President Mbeki desperately needs to lay down the law on this to his African counterparts because, without real democracy, the Nepad initiative to empower Africa is doomed to failure.

The other keen unofficial observer of the elections in Madagascar and, particularly, Zambia, will have been President Mugabe.

After all, if the ruling parties in those countries can get away with irregular election practices, why shouldn’t an old hand like him, specially now that the head of the Zimbabwe defence force has said he will not allow an opposition candidate to come to power?

As for the threat to throw Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth, well he’d much rather rub shoulders anyway with the presidents of Libya and North Korea who provide him with oil and defence assistance and don’t meddle in his affairs.

All in all it’s a strange world we live in. Here we have Africa with all these wonderful people and huge business opportunities – if only we could rid ourselves of the politicians who fiddle while Africa burns and are too busy listening to their own music to notice the smoke!

Article reprinted, courtesy of MBendi Information Services, Africa's leading business resource website.
http://www.mbendi.com