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05 June 2008
CAPE TOWN (Sapa) - African leaders were on Wednesday rapped over the knuckles for not speaking out on Zimbabwe's flawed election.
The rebuke came from Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the opening session of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, where he shared a platform with President Thabo Mbeki and three other heads of state.
Odinga, who took office after an election that degenerated into violence, said things were changing on the continent. Gone were the days when Africa and the rest of the world would look the other way when confronted with the misdeeds of dictators such as Mobutu Sese Seko or Idi Amin.
"But still today it's unfortunate that in an African country elections can be held and no results are announced in more than a month," he said.
"And African leaders are silent about it."
Zimbabwe held its legislative and presidential election on March 29, and though parliamentary results were released in a slow trickle, it was five weeks before the presidential result was announced.
Because opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai did not achieve a clear 50 percent majority, a runoff has been scheduled.
Mbeki has been criticised for his so-called silent diplomacy on Zimbabwe, and his reluctance to speak out against ongoing human rights abuses in South Africa's northern neighbour. Odinga also said Kenya's post-independence economic development was sluggish compared to a country like South Korea, which had once had the same economic indicators as Kenya but now boasted an economy 40 times larger.
"The mediocrity with which Africa has been ruled is what is responsible for African underdevelopment," he said. "Let us say what we mean and mean what we say when we talk about Africa's development."
He also called for the scrapping of visa requirements within the continent, saying that if it was possible for a Greek to travel from Athens to Dublin using only an identity document, it ought to be possible for a South African to go to Kenya on the same conditions.
Mbeki, who was asked to lead off the panel discussion at the opening, deflected a question from WEF founder Klaus Schwab on what his concerns about Africa were, and what he thought were the obstacles to strong growth and political stability.
"Klaus, I think it's a wrong question, Why don't we start elsewhere," Mbeki said. He said where the discussion needed to start was with "the positives", which he said was the continent's general progress towards peace, stability and reaffirmation of democratic processes.
Malawi's President Bingu Wa Mutharika said one of the challenges facing the continent was that Africans had not learned to share power."When you get it, it's yours," he said. The stemmed from the principle of winner takes all, which he had problems with.
This inability to share power led to conflicts that could be avoided.Ghanaian president and former chairman of the African Union John Kufuor said Africa needed leaders who saw beyond the divides that the colonial system left in Africa, and transcended the "narrow tribal and small-nation divide".-SAPA.
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