SA has been polite for too long. For over two decades, we have watched in disbelief the destruction of our neighbouring country, first by the late Robert Mugabe, whose land reform policies - basically beating white farmers off productive land and giving it to his cronies in Zanu-PF - were an unmitigated disaster.
Those policies crashed the economy, sent inflation to astronomical levels, left store shelves empty and devalued the currency to worthlessness. Mugabe's brutal repression and theft of elections displaced millions, many of whom poured south, putting added strain on a country that was itself struggling with negative economic growth, record unemployment and many governance challenges.
Former president Thabo Mbeki, ever the statesman, treated Mugabe with deference and diplomatic respect, even as it became apparent that his interventions were not bearing fruit.
He sent envoys to plead with Mugabe, and even brokered the 2008 power-sharing agreement when Zanu-PF refused to accept an election defeat. Fast forward to 2020 and it's the man who toppled Mugabe under whose watch history seems to be repeating itself.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has unleashed a Mugabe-like reign of terror. Prominent journalists, leading authors, unionists and other activists have been arrested or are in hiding.
About 20 people who organised an anti-government protest were arrested, among them award-winning author Tsitsi Dangarembga, who was shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize.
Journalist Hopewell Chin'ono is still in detention after being kidnapped, then charged with inciting violence.
He has since been transferred, in leg irons, to the notorious Chikurubi prison. President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent former minister Sydney Mufamadi and former National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete as envoys to Zimbabwe.
Unless Ramaphosa instructs his envoys to tell Mnangagwa in no uncertain terms that SA will not accept his behaviour and that Pretoria might use any weapon at its disposal - including targeted sanctions - to get the Harare administration to toe the line, this latest version of quiet diplomacy is bound to fail the same way Mbeki's did.
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