Zanu and the PAC were backed by China, not the former Soviet Union, in the liberation wars against white governments in Southern Africa. The natural ally in South Africa of Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union is the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), not Mr Mandela's African National Congress. Ideology and history still serve as actual or potential irritants in relations between Mr Mugabe and Mr Mandela, and the parties which they led. Their perception is backed by reports in Zimbabwe's opposition press that Mr Mugabe was once miffed - to put it mildly - when an aircraft carrying Mr Mandela was given preference over a Zimbabwean plane in Lesotho at the coronation of King Letsie III. They point out that until Mr Mandela emerged from prison to reconfer international respectability on South Africa - a pariah state under apartheid - Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwe was the strongest black-ruled state in southern Africa. But observers here believe that Mr Mugabe's pique at being overshadowed by Mr Mandela since his release from prison in 1990 is another - if less central - element in the political equation. Their differences came to a head on Wednesday, when Mr Mandela publicly rejected Mr Mugabe's proposal for military intervention, made only hours earlier.ĭiffering tactical and strategic assessments may be important determinants in their opposing policies. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe favours military intervention to help the DRC's President Laurent Kabila contain a "foreign-backed" rebel offensive against his apparently floundering regime.īut President Nelson Mandela is firmly against military intervention, believing that, unlike diplomatic intercession, it will compound rather than solve the problem. Personal and ideological differences may underpin the divergent approaches to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by South Africa and Zimbabwe.