Response to President Mbeki's alleged attack on President George W Bush on Zimbabwe: Call for disclosure

I have today written to President Thabo Mbeki requesting him to release publicly, the four-page letter he allegedly wrote to President George W Bush criticising the United States "for taking sides against President Robert Mugabe's government and disrespecting the views of the Zimbabwean people."

Reports of the existence of such a letter surfaced in the Washington Post (May 28 2008) column by Michal Gerson headlined "The Despots' Democracy'. The dispatch and receipt of this letter has been confirmed by the United States Embassy in Pretoria, but knowledge of its existence has been denied by the South African President's spokesman.

I believe it is in the best interests of South Africa's battered international image and the restoration of our President's position as an impartial mediator in Zimbabwe that he both release the letter and elaborate on its contents and intentions and context.

It is with deep dismay that we note that the columnist, Michael Gerson, concludes that "South Africa - of all places - sides with the despots."

I have also tabled parliamentary questions to the President to verify both the existence and the contents of his letter to President Bush. I look forward to an early and forthright response from the Presidency in this regard.

[A copy of the letter to President Mbeki follows below.]

Mr TM Mbeki 
President of the Republic of South Africa 
The Presidency 
Private Bag X1000 
Pretoria 
0001

Dear President Mbeki

Your letter to President George W Bush on Zimbabwe

As you are doubtless aware, Michael Gerson, writing in the Washington Post on May 28 2008 (copy enclosed for ease of reference) avers that you addressed a four-page letter to President George W Bush of the United States allegedly castigating him for "taking sides against President Robert Mugabe's government and disrespecting the views of the Zimbabwean people"

The same column claims that you stated that Zimbabwe was "none of [America's] business" and in the words of an American state department official, you urged President Bush to "butt out, that Africa belongs to [you]."

I also note that your spokesman, Mr Mukoni Ratshitanga advised the media that he "had no knowledge of Mbeki's letter to Bush." (Cape Argus May 29, 2008). This is contradicted by a statement from the United States Embassy in Pretoria who, in fact, confirmed that President Bush received such a letter.

With respect, I believe it is both in our national and international interest that you release the contents of the letter in full since selected elements of it have already appeared in the public domain. It might be that the reports are both sensationalised and partial and do not adequately, or in context, convey the views you expressed to President Bush on behalf of South Africa.

I would be grateful, therefore, if you would consider publishing the letter in full so that this matter can be properly and fully understood.

With kindest regards

Yours sincerely

TONY LEON MP

ENDS

This is the text of a statement issued by Tony Leon MP, Democratic Alliance spokesman on foreign affairs, May 29 2008