CCoouunnttrryy FFooccuuss PPaappeerr:: SSoouutthh AAffrriiccaa’’ss RReellaattiioonnss wwiitthh ZZiimmbbaabbwwee RReesseeaarrcchh SSuuppppoorrtteedd BByy:: European Union (EU) & the National Treasury of South Africa through the Conflict and Governance Facility (CAGE) • European Commission in Harare • Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) & Swedish Embassies in Harare & Pretoria • Irish Aid & Irish Embassy in Pretoria • Norwegian Embassies in Harare & Pretoria • Finnish Embassy in Pretoria • Olof Palme International Centre • Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA) • Southern Africa Trust This project was made possible through a partnership with SAT. The views expressed here in do not necessarily represent that of the trust or its associates. www.southernafricatrust.org This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the South African Liaison Office and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union Southern African Liaison Office © SALO 2009 Table of Contents Preface p. ii Foreword p. iii Introduction : A Decade of Diplomacy p. 1 Chapter 1 : The Current Conjuncture p. 17 Chapter 2 : The Historical Context p. 62 Chapter 3 : Foreign Policy Issues p. 88 Chapter 4 : Zimbabwe’s Impact on South Africa p. 120 Chapter 5 : The Driving Forces in South Africa’s Foreign Policy Formulation p. 139 SALO Country Focus Paper: South Africa’s Relationship with Zimbabwe - September 2009 i Preface This paper provides analysis and information on policy making processes in South Africa that pertain to Zimbabwe. It intends to stimulate deeper and more focused discussion on international and domestic policy options that will contribute to progressive outcomes from the complex crisis context of Zimbabwe and its impact on the region. The highly dynamic and complex situation in Zimbabwe has presented the research team with major challenges. It was begun in late 2007 and updated repeatedly as the situation rapidly evolved. Enormous effort has gone into releasing a paper that is up to date in its analysis of the changing conditions, and that also presents relevant and useful policy options and ideas on the way forward. While the context is continually shifting, SALO believes that the long term nature of the strategies and tactics we propose through this publication will still be relevant and effective. The Authors The paper was written and compiled by a Southern African Liaison Office (SALO) research team comprised of mostly Southern African academics, researchers and journalists. This team combined a review of a wide range of published and unpublished material with a series of focused interviews with key stakeholders and opinion leaders that laid a solid foundation for the perspectives that follow. These perspectives were further enhanced by roundtable discussions that took place as part of the policy dialogue events organised by SALO. About SALO The Southern African Liaison Office (SALO) is a non-governmental organisation that seeks to promote policy dialogue between civil society and governments, backed by research and advocacy, in the search for solutions to regional conflicts. Initially, SALO was focused exclusively on Zimbabwe, but is currently using similar techniques and principles to address a wider range of regional and international conflicts and governance challenges. Acknowledgements The material was reviewed by a reference group of individuals from a diverse range of sectors with direct experience of engagement on Zimbabwe. The research project was carried out with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and the National Treasury of South Africa through the Conflict and Governance Facility (CAGE), the European Commission in Harare, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Swedish Embassies in Harare and Pretoria, Irish Aid and the Irish Embassy in Pretoria, the Norwegian Embassies in Harare and Pretoria, the Finnish Embassy in Pretoria, the Olof Palme International Centre, the Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Southern Africa Trust. The views expressed in this paper are wholly those of the SALO research team and the people interviewed within, and are not necessarily the views of the donors. SALO Country Focus Paper: South Africa’s Relationship with Zimbabwe - September 2009 ii Foreword by Bishop Rubin Phillip Having been part of the lengthy processes leading to the publication you now have before you, I feel I can justifiably and wholeheartedly commend what I believe is an important, constructive and helpful distillation of SALO's work, so far, on Zimbabwe. We believe an essential step in the quest for the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe and the region is truth telling. Telling the truth strengthens the resolve of those who are working for peace and justice and helps disarm the perpetrators of falsehood and violence. Furthermore, it helps underline the heavy responsibilities of regional and international communities – of us all – for our fellows in distress. In situations where people are manipulated in the self-interest of rulers who employ deceit and fear for their own ends, cries of sovereignty ring hollow and the oppressed have the right to claim the attention of their neighbours. But what is the truth we have to tell? This, as you will read, SALO has diligently set out to discover and to share through rigorous research far back into the roots of history and conflict, political and economic, and through ever-continuing dialogues with all contemporary parties concerned. While SALO is a non-governmental organisation it enjoys good relations, based on long-standing friendships, with the South African government and the Tripartite alliance and with governments in the region and abroad through the diplomatic community. Its work interlinks with that of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum in stimulating public consciousness and debate through youth and media outreach programmes. It is dedicated to building international consensus on Zimbabwe thus avoiding unnecessary contest, misunderstanding and misuse of our precious and limited time. By enabling dialogue and debate, both private and public, amongst key government, civil society and diplomatic figures from the region and abroad SALO, all the time benefiting from the generous contributions of all concerned and involved, helps stimulate fresh thinking leading to bold conclusions. We thank the people of Zimbabwe who, at great personal cost, have remained committed to the democratic processes of law, peace and justice. Such fortitude is an inspiration for all of us. We pray with you that the darkness of oppression will soon be vanquished in the bright dawning of a new era. BISHOP RUBIN PHILLIP , September 2009 Chair of the SALO Board, the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum and the Solidarity Peace Trust SALO Country Focus Paper: South Africa’s Relationship with Zimbabwe - September 2009 iii Introduction: A Decade of Diplomacy – South Africa and Zimbabwe, 1999-2009 Kinshasa – September 2009: Change amidst Continuity The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) September 7-8 2009 summit in Kinshasa marked a decade of the regional grouping’s dealing with the consequences of one its founding member’s inability to change its leaders democratically. The meeting was important – especially regarding the relationship between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The 29 th SADC summit marked not only the handover of South African President Jacob Zuma’s chair to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s President Joseph Kabila, so soon after the former inherited it with his April election victory. It was also the first since the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU – sometimes labelled the Zimbabwe Inclusive Government – ZIG – or the Transitional and Inclusive Government of National Unity), a transitional modus vivendi between Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the party that had been trying to unseat it since its birth ten years earlier. The Kinshasa moment signalled ten years of relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe in which the foreign policy of the former was tested as never before. In those years Zimbabweans suffered grievously as their country grappled with the seemingly simple but intractable problem of democratically removing one man and his party from power. The decade found Zimbabwe slipping perilously close to the status of ‘hell on earth’ as thousands died of cholera, one of the world’s easiest diseases to prevent and cure. At its close, there seemed to be a slight possibility of accelerating the small amount of positive change in Zimbabwe that had been garnered from years of delicate diplomacy and internal collapse. When the GNU was initiated in February, there were about as many prophesiers of doom as there were of hope: as its six-month review was about to come up the balance remained about the same. 1 As a new decade begins it is apposite to conduct a review of South African policy making vis a vis its northern neighbour. This period in review starts with one event that contributed markedly to the beginning of the Zimbabwean crisis (if one takes the founding of the MDC on September 11 1999 as one of the catalysts of the ‘crisis’, given that it signalled a real oppositional challenge to the ruling ZANU-PF 2). These years have been marked by the label ‘quiet diplomacy’, but the process has definitely