Westminster blog

British diplomats in South Africa have had a busy few months, but this afternoon their problems were less to do with Robert Mugabe and more to do with Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown’s comments in parliament on Zimbabwe today included not one, but two embarrassing blunders, according to a foreign office source. Here are his words in full:

The Prime Minister: I have not only kept in touch with the President, Thabo Mbeki. I was also in touch on Sunday with the president-elect—that is, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma. I made it clear to him, and he supported the idea, that there would be 1,000 monitors from the ANC party offered to Zimbabwe, so that they, too, can play their part in the election. So it is not strictly the case that South Africa is not making available election observers or monitors; that is exactly what they are doing.

The first error is that Mr Zuma is not the president elect of South Africa; the election has yet to take place.

The second, much more serious error, is that Mr Brown incorrectly stated that the ANC would send 1,000 election monitors. Indeed, the ANC have already released a statement denying what Mr Brown claimed:

MEDIA RELEASE
ANC MEMBERS TO FORM PART OF SADC OBSERVER MISSION

The African National Congress has noted a report on Reuters suggesting that
the organisation will send a contingent of 1,000 people to observe the
Zimbabwean run-off elections.

The ANC wishes to correct this report.

The ANC will be sending observers as part of the 400-strong SADC observer
mission. The ANC’s contribution to this mission includes 14 Members of
Parliament and 15 others.

The ANC remains committed to contributing in whatever way it can, within the
ambit of multilateral institutions like SADC, towards a sucessful and
credible run-off election.

This appears to be a serious mistake at sensitive moment in the Zimbabwe crisis. Mr Brown must know that revealing the details of conversations with world leaders — elected or not — is a big blunder. Spreading misinformation about private conversations with world leaders is an absolute howler. I’m told that Mr Zuma is not happy, with some justification.

This error comes days after Mr Brown upset relations with the EU, Iran and the US by announcing sanctions that do not exist.

Some diplomats are beginning to see a pattern of unhelpful and distinctly undiplomatic interventions by the prime minister. It is not making their job any easier.