Cablegate: South Africa

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SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA

Mbeki leaves the scene

Editorial in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (09/24) says:
"Mandela's successors do not maintain the pattern he established.
... Mbeki's obsession with racial issues is inseparable from what he
has done worst, maybe, for South Africa: the refusal to give the
population free access to retroviral drugs under the allegation that
HIV does not cause AIDS; to say the contrary meant fomenting
prejudice against blacks. ... Considering the nonsense that Zuma has
been saying about prevention of the syndrome, he does not seem to be
more informed than his rival. Mbeki's foreign policy was also
execrable. His administration was the major supporter of the longest
lasting African dictatorship, that of Robert Mugabe in neighboring
Zimbabwe. At the end of the day, Mbeki ended up mediating an
agreement of power division between Mugabe and the opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. In addition to that, in partnership with China,
South Africa helped to veto the debate about violations of human
rights in Myanmar. In short, Nelson Mandela did not deserve to have
a successor like Mbeki. Neither does his country deserve to run the
risk of having another autocrat replacing him."
Story

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