In the absence of Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa, who suffered a stroke just prior to the recent African Union Meeting in Cairo, Botswana has step in and become the leading African nation standing up to Mugabe.
Announcing it will boycott the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting if Mugabe is invited. This is important because Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s leader was appointed by SADC to serve as the mediator between Mugabe/Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai/MDC and has largely been seen as biased towards Mugabe.
Now Botswana is putting more pressure on the rest of Africa and Mbeki. If SADC does not recognize Mugabe by inviting him to its August meeting it would be a huge event. Not holding my breath — but Botswana is trying to lead SADC and Africa against Mugabe.
Levy Mwanawasa remains in a Paris hospital nearly a month after the AU meeting or no doubt he would be leading this move.
