Brian Raftopoulos

The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) 2007 mandate to South Africa to broker an agreement between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change should be viewed as an extension of the "quiet diplomacy" that has been the hallmark of the South African and SADC approach to the Zimbabwe crisis since 2000.

"Since the fateful events of March 11 to 13 and the enormous amount of media attention that surrounded them, I have read numerous reports about the brutality of the state’s response to a peaceful public gathering. Yet the one that has remained fixed in my mind is an SMS I received from MDC secretary general Tendai Biti the day after his release," writes Brian Raftopoulos.