It was not too long ago that South African President Thabo Mbeki was flattered locally and fawned upon abroad. On a visit to the United States in 2000 former Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, described him as "the Thomas Jefferson to Mandela's George Washington. He was the scribe who wrote the [African National Congress] charter and most of the present constitution. The only thing that worries me about him is that he's too much of a brain."

At around the same time the Mail & Guardian's Krisjan Lemmer introduced a "grovel award" as a kind of Olympic gold medal for the most estimable examples of toadyism towards ‘the chief'.

Eight years on and President Mbeki has been rejected by his own party at Polokwane, the local press is scornful, and it seems that world opinion too has turned entirely against him. "Well not entirely! One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders."

Or rather, there is one small but powerful constituency which continues to resist the prevailing wisdom, appreciates President Mbeki's interventions, and continues to sing his praises. As The Zimbabwean notes this week, "Zanu (PF) heavies and their supporters have been eloquent in their praise" for the South African president. The newspaper has even started a series to document these effusions.

Since the defeat of Zanu-PF in the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe officials from that regime have gone out of their way to acclaim Mbeki. In mid-April the government controlled Herald newspaper reported that Mugabe had "hailed South African President Thabo Mbeki for brokering the inter-party dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions. ‘I want to thank South Africa in a special way for the role it played in brokering the dialogue'."

At his presidential inauguration - following his victory in the one man run-off - Mugabe once against thanked Mbeki. "We are grateful to SADC, and the role of statesmanship played by President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC-appointed mediator of the inter-party dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations. Zimbabwe is indebted to his untiring efforts to promote harmony and peace."

On his return from the African Union summit in Egypt a few days later Mugabe once again praised Mbeki. The Herald reported that addressing "thousands of Zanu-PF supporters" at the airport on his return "Cde Mugabe said some countries were pushing for the removal of President Thabo Mbeki as mediator in Zimbabwe but the South African leader was doing a good job and the AU noted that and asked him to continue."

When the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, boycotted an early round of inter-party talks Mugabe admonished him for being disrespectful to Mbeki. The Sunday Mail (Harare) reported, "He [Mugabe] said President Mbeki had come all the way from his country to "help us find solutions to our problems and he is not even paid for that. What has happened today is a "show of utter disrespect. To say sorry to him is not enough." (July 6 2008)

Following a meeting of the G8 in July which called for a special UN envoy "to support regional efforts to take forward mediation between political parties" the Zanu-PF Minister of Information and Publicity, Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said "This issue is a non-starter. Why do they want to impose another mediator? President Mbeki has proved his mettle as an African statesman par excellence and so we will follow the AU and SADC position on this."

Following the South African engineered defeat of a UN sanctions resolution in the security council Ndlovu stated: "We would like to thank countries that supported us at the United Nations and we would like to tell them that we would not disappoint them as we would address our problems ourselves. We would like to thank President Thabo Mbeki, who is a leader par excellence as he has not yielded to international pressure and to the machinations of the West led by Britain and United States."

Earlier this month Mugabe once again praised Mbeki for his untiring efforts in the face of Tsvangirai's continued recalcitrance. He described the South African president as having the "patience of Job." "President Mbeki" he said, "is very patient, he is a very patient man indeed and I can tell you he is very patient.... Even the young professor who is with us here, Professor Mutambara (leader of the MDC) also loses his patience, the two of us lose our patience asi tozodzoka zvedu toti who are we when the facilitator is cool."

Last week The Herald reported that the Zimbabwean Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri had "applauded South African President Thabo Mbeki for the role he is playing in facilitating and mediating in the talks. ‘Allow me to point out and express my sincere appreciation and recognition of the role being played by South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki, which has seen a convergence of opinion which the nation hopes and trusts will lead to enduring peace in the country'."

There seems to be a school of thought in Zanu-PF that simple words of thanks and gratitude are not enough. In April this year The Herald published a letter under the heading "Mbeki deserves special honour." It stated, "President Mbeki needs to be specially commended and honoured by the whole Zimbabwean leadership and people for the sterling work that he has been doing in the past eight years." The writer called on Zimbabwe to say a big "THANK YOU" to this "gallant son of Africa." "The least we can do" it went on, "is name one of our roads after Cde Mbeki and give him the freedom of the City of Harare."

Clearly, Zanu-PF recognises qualities of statesmanship, altruism, patience and leadership in Mbeki that the South African (and Western) press have tended to overlook recently. Is this, one wonders, because our local media has become blinded to the merits of the South African president? Or is it perhaps because, as the The Economist put it in a leader this week, Thabo Mbeki, "has been trying to mediate an agreement that would in effect leave Mr Mugabe and his thugs in charge."

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