Return of the prodigal son
SOUTH AFRICA rolled out the red carpet for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe yesterday, receiving him with full honours on only his second state visit to the country.
The two governments agreed to lift diplomatic relations to the highest level of a bi-national commission that will be co-chaired by the two heads of state. Today Mugabe and his large delegation of ministers, officials and business executives are due to meet their South African counterparts to discuss ways of boosting trade and commerce between the two countries.
Mugabe and his officials are likely to get some frank advice about the need to dramatically improve the investment climate in Zimbabwe, to attract sorely needed capital to the near-bankrupt economy.
They will surely be told that their Indigenisation Act, which obliges foreign investors to cede at least 51 percent ownership in their companies to Zimbabweans, is discouraging investment. Mugabe seemed to anticipate that criticism yesterday, offering to soften the terms of the law for South African firms.
Pretoria seems to regard Mugabe’s visit as the return of the prodigal son. It’s been 21 years since his last state visit, partly because he fell out with former president Nelson Mandela.
Then the political crisis erupted inside Zimbabwe over Mugabe’s seizure of white farmland and the violent clash of his ruling Zanu-PF with the new Movement for Democratic Change party. That put him on the problem list of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Though many others disagreed, South Africa, the region and the continent deemed Mugabe’s and Zanu-PF’s victories in the 2013 elections as legitimate.
Since then Mugabe has generally been welcomed back into the fold in Africa, being appointed to chair both the SADC and AU.
It is doubtful that he has done enough to deserve all these honours. But Pretoria, southern Africa and the continent seem to have decided pragmatically that Mugabe, though 91, is not going away in a hurry and so they need to accept him as a reality.