The US yesterday called on southern African governments to force President Robert Mugabe from power, saying it had dropped support for the troubled agreement under which he was supposed to share power with his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa, who has been touring the region to press its leaders to take a stronger stand against Mugabe, said in Pretoria that mediation efforts by the former South African president Thabo Mbeki had failed. "We think the facilitation is over. It led to a power-sharing agreement that is flawed," she said. "We think [Mugabe] has reneged on the principle of power sharing."
Frazer said Mugabe's attempts to blame the west for the cholera epidemic that had claimed more than 1,000 lives in Zimbabwe was evidence that he was "a man who's lost it, who's losing his mind, who's out of touch with reality".
Under the agreement signed three months ago, Mugabe was to cede a considerable amount of his power to Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, who was to be prime minister. But implementation stalled because Mugabe insisted on controlling the most powerful cabinet posts, including security and finance.
Frazer said Washington had been sceptical from the beginning about the power-sharing agreement but had bowed to South African pressure to give it a chance. "Let's acknowledge now that the power-sharing agreement hasn't worked," she said.
It was now time for the region's leaders to step in and tell Mugabe to go. "It is as easy as them coming together and saying to Mugabe: 'It's over'. He won't then have the cover of saying it is the west when his brothers say 'you are no longer our comrade'," she said.
Frazer said other governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) accepted that Mugabe was no longer a legitimate leader but were reluctant to take a firmer stand against him because it would lead to the total collapse of Zimbabwe, with serious consequences for its neighbours.
"We think the country is already in collapse. [SADC leaders] were hesitant to go against Mugabe because they did not want to see the whole thing fall apart, but it has fallen apart," said Frazer. "SADC is losing more of its credibility the longer this situation continues."