@ sunshine:
power-sharing as nice at is sounds tends to fall way short of its lofty ambitions in africa. look at the sudan, uganda, somalia, angola, the drc, and the ivory coast to name but a few. even south africa can never actually say that power was shared.
as we speak one of the 'successes' of the power-sharing phenomena, which is the drc, has the warlord former vice president seeking refuge in the residence of the south african amba**ador in that country. and similar to the ponte niore agreement where mabutu was allowed to leave the country for health reason, it is believed that it is the only way jean-pierre bemba can leave the country. it's either that or certain death. he could be on his way to portugal - which co-incedently was the home of the angolan government for years while the civil war in that country continued to savagely rape the livelihood of the people.
negotiations will be needed. but as politically astute SADC heads of state are, bob is even more so. so you have to tread carefully. angola, one of the parties our media thought would be a good negotiator, have recused themselves. why? well simply put - bob is not only as old as an elephant, he also has the memory of one.
president eduardo dos santos has been in power since the death of augustinho neto in 1979, and has in that time held stewardship over a country that was embroiled in a civil war africa should never forget. dos santos cannot say anything and neither can SADC.
i like the idea of a transitional government, but i can already see challenges in electing the best people to fill the required positions. do you then have two presidents and four deputies? do you restructure the governance system to better accomodate a critical ma** of like opinions, a consensus of sorts, across the board - a democracy of sorts? a transitional government yes, but also institutional restucturing that makes sure that whomever is in office has the support of the structures that they inherit. this structures will always work to serve their interests first, and what is needed is for this pattern of behaviour to be reversed. the one problem with transitional governments is that there is no sell-by date - they cease from being temporary initiatives and become perpetual governance structures that continue to serve those in positions of power. and a**igning sell-by or expiry dates on these transitional governments is a recipe for failure. the roadmaps that governments draw are always faced with delays and challenges. and it is naive to think otherwise.
i am of the opinion that mugabe must go - but is haste the most important issue here? SADC is not america and NATO - we do not remove heads of state and 'suggest' or 'place' an interim government. as africa we have had our fair share of being told who shall govern us. the people shall choose - and the people of zimbabwe have the ability and obligation to choose for themselves whom they want as their leader.
***DISCLAIMER: blaqsouljah was ignored as a kid by his parents, and was subsequently left in the care of tammy, the senile family pet - a cross-eyed pitbull. his opinions didn't count for much - and they still don't. so please feel free to ignore anything he says - he's retarded and he won't notice if you ignored him and just nodded your head at 20 second intervals.***
