Mbeki says he failed on Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki said in an interview broadcast on Monday that his efforts to avoid political, social and economic collapse in Zimbabwe had failed. Mbeki told BBC’s ‘Hard Talk’ that the total collapse of Zimbabwe was the greatest threat to South Africa and the rest of the region.

Mbeki added that he hoped a new Commonwealth initiative would help Zimbabwe. “We sit across the border from Zimbabwe, and critical for South Africa must surely be that we don’t have a situation that the IMF warned about at the beginning of this year: a meltdown in Zimbabwe.” Mbeki said he did not know why his efforts to persuade Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to moderate his actions had not been effective. “What I know is that we can’t afford the complete collapse of Zimbabwe on our borders, so we have got to try and do whatever we can,” Mbeki said.

The president added that sanctions against Mugabe, who is facing presidential elections next year, could hasten the collapse of the country. “Sure, time is running out.
Which means we have got to act quickly and continue to say it is important to respond positively to these issues,” he said. “There is a land problem in Zimbabwe, there is need for land redistribution, but it must be handled differently, without violence, without conflict, within the context of the law, bearing in mind the interests of all Zimbabweans, both black and white.”

Meanwhile the state-owned ‘Herald’ newspaper said on Monday that a group of Commonwealth foreign ministers is scheduled to meet in Abuja next week to seek ways to heal strained relations between Zimbabwe and Britain. The newspaper said that Nigeria had invited the foreign ministers of South Africa, Kenya, Australia, Jamaica, Britain and Zimbabwe to the meeting.