A diplomat who could yet be the British Obama
Paul Boateng, our man in South Africa, dismisses comparisons with the American presidential contender. But Tim Walker says he has unfinished business in Westminster
Boateng was the first black minister of Her Majesty’s Government and subsequently the first black member of the Cabinet, but, for all that he has achieved, he says he still does not consider himself to be a part of the establishment. He seems endearingly self-conscious about the trappings of office: I suspect he volunteers to come to see me at my hotel because he is mindful of quite how opulent his residence in the town might seem (or indeed his winter residence in Pretoria). There is, incidentally, talk of the FCO ‘downsizing’ the High Commissioner’s accommodation but this, he says, is not a matter for him.
He is rumoured to have used the residences as venues in which to bring together bitter adversaries in the Zimbabwe crisis. He will say only that British diplomatic properties all over the world have ‘a proud tradition as forums for debate and negotiation’. That there has been precious little of the latter on Zimbabwe ‘saddens and frustrates’ him. In the face of President Mugabe’s hectoring, he has been determined to make Britain’s voice heard on the issue throughout the country and beyond. It has not been easy.
‘Last year the British taxpayer spent £40 million providing humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe. There are — and this is a conservative estimate — 500,000 Zimbabweans living in Britain and they are coming all the time to MPs’ surgeries to express their concerns about what is happening in their homeland. Britain is entitled to a point of view.’
He says that Zimbabwe is ultimately an African problem and it therefore requires an African solution. He is ‘disappointed’ that the member countries of the South African Development Community (SADC) have not done more to fight for a free press and freedom of assembly. ‘These are not principles that the villains in the West — as Mugabe likes to portray us — are trying to impose and this is not a matter of a former colonial power trying to throw its weight around. These are the SADC’s own principles.’
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JohnC
March 13th, 2008 12:52pmYou amaze me this man ranting and bullying in Westminster and general aggressive manner pushed Blair to get rid of him with the juicy post and finacially lucrative number in South Africa is more akin to me of any "fine upstanding African Dictator" than a Liberal minded Western Democrat.
Max Kaye
March 14th, 2008 6:43pmCan't we send this highly experienced ambassador somewhere else - so long as it's far, far away?
Woody
March 14th, 2008 8:01pmBoateng!What has this man done in Africa but turn out to be just backing Mbeki and other African "leaders" in refusing to tackle the tyrant Mugabe. While Britain pays out millions to feed Zimbabwe's hungry blacks millions of hectares of arable land are deliberately left idle when they could be growing wheat and maize. And all our ambassador can say is" it's and African problem". Talk about the white man's burden!
RogerR
March 16th, 2008 5:12pmAn oleaginous creep. Just the man to take the post Blair once held.