WHEN NELSON Mandela lamented Robert Mugabe's "tragic failure of leadership" in Zimbabwe last week, the former South African president was keeping faith with the democratic ideal that inspired the antiapartheid movement he led. African Union officials currently meeting in Egypt would do well to follow Mandela's lead.
Majority rule had been the political demand of Mandela's African National Congress. Majority rule enabled South Africa to overcome the injustice of apartheid. And it is the principle of majority rule that Mugabe and his thugs are trampling in Zimbabwe as they batter and murder citizens for daring to oppose a president who once had the same liberationist prestige as Mandela.
Mandela waited a long time to decry the crimes of Mugabe, no doubt because the 90-year-old Mandela wished to remain true to a credo that has earned him justified respect.
After one five-year term as president, Mandela walked away from power in 1999, resisting any temptation to criticize his successor or other African leaders.
Mugabe's tragic failure is rooted in a refusal to do what Mandela did: to relinquish power. Mugabe may have been persuaded to retain power by younger members of his ruling clique, who fear losing everything they have stolen during his ruinous reign.
Even so, Mugabe has had 28 years in power; he had many opportunities to emulate Mandela. Instead, he recently declared that he would not be removed by the voters, but only by God.
Mandela is too much the loyal comrade to make explicit an implied exasperation with the current president of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki. But it is clear that Mandela has finally lost patience with Mbeki, who has repeatedly refused to say anything critical of Mugabe.
Maybe it is unfair to compare Mbeki to Mandela. There are not many Mandelas. But there are all too many Mugabes.
