Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has called on the Zimbabwean leaders to act in the best interest of their country and find a way to resolve the political crisis that has followed the disputed 2023 elections.
Mbeki was speaking to the state broadcaster SABC on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where President Emmerson Mnangagwa is meeting regional leaders in an attempt to soften their stance on Zimbabwe and ensure a watered-down final report on the elections.
Mbeki, who mediated the 2008 power-sharing deal between former President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said that the current situation in Zimbabwe was similar to what happened after the 2008 elections, which were marred by violence and allegations of fraud.
He said that the Zimbabwean parties agreed that the only way to react to that reality was to form a national unity government.
“It was a response to what had happened during the elections. In 2008, when Zimbabweans themselves could see that elections had not produced a winner, they got together for five years,” Mbeki said.
In 2008, Mugabe unleashed a reign of terror on opposition supporters, mainly in rural areas, after suffering his first-ever loss in presidential elections; recording 43.2% against Tsvangirai’s 47.9%. The results, which took a month to announce, were disputed and eventually led to a runoff that Tsvangirai pulled out of. Thousands of his supporters had either been killed, tortured, or disappeared.
Mbeki said that the leaders of Zimbabwe must act as leaders and ask themselves what is in the best interest of Zimbabwe. He said this is how he would have approached the issue if he was still involved in the mediation process.
Mnangagwa faces similar pressure to solve Zimbabwe’s governance crisis. Poorly managed elections, commandeering of state security agencies against the opposition, arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings have tainted hopes of the election getting international acknowledgement.
Regional body SADC, the UK, European Union (EU), AU and Carter Center have already indicated that it fell short of regional and international standards.
