NEPAD doomed to fail if leaders ignore rogue rulers

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development was doomed to fail if founding leaders South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo did not get to grips with rogue leaders in their midst like Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

This was the view of the Zimbabwe Independent ahead of the G8 summit in Canada. The paper said G8 countries should not swallow the deception that African leaders had the Zimbabwe crisis in hand.

“Zimbabwe’s crisis meanwhile cannot be so easily swept under the G8 carpet. It is the elephant in the living room. It cannot be ignored. The humanitarian disaster that is already unfolding across the land is the direct product of bad governance, not drought,” the paper said.

“And this tragedy has been allowed to develop precisely because African leaders indulged President Mugabe by recognising his flawed victory in the presidential poll.”

Full cable:

Viewing cable 02HARARE1182, MEDIA REACTION G8 SUMMIT AND NEPAD; HARARE

If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS HARARE 001182

SIPDIS

AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND

SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR

JENDAYI FRAZER

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM

SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION G8 SUMMIT AND NEPAD; HARARE

¶1.  Under headline “NEPAD’s Zim quarantine a false

start” the independent weekly “Zimbabwe Independent”

warns the G8 countries meeting in Canada next month not

to ignore the crisis in Zimbabwe. Excerpts:

¶2.   “Remarks by the Canadian High Commissioner to

South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki reveal a worrying trend:

The G8 countries are preparing to swallow the

deception that African leaders have the Zimbabwe

crisis ‘in hand’ and thereby qualify for the US$64

billion on offer for trade and investment under the

NEPAD plan. . . The Canadian statement this week

signaled that collective self-deception about peer

review has become the official line. Zimbabwe as a

topic will be quarantined so its contagion does not

infect the NEPAD process even though the Zimbabwe

crisis itself is demonstrably infecting the region.

Statements following Mbeki’s visits to Oslo and

London this week confirm that nothing will be

allowed to get in the way of the NEPAD juggernaut.

The West wants an African success story and NEPAD,

they hope, is it.

“Zimbabwe’s crisis meanwhile cannot be so easily

swept under the G8 carpet. It is the elephant in

the living room. It cannot be ignored. The

humanitarian disaster that is already unfolding

across the land is the direct product of bad

governance, not drought. And this tragedy has been

allowed to develop precisely because African

leaders indulged President Mugabe by recognizing

his flawed victory in the presidential poll. If G8

leaders cannot see the contradiction between that

act of political dishonesty and NEPAD’s proclaimed

commitment to good governance, the project is

doomed from the outset. There will be no African

recovery, no renaissance until leaders like Mbeki

and Obasanjo get to grips with rogue rulers in the

midst. That means speaking out on human rights

abuses, lawlessness and economic sabotage. The G8

should make this clear. Looking the other way in

Canada is no basis for future relations between the

developed world and Africa.”

SULLIVAN

(12 VIEWS)