Wade, Mbeki Clash Over Zimbabwe

Rangarirai Mberi (Financial Gazette)—Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is on a collision course with South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki after he proposed to lead a committee of five African leaders to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis and end the country’s row with Britain.

Wade has proposed that a group of African leaders mediate between Zimbabwe and Britain, and also between President Robert Mugabe and his internal opponents.

Although Wade said Mbeki would be part of this group, it is clear the South African leader would view such an arrangement as an attempt to diminish his influence in Zimbabwe.

"We should, at the level of heads of state, together with brother Mbeki, undertake mediation. I think that Zimbabwe should be treated as an African problem, to be solved by all African leaders," Wade told reporters yesterday after meeting President Mugabe.

Asked whether his proposal does not usurp the Mbeki process, Wade retorted: "Thabo Mbeki does not have the sole right to meet with (President) Mugabe.

"Mbeki has done a lot, but the problem has not been solved", he said.

Late yesterday, Wade met leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at his hotel, and this could further escalate his old rivalry with Mbeki. There was no immediate comment from the MDC on the discussions it held with the Senegalese president.

Wade’s bid to broaden mediation efforts in Zimbabwe beyond the ongoing Mbeki process is unlikely to be supported by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has mandated the South African head of state to end the political impasse in Harare.

President Mugabe himself seemed lukewarm towards Wade’s proposal, not backing it outright, and only saying he remained open to engaging in dialogue with Britain as suggested by his Senegalese counterpart.

"We have never said ‘no’ to speaking with them (Britain). It’s the other side that’s the problem. We do not know how they expect to solve matters when they refuse to speak with us," President Mugabe said.

He said he had given Wade "more than he perhaps expected, the history of our dispute with Britain, all the agreements they have broken, especially on land."

Two previous planned trips to Zimbabwe by Wade were cancelled with no official explanation being given.

Both leaders stuck to mandatory diplomatic decorum yesterday, masking deep suspicion of Wade’s motives within government.

After his visit was aborted, Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru, who is said to be privy to the thinking within ZANU PF and the government, said Wade was the "dutiful" African leader who "thinks he can do better than Mbeki in bringing about a resolution of an impasse, which has already been unlocked."

Government is opposed to a broadening of the mediation to include the rest of Africa, as this would suggest the country was in "total crisis", one senior government official told The Financial Gazette yesterday.

Zimbabwean government officials also tried to make much of Wade’s disclosure he would contact British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to brief him on his talks with President Mugabe.

Brown has said he will not attend next month’s EU-AU summit in Lisbon after Portugal said it would invite President Mugabe.

The quarrel has threatened the entire summit, which other governments on both sides are anxious to hold.

President Mugabe has strongly resisted all previous attempts to bring the Zimbabwean crisis to a broader international forum. He has relied on Mbeki to use South Africa’s seat on the United Nations Security Council to keep Zimbabwe off the UN agenda.

On the sidelines of the last UN general assembly in September, President Mugabe angrily rejected a proposal by secretary general Ban Ki-moon to send a UN envoy to Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian and rights situation in the country.

The meeting was held just days after ZANU PF and the MDC had agreed on Constitutional Amendment 18, and President Mugabe told Ban this was evidence the SADC mediation was enough and no international intervention was necessary.

President Mugabe would hardly have been pleased last month when Wade called him "a bad lawyer with a good cause", suggesting he had used the wrong methods when trying to correct historical wrongs. But President Mugabe said yesterday Wade was "family".

His involvement in Zimbabwe will however exacerbate his rivalry with Mbeki, which was evident in the West African’s responses to questions from journalists yesterday.

Wade is a critic of Mbeki’s leadership on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, and has always tried to dilute Mbeki’s influence on the continent.

Last week, Mbeki cancelled a visit to Dakar, citing a clash with the Commonwealth summit in Uganda.

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