South Africa again rejected calls for tough action against Zimbabwe on Tuesday ahead of a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to press the issue. Blair is scheduled to meet South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating between President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition through quiet diplomacy. Britain and other Western powers have accused Mugabe of widespread human rights abuses and mismanaging the economy. British newspapers said Blair, who has urged African leaders to pressure Mugabe, might make another attempt to push Mbeki on Zimbabwe this week during a farewell trip to the continent. South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a speech to Parliament on Tuesday that a hard line on Zimbabwe would only backfire. "You must not push the country over the brink, you must pull it back from the brink. That is our approach," she said. Dlamini-Zuma said political dialogue will succeed only if Zimbabweans show they are serious about finding solutions to that country's crisis. "The success of President Mbeki's facilitation largely depends on the political will of the Zimbabwean government and opposition political parties to take Zimbabwe out of this crisis," she said in her budget-vote debate in the National Assembly.
However, the Inkatha Freedom Party's Ben Skosana told MPs in the House that Mbeki is doomed to fail as long as other parties - such as ordinary Zimbabweans, churches and the country's business community - are excluded. Joe Seremane of the Democratic Alliance said the South African government's lack of condemnation of the situation in Zimbabwe is regrettable. "Daily, thousands of Zimbabweans illegally enter South Africa in search of money and food to keep their families alive. The Department of Foreign Affairs should make it clear that they would not support a government that does this to its citizens," he said.
Mbeki, who successfully mediated in several conflicts on the African continent, has been criticised for being too soft on Mugabe and his increasingly authoritarian government. South Africa wields considerable power by having Africa's biggest economy and is seen as setting an example on democracy after decades of apartheid.