Why do South African leaders keep silent while Robert Mugabe throws his country into the abyss?

There is a fascinating tie that binds African leaders who struggled against colonialism. It binds them together long after colonialism has ceased to become a rational explanation for poor governance, lack of education, incessant poverty and economic decline.

A case in point in South Africa’s relative silence as the brutal dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe ruins the lives of his countrymen. That bond of loyalty, which goes back to the days when the African National Congress and ZANU PF, fought against white dominated governments in their respective countries, seems so strong that South Africa’s current President Thabo Mbeki continually refuses to speak out against his colleagues lunatic behavior. This is despite the fact that nearly 3 million Zimbabweans have fled in recent years to South Africa! So much for South Africa as the model of economic prosperity and bastion of African democracy.