Zuma's reaction 'just plain embarrassing'

A Business Day editorial points to the fact that Zimbabwe's economic recovery which was fragile at best could be derailed again. That's if the new government that President Robert Mugabe will soon put together does what the pessimists expect, aggressively pursuing its strategy of seizing control of foreign firms, and possibly reintroducing the Zimbabwean dollar. 'It is too early to tell for sure what the new Zanu-PF government will do, but a party that has been that shameless about manipulating the electoral roll seems unlikely to hold back. The newspaper notes that a rethink of the South African Government's bizarre response to the poll is also necessary. 'Polite but chilly acceptance of a crooked election result is one thing; gushing praise is quite another. It is hard to believe that the "profound congratulations" that President Jacob Zuma felt he needed to send to Mr Mugabe were really essential in the interests of regional stability. Not even all of his African counterparts agreed with Mr Zuma's stance - less than enthusiastic noises have been heard from Botswana and Nigeria, for example. And distinctly unenthusiastic noises have come from the US, the UK and Europe. All have indicated that they consider the Zimbabwean election to have been a sham, and have urged that the irregularities, violations and lack of transparency be investigated. Our president doesn't seem to see the problem. That he doesn't is just plain embarrassing.' Full Business Day editorial