Our president's international reputation has certainly descended a long way over the past decade. On June 4 1999 the New York Times ran a profile of Mbeki just after his election as South African president. Mbeki, it claimed, "is someone who has no military background, is an able administrator and repeatedly pledges himself to democracy and to fighting corruption even in his own party...If Nelson Mandela is the George Washington of this new democracy... then Mr. Mbeki is its John Adams. Like Adams, he is small, sharply intelligent, visionary, reflective, sometimes tart-tongued, and an adept back-room fighter."
On Wednesday last week (May 7) that same newspaper published a column by Thomas L. Friedman which presented a somewhat less flattering view of our president. Friedman wrote: "I would say there is no more disgusting leader in the world today than [Robert] Mugabe. The only one who rivals him is his neighbour and chief enabler and protector, South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki.... If South Africa's Mbeki had withdrawn his economic and political support for Mugabe's government, Mugabe would have had to have resigned a long time ago. But Mbeki feels no loyalty to suffering Zimbabweans. His only loyalty is to his fellow anti-colonial crony, Mugabe."
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