SA finally finds its voice on Zimbabwe and Mugabe rule

The Times Editorial: Our government finally appears to be getting tough on Zimbabwe's long-serving authoritarian president. Despite making all the right noises after he took over the presidency from Thabo Mbeki, President Jacob Zuma failed, at least publicly, to depart significantly from his predecessor's "softly softly" approach to dealing with President Robert Mugabe.

As a result, many Zimbabweans, who have endured years of misrule under the 87-year-old president - as well as under the increasingly strained "unity" government of his Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change - remain sceptical of Pretoria's claim to be an honest broker.

Mugabe and his acolytes, who control the police and military, have sidelined Tsvangirai at every turn, failing to consult him on key appointments, frustrating the work of his finance minister and arresting his supporters - even his drivers and bodyguards - on spurious charges. Of late, Mugabe has been threatening to call an early election despite the fact that a new constitution is not in place, a precondition of the agreement underpinning the unity government.

Though Zuma's mediators have no doubt been working hard behind the scenes to resolve the differences between Zanu-PF and the MDC, the silence from Pretoria has been deafening.

Until yesterday, that is.

Marius Fransman, the deputy minister of international relations, took the unusual step of saying that South Africa would not allow its neighbour to hold an election until it had met the outstanding conditions of the power-sharing agreement, including the adoption of a new constitution.

Without mentioning Mugabe by name, Fransman said ''any calls for an election without the finalisation of the constitution-making process are in breach of the [agreement] as well as of the constitution of Zimbabwe . . . which gives legitimacy to the inclusive government".

You can't put it more clearly than that.