McKinnon was re-elected for a second four-year term on Friday.
“To force a vote about the appointment of the Commonwealth secretary-general, as has just been done in Nigeria, is unprecedented. Not surprisingly, Mr Don McKinnon was re-elected with an overwhelming majority,” DA Africa spokesperson Graham McIntosh said in a statement.
“Sadly, it was President Mbeki who has again embarrassed South Africa by voting against Mr McKinnon. The underlying issue is Zimbabwe and, here again, President Mbeki has got it completely wrong”.
McKinnon said the last African nation which faced the possibility of expulsion from the Commonwealth, resigning to avoid that fate, was apartheid-era South Africa. At a Zanu-PF congress in Masvingo on Saturday, Mugabe said that he would resign rather than face the indignity of expulsion.
“Both (former South African Prime Minister Hendrik) Verwoerd (who removed South Africa from the Commonwealth) and Mugabe denied democratic rights to their citizens and both believed in a poisonous mix of nationalism, racism and indigenisation, which they enforced by the abuse of the rule of law,” he said.
McIntosh suggested Mbeki study what happened when the Commonwealth reacted to Verwoerd's South Africa. This might make him realise that, “just like on the Aids issue”, he was damaging South Africa's international credibility and its reputation for integrity.
If Mugabe insisted on leaving the Commonwealth, Zimbabwe would be welcomed back when his era was over. McIntosh said the DA hoped that South Africa would then sponsor Zimbabwe's application to rejoin the Commonwealth. – Sapa.
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