Like De Klerk … Jacob Zuma
Zuma had an exaggerated sense of South Africa’s standing in the world, Scott said as he revealed how the ANC leader had told other SADC leaders including Zambia’s Michael Sata to “leave Zimbabwe to me”.
“He’s very like De Klerk. He tells us, ‘You just leave Zimbabwe to me.’ Excuse me, who the hell liberated you anyway, was it not us? I mean, I quite like him, he seems a rather genial character but I pity him and his advisers.”
Zuma, who took over from former President Thabo Mbeki as the region’s point man on Zimbabwe where mediation efforts led to the formation of a power sharing government in 2009, is expected in Harare within days to discuss preparations for forthcoming elections.
Speaking to the UK Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, Scott appeared to put up a defence for President Robert Mugabe whom he says wants to leave power after 33 years at the helm.
“I think if you asked him he’d say it was enough. That’s what he said to us a few months ago. I said the way forward in African democracy is the way we do it in Zambia. He said, ‘I absolutely agree, I wish it would happen to me.’”
Asked if that meant losing an election, Scott replied: “Yes, and a smooth handover. I think he meant it, or he was toying with the idea of meaning it. He wanted to hear how it sounded, maybe. Or something.”
Scott went on to describe 89-year-old Mugabe’s persona.
“He’s a funny chap. He seems to doze off and then he suddenly laughs at a joke while in the middle of dozing. And very articulate, without a note, without a scrap of anything.
“He’s an Anglophone. He loves to give lectures on the English language, English weighing systems, English this or that. He was a teacher and so he taught himself all that.”
Zambian President Sata – whom Scott refers to as “the boss” – is known to be on friendly terms with Mugabe.
“I’m sure any good African nationalist admires Mugabe,” the vice-president added. “Racism in Zimbabwe is a serious issue. I was sent to school down there and it was like being in the Hitler Youth: the theories about black inferiority and this kind of stuff.
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