Mbeki played a role in the Zim mess

This sham of an election did not come as a surprise, not when you have a mediator who fails to call a spade a spade and takes sides like Thabo Mbeki.

Mbeki's parliamentarians in Cape Town can take hours debating the Israeli/Palestinian crisis, but the same amount of time is rarely spent debating problems facing their neighbour Zimbabwe. It is in that parliament where I first heard him coin the term quiet diplomacy in relation to Zimbabwe. It dawned on me then that the mediation process, assigned to him by SADC, would never see the light of day, not with him at the helm. We cannot be fooled by the lull in the March elections. The mere fact that results were withheld for over one month and the command center moved and ballot boxes kept in a secret location clearly demonstrates that if ever there was a solution prior to the elections it was half baked not comprehensive.