Looking beyond Zuma and Mugabe

 It is never really a good time for a high-profile state visit to Zimbabwe. The economic and political crisis that started in the early 2000s has made official trips to that country a rarity, often mired in controversy. This week’s state visit by South African President Jacob Zuma is likely to be no different.

Zuma will visit the country this week to reciprocate Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's trip to South Africa in April last year – the first such state visit from Mugabe in over 20 years.

Zuma’s visit comes at a troubled time for the President and for the African National Congress government, which is facing strong criticism linked to state capture, corruption scandals and South Africa’s surprise withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

Having his picture on the cover of South African newspapers, greeting Mugabe on home soil in Harare, won’t do much to improve Zuma’s stature in some circles. However, South Africans with longer-term interests in economic growth and stability in the region are looking beyond relations between these two leaders.

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe reached a peak in 2007 and 2008, forcing economic migrants to leave the country. To avoid this from recurring, cool heads and positive engagement are required from the regional heavyweight, South Africa.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which mediated in the political crisis in Zimbabwe up until the 2013 elections, has enough on its plate and doesn’t really have the capacity to deal with any large-scale conflict in the region.

Clearly, it is no longer possible to turn a blind eye to the renewed crisis in Zimbabwe. The challenge would be to go beyond the justified outrage against misrule by Mugabe – and lately also Zuma.

Last week, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya announced that despite many warnings from international financial institutions, the government is going ahead with printing bond notes to help solve the liquidity crisis in the economy.

These notes have been widely rejected by the population. Prospects for a major cash bailout by the International Monetary Fund, in exchange for reforms like drastically reducing the number of civil servants, seem increasingly unlikely.

In addition, the battle over who will succeed the 92-year-old Mugabe is likely to intensify in the run-up to the party’s annual national conference in December.

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