The Archbishop of Cape Town has called upon the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo upon Zimbabwe.In a statement released on April 22, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba also criticized the foreign policy strategy of President Thabo Mkeki, saying the South African leader’s efforts were failing the people of Zimbabwe.
The new archbishop’s statements on Zimbabwe mark a new era in church-state relations in South Africa, with a new generation coming to fore with less ties to the African National Congress (ANC).
While former Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane would challenge the ANC government’s health and development polices, critics charged he backed the government’s hands off policies toward the Mugabe regime.
"The plight of the people of Zimbabwe is heart-breaking,” Archbishop Makgoba said. “Already bruised, broken and crushed by oppression and economic hardship before the elections, they are now even more divided, despondent and, in many cases, hopeless than they were before.”
The failure of the Mugabe regime to release the results of the March 29 general elections was eroding trust in the electoral process, and setting the groundwork for violence as Zimbabweans “who have benefitted from Zanu PF rule are locked in fear of what may happen to them; those who support the opposition live in fear of retribution for voting against the government.”
Archbishop Makgoba said the Anglican Church “strenuously oppose[d] the sale and transport of weapons”: to the Mugabe regime as a “heavily-armed Zimbabwe would threaten peace, security and stability in southern Africa.”
He called “upon the Security Council of the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on its government. We appeal to the South African Government to support such an embargo. We will ask our sister churches in countries which are also members of the Security Council to urge their governments to do likewise,” the archbishop said.
He also chided President Mbeki’s efforts at mediation, saying it was “distressing to South Africans that our rulers, whom we know to be compassionate people, currently appear to many beyond our borders as heartless and unmoved by the suffering of Zimbabweans.”
While President Mbeki was constrained in his comments by his role as an “honest broker” the “failure to communicate our reverence for the dignity of every individual threatens the success of our diplomacy just as surely as would the perception of bias.”
“I appeal to President Thabo Mbeki urgently to seek creative ways of reaching out to our neighbours to reassure them that we care about them deeply,” Archbishop Makgoba said.
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