South Africa's Gamble

Voters in Zimbabwe are at the polls today, and they've only got one presidential candidate to vote for. That would be president Robert Mugabe. The onetime freedom fighter has turned into a despot, most of the world says. The leader of the main opposition party in the country has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy. Mugabe ignored calls by several of his neighbors to put off the vote. How, you might ask, does this man manage to stay in power despite worldwide condemnation?

Some might argue it's done through sheer force of arms. There are reports of political killings throughout the country, most attributed to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party. Yet there's another player in the grim battle for control of the country once known as Rhodesia. South Africa, Zimbabwe's most powerful neighbor, seems to have taken on the role of Mugabe's enabler. It's South Africa and it's president, Thabo Mbeki, who have worked hardest at blocking international action against the Mugabe government.

Mbeki firmly believes that diplomacy, not condemnation, will save Zimbabwe. He and his team are apparently working feverishly to negotiate a political end to the violence that's wracked the country. Indeed, Thabo Mbeki says it was largely through his country's efforts that the first presidential election back in March took place at all.

Mbeki is counting on his 28 year friendship with Mugabe to make diplomacy work. He now even stands at odds with his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, who bemoaned Zimbabwe's "tragic failure of leadership". He will soon have to get off the dime of quiet diplomacy. Put simply, it's not working. An election with one candidate standing is no election at all.

It's time Thabo Mbeki sees Robert Mugabe for who he is.