Thabo Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki said this week that he has every confidence in Zimbabwe’s ability to hold free and fair elections, and that the country’s new electoral law is the first to adhere to SADC’s principles and guidelines governing democratic elections.

As President, not only of the most powerful nation within the SADC group, but also the nation which chairs the SADC organ on defence, security and politics, and which for this reason is to head the observer mission to Zimbabwe, his comments deserve the most serious attention.

President Mbeki is quoted as saying: “I have no reason to think that anything will happen … that anybody in Zimbabwe will act in a way that will militate against the elections being free and fair.” Asked how this was possible given that Zimbabwe was already contravening SADC’s new electoral regime, he said: “I don’t know what has happened in Zimbabwe which is a violation of the SADC protocol. As far as I know, things like an independent electoral commission, access to the public media, the absence of violence and intimidation … those matters have been addressed.