South Africa Shouldn’t Have to Go Tougher on Mugabe

In the wake of the recent victory of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe elections, African nations--particularly South Africa--have come under increasing pressure from the West to harshly condemn his regime. Yet despite South Africa’s move Tuesday to join in the mild sanction of suspending Zimbabwe from a coalition of mostly former British colonies, South African President Thabo Mbeki can be expected to continue his “softly, softly” approach.

However much criticism Mbeki comes under for going too easy on Mugabe, he has his reasons. And punishing long-suffering South Africa would only plunge it into further misery.

Before turning up the heat on South Africa, the U.S. and the European Union should look at Zimbabwe from a different perspective. In the welter of denunciations of Mugabe, few have acknowledged that during the long struggle to dislodge Zimbabwe’s predecessor state--the white minority regime of Rhodesia--he was viewed as a plausible alternative to his Soviet-backed competitor, the late Joshua Nkomo. One leading British diplomat of the day said that “Mugabe’s victory was the best thing that could have happened” because Nkomo “would have let the Russians in.”

Just as the Cold War helps explain why Islamic fundamentalists once were supported by the West in Afghanistan, the same reasoning was used to favor Mugabe. Washington and London may have forgotten this, but South Africa hasn’t. Many there wonder why this is now being ignored.

During the Cold War era, Mugabe’s party was a stiff and stern critic of the African National Congress, which Mbeki now heads. At the time, Mugabe was aligned with one of the fiercest political opponents of the ANC. And although relations between Mugabe and the ANC during the anti-apartheid struggle of the 1980s were proper, they were certainly far from the picture of boon comrades that is too often portrayed in the West.

One must also bear in mind that South Africa’s ANC--and a number of other ruling parties in the region--hold no love for Mugabe’s opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, because it has made alliances with opposition forces in South Africa. Despite the West’s support of the MDC, it is understandable that South Africa’s Mbeki would not favor those allied with his political opponents.

The ANC, like many parties in the region, looks with suspicion at the “Rhodesians” backing the MDC, especially because of their all-too-eerie resemblance to the whites in South Africa’s opposition.

The West would be well-advised to back off pressuring Mbeki to become involved in efforts to more harshly sanction Mugabe. It is too much to ask that the ANC provide aid and comfort to a movement in Zimbabwe that--if assisted to power--would then help the ANC’s political foes in its own country.

In fact, many South Africans believe conservatives in Washington are predisposed to eroding the influence of the ANC because of its closeness with the South African Communist Party.

Instead of pressing South Africa to further ostracize Zimbabwe, the West should bolster South African leader’s approach--which reportedly includes calling for a government of national unity. Punishing South Africa would be a wrongheaded policy.

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Gerald Horne, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is author of “From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and The War Against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980” (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).