Zuma should use his survival of a vote of no confidence to rein in Mugabe

By Ben Semwayo

Before Jacob Zuma assumed the presidency of South Africa he projected the image of a tough-talking, no-nonsense man, signalling that unlike Mbeki his predecessor, he was going to deal with Mugabe decisively, but when he actually became president he just mellowed and morphed into another Mbeki.

Zuma is highly regarded in Zimbabwe because of his initial stance on Mugabe and for that reason Zimbabweans are pleased that he has been afforded a new lease of life, which they hope he will use to come to their aid.

There can be no doubt that he knows that what Mugabe is doing is wrong because he indicated before the beginning of his tenure that he was nauseated by his northern counterpart’s behaviour and condemned it. What is difficult to understand is why he failed to make good his promise to come to the aid of the suffering Zimbabweans.

Many explanations for his change of heart have been proffered, the most important two of which are that he was advised by his ANC comrades and rogue African presidents not to dump a fellow guerrilla leader who had played a pivotal role in the liberation of South Africa, with whom he has much in common, and that he had himself become as corrupt as Mugabe, and could therefore not point an accusing finger at Mugabe.

While there is a level of truth in both explanations, Zuma is nowhere near in comparison to Mugabe insofar as the level of his looting and blood on his hands are concerned. 

Mugabe has personally sanctioned the deaths of thousands of political opponents, boasting of degrees in violence and brazenly warning that death will visit anyone who dares oppose him. Zuma is only haunted by the deaths of the Marikana miners, and that makes him clean in comparison with Mugabe.

Zuma needs to leave behind him a respectable legacy and he should act now to achieve that. While his image has been tainted by the aforementioned massacres and accusations of corruption, Zuma can still leave a legacy that makes him a highly regarded statesman from the points of view of both South Africans and Zimbabweans, unlike Mbeki and Mugabe, who have earned themselves the reputations of inveterate sadists.

Zuma still has time to make good his promise of liberating the people of Zimbabwe by standing up to Mugabe. His job is made all the more lighter by the fact that at the recent SADC conference in South Africa a large number of African Heads of State made history by, for the first time, openly castigating Mugabe for clinging to power and not effecting the agreed reformation of the electoral laws.

There is currently an avalanche of criticism levelled at Mugabe for his despotic rule and Zuma can easily latch onto it and join the growing calls for Mugabe to restore sanity in the way the country is governed.  

That would make Zuma a hero overnight and would give him a lasting laudable legacy, at least from the eyes of Zimbabweans. It would also give him a clear conscience knowing that he vacated office after solving one of the most enduring man-made humanitarian disasters Africa has witnessed.