Dear President Mbeki

There is a crisis in Zimbabwe. Everyone recognises this now.

This week, the international community was united in its condemnation of the arrest and detention of Morgan Tsvangirai by the Zimbabwean security forces. Yesterday, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga described President Robert Mugabe as a dictator and an embarrassment to Africa.

You said nothing.

What will it take for you to acknowledge what is happening in Zimbabwe? How many more people must be detained, tortured or killed?

Since the parliamentary and presidential elections on 29 March, it has become clear that President Mugabe will do whatever it takes to stay in power. I refer to:

• The arrest of opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara;
• The halting of food aid to 100 000 children in MDC strongholds;
• Zanu-PFs systematic intimidation campaign, which has reportedly resulted in the killing of 65 MDC supporters and the displacement of 25 000 people;
• Rumours of an assassination plot against Morgan Tsvangirai;
• The intensified use of the state-controlled media as a propaganda arm of Zanu-PF;
• The arrest and intimidation of journalists, including three South Africans jailed for six months for being in possession of broadcasting equipment; and
• The detention of US and British diplomats.

These developments, added to the systemic flaws in Zimbabwean electoral law, remove any vestige of hope that the presidential run-off election on 27 June will be free and fair.

What are you in your role as mediator doing to ensure that the election reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people? How have your mediation efforts improved the situation in Zimbabwe?

The time for quiet diplomacy is well and truly over. It has served only to prop up a dictator and prevent real change in Zimbabwe. By appeasing Mugabe and endorsing every fundamentally flawed election in Zimbabwe, you are complicit in the tyranny that has befallen that country.

Now that you are starting to think about your legacy, you should focus on policy areas where you can make a real difference in the time you have left. Zimbabwe is one of them.

It is essential that you publicly call on President Mugabe to:

• Immediately halt state-sponsored political violence and intimidation of opposition parties;
• Release all journalists and opposition supporters currently detained by the security forces;
• Lift all restrictions on independent media, both domestic and foreign;
• Allow for the deployment of international electoral observers to Zimbabwe to monitor the presidential run-off election; and
• Reinstate the NGOs responsible for food aid in areas of need.

These measures, if implemented, will not ensure that the presidential run-off election is free and fair. But they may enable the will of the Zimbabwean people to triumph despite the systemic flaws in the electoral process.

As the President of the leading power in Africa and the appointed mediator in Zimbabwe you are in a position to exert considerable pressure on Mugabe to implement such measures. It is well within your power to lobby for Zimbabwes immediate suspension from the Southern African Development Community and the African Union. There is nothing stopping you from imposing targeted travel and financial sanctions on Zanu-PFs ruling elite.

Your perceived complicity with the Mugabe regime has done immeasurable damage to South Africas reputation abroad and to the morale of our people at home. I urge you to take this one last chance to signal to the world and the region that your government is committed to furthering democracy, not despotism, on the African continent.

Yours sincerely,
Helen Zille