Over the weekend South African President Jacob Zuma hosted a small group of other African leaders, representing the African Union to try and kick start prospects of a ceasefire in Libya.
It is worth noting that since the civil war started in Libya President Zuma has been to that country no less than two times.
In all of his visits, Zuma emerged empty handed in as far as answering the key demand by the NATO-backed rebels for there to be a ceasefire.
The Benghazi-based council has stated in categorical terms that before there could be any negotiations of any kind with Tripoli, Colonel Ghaddaffi and his family would have to leave not just power but Libya as well.
Ghaddaffi has lost all his legitimate claims to the leadership of Libya.
He has sent warships to attack unarmed civilians who had looked up to him for protection, sent his heavily armed thugs to destroy entire cities and vowed on television that he would show no mercy to the people of Benghazi for having dared to question his authority.
It was after he and his son Saif Islam had set their eyes on Benghazi that NATO entered the fray to avert what was no doubt going to be bloodshed comparable to massacres of Burundi and Rwanda in 1994.
At the time, the African Union was nowhere to be seen.
There is no doubt that since they started carrying out the mandate as set out by the United Nations Security Council resolution 1973, mistakes have been committed. There can never be an excuse for bombs falling on civilian sites. But that is the nature of war, especially in a war where civilians are often used as human shields as Ghaddaffi’s forces have so often done since this conflict has done.
What is important is to underscore the fact that that notwithstanding, the arrival of NATO has saved the lives that would otherwise have been finished off by Ghaddaffi.
It is therefore cowardly for Zuma, hiding behind the veil of the African Union to now seize on such mistakes and turn around to say NATO is killing the Libyan civilians while conveniently not admitting the fact that many lives have been saved by the same NATO presence.
In a vague communiqu├® produced at the meeting he chaired yesterday, Zuma says Ghaddaffi has agreed not to be a part of the negotiations.
It does not get any crazier than that. The issue has never been that Ghaddaffi is a part of the negotiations or not. Rather it has been that Ghaddaffi should leave not just power but the country as well before any negotiations can start.
That is what Zuma should face up to.
Like his countryman, former friend and predecessor Thabo Mbeki, Zuma has so far proved incapable of neutrality in as far as African conflicts are concerned.
May be that is because over the years Ghaddaffi poured a lot of money into the ANC which Zuma heads today.
But that cannot be an excuse to leave such a ruthless butcher in a position where he will be able to continue to kill his own people.
That is a message that, as Africans, we cannot afford to send to other errant leaders; Zuma has clearly shown himself unable to be a neutral intermediary.
His concern, which he is unable to hide, is that Ghaddaffi should ultimately emerge as the leader of Libya.
In other words, Zuma wants the status quo to remain.
That cannot be allowed.
If he and the African Union have any leverage over Ghaddaffi they should use it to convince him to leave power, by telling him in clear terms how he has lost the moral authority and legitimacy to continue in any position of power in the new Libya that is fast shaping itself out.
It is not enough to say he will not be at the negotiations.
He should leave power, and nothing less.
Only then would the rebel fighters based in Benghazi find a reason to engage with representatives from Tripoli in mapping the way for the new Libya.
From the look of things, the African Union is too eager to regain the relevance they lost when they failed to protect the Libyan people against Ghaddaffi’s butchery.
That as a group the African presidents see nothing wrong in trying to redeem themselves and their club at the price of the lives of the people of Libya goes a long way to demonstrate just how low the African Union has ebbed.
