Khama reportedly told Mugabe that his policies were solely responsible for the collapse of his country’s economy and the resultant immigration crisis that – in part – has stoked xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Not phantom Western enemies or “uneducated Kalangas” in southern Zimbabwe who are genetically hard-wired to jump the border into South Africa. Mugabe himself is responsible for the mess, Khama said to his stunned peer’s face.
As we have repeatedly noted in previous editorials, the Old Boys Club that is Southern African Development Community (SADC), by form and function, has never been equipped to deal with evils within its ranks. As a body rising out of the Frontline States movement and geared primarily to fight apartheid, SADC was never equipped to introspect. By virtue of its beginnings, the organisation’s founding ethos was the protection and preservation of African liberation, a tenet that by necessity precludes the censure of errant state leaders. Peer review would come in later years, but the philosophy within the organisation was well entrenched, particularly with the tacit urging of long-serving regional leaders such as Mugabe, who had and has much to gain from a toothless peer review organ.
