TOM EATON: Fikile Mbalula, Clown-in-Chief, Defender of the House of Mugabe
'Dlamini-Zuma wasn't fudging - she told us that the Mugabes have a blank cheque, forever'
Fourteen years ago, as Robert Mugabe was doing to Zimbabwe what his wife allegedly does to South African models and waitresses, a press conference was called in Pretoria. At issue was South Africa's policy of "silent diplomacy", a plan dreamed up by Thabo Mbeki to enable Mugabe to steal two elections and effectively end democracy in Zimbabwe.According to Mbeki and his palace footstools, the policy was well on track: Mugabe would almost definitely cede power within a few years of his death, and then Zimbabwe could look forward to electing either Grace Mugabe or Grace Mugabe. As for the million Zimbabweans heading south, well, they were simply patriots eager to tell South Africans face to face how much they adored King Robert. The world's journalists, however, wanted clarity; and so, in March of 2003, they asked South Africa's foreign minister for the country's official stance on the deliberate destruction of Zimbabwe. The reply was succinct. "The problem with you," the minister said,...
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