he continued to support Mugabe when he himself was striving for democracy and good governance. "Because we have completed the process of decolonisation while Zimbabwe has not," he replied, referring to Mugabe's continuing seizure of white-owned farms. Whatever one may think of that answer, the white farmers have virtually all gone and it is plain for all to see that Mugabe has turned on his black compatriots. Africa's change of heart can also be ascribed to the rise of a generation of regional and continental leaders with little, if any, nostalgia for the liberation struggle Mugabe still brandishes as his raison d'etra. Mkapa has given way to the unsympathetic Jakaya Kikwete; Festus Mogae to the more aggressive Khama; in Kenya, Odinga, himself a victim of election rigging and a close ally of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has become prime minister, and so on. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai deserves some of the credit for having traversed the region after the first round of elections on March 29 to drum up support. Overall, one senses that the region and Africa are evolving politically and economically and feel that this octogenarian, who does not know his time has passed, is dragging them down. Mugabe is no doubt fuming "hypocrites" at some of his critics - like Dos Santos and Swaziland's King Mswati III - who do not seem much more democratic than he is. Even they, though, are justified in feeling disgusted at the violence being orchestrated by Mugabe. If they are being hypocritical, it may be because they themselves are holding elections later this year, and probably want to start looking as democratic as possible. That's not a bad thing. They will be reminded of their words. And, as Rochefoucauld implied, when the democratic laggards feel they have to make democratic noises, it suggests at least that democracy is becoming fashionable in the region. That's progress. This article was originally published on page 11 of Cape Times on June 23, 2008 http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20080623054726939C370659