In a recent article in The Mail & Guardian Michael Georgy makes the case that the deadlock in Zimbabwe represents yet another failure for Thabo Mbeki, another sign of his waning credibility and fading influence at home and abroad.
The case seems pretty strong. Yet something about this argument does not strike me as being quite right or quite fair. Certainly Mbeki deserves plenty of blame for letting the Zimbabwe sore fester for as long as it has without taking stronger action, without pushing for a resolution sooner, without taking more seriously his mandate to broker peace on the behalf of SADC, without ever, to this day, truly condemning Robert Mugabe or at minimum what mugabe allowed to happen to his country. And as a consequence things have gotten to where they are, for which Thabo Mbeki is one of many actors who deserves his share of the blame.
But at the same time, Mbeki is in no position to force an agreement right now. Cliches about horses and water and forcing them to drink come to mind. I suppose that were a deal to come that the world could celebrate Mbeki would bask in the credit, and as a consequence he has to deal with the backlash. But there are situations where credit might be due success even if equal blame is not due failure. Many of us knew that these negotiations would only go as far as Robert Mugabe would allow them to go. And so they have. For this, at least, it is hard for me to blame Thabo Mbeki.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
