The problem in Zimbabwe connected to South Africa

This waggish post at A Fistful of Euros (a great Euro blog) about the future of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe and one-time challenger Morgan Tsvangirai says it all, in talking about the non-role that South African President Thabo Mbeki played:

Second, the regional approach to crisis resolution has failed i.e. leaving it to the Southern African Development Community. And it has failed because of Thabo Mbeki [Incidentally, I once heard a South African political comedian observe that you can't spell Thabo without Botha].

From a scientific point of view, that pair of sentences is carrying a boatload of baggage.