The challenge facing the MDC

The following comments highlight the challenge facing Zimbabwe's MDC in their quest for gaining power. I get the feeling that their route to State House, Harare is likely to be a rather longer one than the road to Raila Odinga's premiership.

According to Moeletsi Mbeki, President Mbeki's brother, "SADC has given ZANU-PF [Zimbabwe's ruling party] comfort to do what it is doing."

He said the MDC was not just a threat to ZANU-PF, but also to SADC as it was representative of civil society and most governments in southern Africa were "nationalist parties, created by black elites during the colonial era, who saw themselves as colonial equals. They see themselves as superior to the black masses."

Mbeki said SADC, of which Angola's MPLA government and South Africa's ruling ANC party were the regional body's power brokers, had been "ganging-up against the MDC coming to power" and they were unlikely to "take any action against Mugabe" at the summit.

He said the MDC was not just a threat to ZANU-PF, but also to SADC as it was representative of civil society and most governments in southern Africa were "nationalist parties, created by black elites during the colonial era, who saw themselves as colonial equals. They see themselves as superior to the black masses."