Zuma buys more time for Mugabe

So South African president Jacob Zuma came to Harare, saw with his own eyes the mess that the dithering of SADC has wrought upon the political and economic fabric of Zimbabwe and was overcome by the scheming of ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe and his cohorts.


With subdued fanfare and little to show for his half-hearted efforts, Zuma left the country with yet another promise of more talks and new deadlines for the resolution of the so-called outstanding issues of the so-called inclusive government. He met separately with Reserve bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana.

If it is true that Zuma did not ask these two Mugabe henchmen to step aside for the good of the country. then this was a truly a lost opportunity. We can surmise though, that Zuma could have offered each of these men a golden handshake of sorts in South African rand in order to tempt them to do what even they must know to be the right thing: leave their posts and hope that given their relatively young ages, they might have a real chance to participate in rebuilding the country in the future. After all, what use is South African wealth if some of it is not brought to bear on situations such as this?

The departure of Gono and Tomana will likely result in a domino effect because once these two are out of the way, who knows on whom the axe will fall next? I find it difficult to believe that ZANU-PF will begin the process of dismantling its terrorist apparatus. Fear of the slippery slope complex will mean that we are likely to be talking about this case until at least after the World Cup.

I believe that there will be some face-saving movement within the government in the wake of Zuma's visit. Governors will be appointed from the MDC side but perhaps not to the full extent envisaged under earlier agreements. ZANU-PF needs to slow down the transition process in Zimbabwe because there is a very real probability that an accelerated pace of change could flush the party down the drain of political oblivion.