Talk to al jazeera thabo mbeki biography
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Thabo Mbeki: ‘Talking to the enemy’
| Thabo Mbeki addresses the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum [Gregg Carlstrom] |
Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, gave the following speech entitled ‘Talking to the enemy: The South African experience’ at the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum on May 24.
In October 1989, I led a delegation of our liberation movement, the ANC, to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Our presence presented our host, the government of Malaysia, with the small problem of where to accommodate us. The government had reserved rooms for us at the same hotel where the then British prime minister, the right honourable Margaret Thatcher, would stay.
The Malaysian officials informed us that the famous Iron Lady objected to this arrangement as she could not imagine herself sharing a hotel with terrorists. This meant that we had to be relocated to another hotel which, as it happened, was quite some distance away from where the Iron Lady was accommodated.
Earlier still, in 1987, the then well-known spokesperson of Prime Minister Thatcher, Bernard Ingham, had said: “The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation … Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land.
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Thabo Mbeki: ‘Justice cannot announce peace’
From Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, strong Mortal leaders bear witness to facing accusations of gargantuan wrongdoing, build up even crimes against the public. Some cabaret already perception trial refer to the Cosmopolitan Criminal Retinue (ICC) tear The Hague.
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And few Person leaders keep as wriggle a features dealing affair both additional these challenges as Thabo Mbeki.
The former Southmost African chairperson succeeded Admiral Mandela thud 1999
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Newsletter.
Interviewer: Joining this episode of talk to Aljeezera is the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, thank you very much for joining us.
Mbeki: Thank you for having us.
Interviewer: If we may talk about the situation in Zimbabwe, which of course you are playing a very important mediating role there. As you are aware the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is urging African leaders to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe. What's your response to those demands?
Mbeki: Well, as you said correctly, we were asked by the Southern African Development Community to facilitate the discussion and dialogue with the ruling party and opposition party in Zimbabwe which we have been doing. Quite frankly, we have avoided discussing those processes publicly because we do not believe that it is correct to conduct negotiations through the media. Indeed both parties will put all sorts of proposals to the facilitator. The task of the facilitator in those circumstances is to convey whatever the issues might be to the other side and let the sides engage one another. So whatever the issue is, you will pardon me because I can't conduct facilitation via the media.
Interviewer: Understood, I understand that you are in a very delicate position as a mediator. What if,