There's leadership failure in Zim- Clinton

PRETORIA – United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the huge number of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa was testimony to the failure of leadership in Harare.

“South Africa is very aware of the challenges posed by the crisis in Zimbabwe because South Africa has 3 million refugees from Zimbabwe and everyone of those refugees represents the failure of the Zimbabwe government to take care of its own people and that’s a burden that South Africa has to bear,” said Clinton.

She was addressing journalists at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria after a meeting with South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane.

Clinton arrived in South Africa last Thursday night as part of a seven-nation African tour which kicked off in Kenya last Tuesday. High on her agenda was the issue of the fractious unity government in Zimbabwe which she said must move quickly to implement reforms.

She said her government will continue exerting pressure on the country’s leadership through sanctions to try and force a change in attitude.

“We are working with South Africa towards a free democratic Zimbabwe. Obviously South Africa, on the door steps of Zimbabwe, has a lot of contact with all the different players in Zimbabwe. The minister and I talked about the best ways we can try to productively create a better outcome for the people of Zimbabwe,” said Clinton.

“We are attempting to target the leadership of Zimbabwe with sanctions that we think might influence their behaviour without hurting the people of Zimbabwe. We are going to be closely consulting as to how best to deal with what is a difficult situation for South Africa but mostly for the people of Zimbabwe,” she added.

Washington earlier this year extended targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and members of his ZANU PF party’s inner circle and Clinton has in the past said that the only solution for Zimbabwe lies in the removal of Mugabe from power.

But in a move that baffled his supporters within and without the borders of Zimbabwe, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)leader and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has said there can be no solution for the the country if Mugabe is left out of the process. Tsvangirai says the 85 year old dictator is "the problem and is also part of the solution."

Tsvangirai's rise to power and indeed of his party hinged on the call of Mugabe stepping down which even saw the opposition leader get arrested and charged with treason for calling for Mugabe "to go peacefully or we will remove him violently." He was to be later acquitted of the charge.

And in his recent tour of the western world he called for the removal of sanctions claiming that the situation in Zimbabwe was under control while racist motivated invasion of white owned farms still rages with the opposition party seemingly turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to these gruesome acts, thereby raising speculations among the masses that the MDC has lost the plot and has been sucked in by Mugabe's ZANU PF party.

South African Foreign Minister Mashabane said her government, which under the leadership of ex-president Thabo Mbeki brokered Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal, will continue working with Zimbabweans to ensure the quick and full implementation of the political agreement signed between ZANU PF and the two MDC parties.

“We promise to continue working with the people of Zimbabwe to implement the agreement that they signed – the made-in-Zimbabwe-for-Zimbabweans agreement. We want them to fast track the actual implementation of the agreement,” said Mashabane.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who was due to meet Clinton in the coastal city of Durban today, has taken a harder line on Zimbabwe than his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, but the US wants more.

The US, troubled by what it sees as an absence of reform in Zimbabwe, has no plans either to offer major aid or to lift sanctions against Mugabe and some of his supporters, accusing them trampling on democracy and ruining a once-vibrant economy.

Before any of that can happen, Washington wants more evidence of political, social and economic reforms by Mugabe and the government he shares uneasily with opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

– ZimOnline and Simba Nembaware