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Lawson Mabhena News & Politics Editor
Mr Thabo Mbeki was once one of the most hated people in the world.

Ironically, while this was between June 1999 and September 2008 — his reign as president of the Republic of South Africa.

In fact, Mr Mbeki was not hated for what he was doing in his country, but for what he was not doing, in particular, what he was not doing about Zimbabwe.

This period was the height of an onslaught against Zimbabwe by Western countries led by the United Kingdom and United States.

The UK and the US had taken their disdain for Zimbabwe under late president Robert Mugabe all the way to the United Nations Security Council, where the two superpowers pushed a motion for the imposition of sanctions in 2008.

Russia and China vetoed the Western-backed UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The vote did not only stop the sanctions, but rendered them illegal.

Later, shocking reports were made of how former British prime minister Mr Tony Blair had in 2000 exerted pressure on South Africa in a bid to establish a military base to attack Zimbabwe.

In 2013, Mr Mbeki told Al Jazeera how Mr Blair sought to conscript the South Africans in a regime change military assault on Harare.

Mr Mbeki refused to support military intervention, instead pushing for talks to resolve the Zimbabwean political crisis, ultimately leading to the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on September 15, 2009.

The GPA led to the formation of the Government of National Unity.

Mr Mbeki has since carved his name in political science journals as a leading example in the implementation of “quiet diplomacy”.

Kuseni Dlamini, a scholar who has written extensively on Mr Mbeki’s approach to Zimbabwean issues, defines quiet diplomacy as “trying to influence the behaviour of others by secret negotiations or by refraining from taking a specific action”.

“Simply put, Pretoria is careful not to be seen to be throwing its weight around,” Dlamini wrote in “Is Quiet Diplomacy an Effective Conflict Resolution Strategy?”

Last week, Mr Mbeki was at it again.

He was holding “quiet” talks with political leaders in Zimbabwe.

The man has a penchant for trying to influence the behaviour of Zimbabwean politicians by way of secret negotiations.

Thabo Mbeki is no stranger to Zimbabwe. In this picture collage he is seen with President Mnangagwa during last week’s visit (top picture) and former president Robert Mugabe in 2008-2009 (above)

And he is hated for that, but this time by some Zimbabweans.

A section of Zimbabweans pushing for megaphone or gunboat diplomacy has taken to social media, where they are crying foul over Mr Mbeki’s “softly softly” approach.

Before leaving Zimbabwe on Wednesday last week, Mr Mbeki expressed confidence in Zimbabwe’s capacity to resolve its challenges and reiterated his support for processes aimed at addressing issues of concern.

During his two-day stay, Mr Mbeki met President Mnangagwa, MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, leaders of political parties involved in the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), the National Patriotic Front and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC).

By meeting all political actors as opposed to only holding talks with President Mnangagwa and Mr Chamisa, Mr Mbeki gave impetus to POLAD.

Launching POLAD in May, President Mnangagwa said it was a “platform designed to be a vibrant forum through which we proffer solutions to the challenges that confront us as a nation, through peaceful, open and transparent discourse”.

Broad-based dialogue without grandstanding is the way to go; that was the lesson from Mr Mbeki’s visit.

Zimbabwe’s problems are bigger than individuals.

Those who hate Mr Mbeki for endorsing broad-based dialogue have very short memory. The man is not on unfamiliar terrain. He has been there before and still produced results.

Even when he was cornered by journalists a couple of times last week, the experienced statesman and negotiator let out little about what was happening behind closed doors, his mission and principal.

Speaking to journalists before his departure, Mr Mbeki, who said he had come at the invitation of President Mnangagwa, promised to return in the next two weeks to continue his engagements with stakeholders that have requested to meet him.

“I have a lot of confidence in the leadership of this country, the collective leadership and coming together as they have done in the past,” he said.

“There is a lot of capacity, lots of capacity in the country to resolve all of these problems; all of these reforms that are needed whether it is political or economic, but we are listening, so we will come back later this month because people have left now to prepare for the Christmas holidays. We will come back and talk a bit more.”

When Mr Mbeki returns, we can expect more secrecy. Efforts to grandstand and push for talks outside of POLAD will also be futile.

There is no glory in grandstanding where the future of over 14 million citizens is at stake. The longer we take to find a solution to our problems, the deeper the pit becomes.

Good faith should be the order of the day. National interest should be the driver.

As Africans, we must stop being the global laughing stock by running to the West for solutions every time we have problems.

As Zimbabweans, we must stop running to the West to ask for economic sanctions against our own country.

Mr Mbeki is a believer in African solutions to African problems.

He is a Soviet Union-trained former freedom fighter and nationalist who joined South Africa’s ruling African National Congress at the age of 14, following the footsteps of his father, Govan.

He is a pan-Africanist and visionary. This is why he believes in Zimbabwe’s capacity to resolve its challenges, quietly.

Without making noise, broad-based dialogue must be given a chance. POLAD must be given a chance.