One sometimes wonders whether President Thabo Mbeki is driven by demons or whether he is motivated by a perverse desire to humiliate his most loyal apologists - or both. Early last week Business Day published a letter by Essop Pahad's special advisor, Tony Heard in which Heard spoke of his "unshakeable belief that mediator Thabo Mbeki has, more than anyone else, pushed Zimbabwe, be it quietly, towards a return from deepening hell." He suggested that Mbeki was secretly working away to resolve the crisis. "Yes, events in Zimbabwe are awful and unacceptable, but stay tuned. Diplomacy takes time."

A couple of days later Mbeki gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which he said that the Mugabe regime (or rather, the "people of Zimbabwe") needed to be given "space". He added that there was no need for the United Nations to observe the run-off of Zimbabwe's presidential poll. The foreign observers handpicked by the Mugabe regime to monitor the first round, he said, were perfectly capable of performing this function a second time around. He implied that anyone who thought differently was a racist.

This statement flies in the face of the request by MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, for the poll to be supervised by international observers led by the UN. It also happens to be in almost complete conformity with Zanu-PF's line on the matter. The government controlled Sunday Mail (Harare) reported yesterday that indications were that the Zanu-PF government would not bow to demands for international supervision of the poll, "and only the AU, SADC, countries from Asia and a few selected European countries would observe and monitor the elections." The article quoted the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Publicity, George Charamba as saying:

"The Zimbabwe case illustrates perfectly that Africa and the Third World are capable of delivering a clean poll. The British and Americans cannot accept the results of the just-ended harmonised polls and at the same time claim any inadequacies in any African observation and election monitoring. They cannot accept the result and disparage the agency that made that result possible."

On Friday Mbeki travelled to Harare for a meeting with Mugabe. Once again he was photographed walking hand-in-hand with Mugabe with a rather contented expression on his face. The Herald (Harare) led its Saturday edition with the equally pleased headline "President meets Mbeki." The newspaper described Mbeki's itinerary as follows:

"President Mbeki arrived at the Harare International Airport yesterday morning where he was met by President Mugabe, senior Government officials, service chiefs and diplomats before proceeding to State House. The two leaders held closed-door talks for about three hours before President Mbeki visited the South African Ambassador's residence in Highlands... President Mbeki returned to State House for a brief meeting with Cde Mugabe before departing for the airport, where he was seen off by the President, Defence Minister Cde Sydney Sekeramayi, Cde Goche, State Security Minister Cde Didymus Mutasa and service chiefs."

The Mock Turtle said that "No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise." So what was the purpose of that three-and-a-half hour meeting? Rescuing Zimbabwe "from hell" or strategising how best to turn up the heat on the opposition?

The world's most disgusting leaders?
Our president's international reputation has certainly descended a long way over the past decade. On June 4 1999 the New York Times ran a profile of Mbeki just after his election as South African president. Mbeki, it claimed, "is someone who has no military background, is an able administrator and repeatedly pledges himself to democracy and to fighting corruption even in his own party...If Nelson Mandela is the George Washington of this new democracy... then Mr. Mbeki is its John Adams. Like Adams, he is small, sharply intelligent, visionary, reflective, sometimes tart-tongued, and an adept back-room fighter."

On Wednesday last week (May 7) that same newspaper published a column by Thomas L. Friedman which presented a somewhat less flattering view of our president. Friedman wrote: "I would say there is no more disgusting leader in the world today than [Robert] Mugabe. The only one who rivals him is his neighbour and chief enabler and protector, South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki.... If South Africa's Mbeki had withdrawn his economic and political support for Mugabe's government, Mugabe would have had to have resigned a long time ago. But Mbeki feels no loyalty to suffering Zimbabweans. His only loyalty is to his fellow anti-colonial crony, Mugabe."

Lies, damned lies, and government denials
Last week the lawyers for the suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, documented - in great detail - how he had been defenestrated for refusing a government order to desist from executing an arrest and search warrant against National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

The warrants had been issued on September 10 and 14 2007. Pikoli informed Mbeki of their existence in a meeting on September 15, and had met again with the president on September 16.

On September 17 Mbeki sent an urgent letter to the Minister of Justice, Brigitte Mabandla saying that he "had been informed that the National Director of Public Prosecutions has taken legal steps to effect the arrest of and preference of charges against the National Commissioner of the police service." He ordered her to "obtain the necessary information" from Pikoli regarding "the intended arrest and prosecution" of Selebi.

The following day (September 18) Mabandla handed over a letter to Pikoli demanding "all of the information on which you relied to take the legal steps to effect the arrest of an the preference of charges against the National Commissioner of the police service." She also stated that "Until I have satisfied myself that sufficient information and evidence does exist for the arrest and preference of charges against the National Commissioner of the police service, you shall not pursue the route that you have taken steps to pursue."

On September 19 Pikoli wrote back to Mabandla to say that it would not be possible to provide "all the evidence" on this matter as this "would severely prejudice the intended criminal prosecution." He added that any instruction not to pursue the arrest and prosecution of Selebi "would be unlawful" and a breach of the Constitution and NPA Act.

Four days later Pikoli was brought before Mbeki. He was told to resign, and after his refusal to do so he was suspended. According to Pikoli Mojanku Gumbi, Mbeki's legal advisor, requested Pikoli's replacement, Moketedi Mpshe, "to apply for the cancellation of the warrants."

In an affidavit presented to the Ginwala Enquiry Pikoli stated that "my suspension was not the result of the many complaints pressed by Government in its submissions. Rather, it was the direct result of the fact that the NPA under my direction had obtained arrest and search warrants against Mr Selebi."

So where does this leave all the explanations government initially presented for Pikoli's suspension?

On September 24 "impeccable sources" told The Star's Jovial Rantao "that Mbeki took action against Pikoli because the Scorpions had been found to have engaged in illegal intelligence-gathering activities that led to the Browse Report, which claims presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma's campaign is being funded by African heads of state."

On September 27 Mbeki himself told the SABC that he believed "his decision to suspend Vusi Pikoli was the best way to deal with the conflict that had arisen between Pikoli and the Minister of Justice, Bridget Mabandla."

After it emerged that a warrant had been issued for Selebi's arrest shortly before Pikoli's suspension government said that these two matters were in no way related. On October 1 2007 the GCIS issued a statement in which it "categorically" denied that the suspension of the Pikoli "was meant to protect the National Commissioner of Police, Mr Jackie Selebi, as there would be no basis for the President to protect the commissioner."

Gumbi herself told the press in January this year that, "The assumption that Vusi Pikoli was suspended because of the investigation into the National Police Commissioner is completely wrong."