I have news for the African heads of State who, every year without fail, insist on staging the farcical drama called the AU Summit in Addis Ababa.

A majority of them have no moral authority to express moral outrage over the perceived mistreatment of one of their own.

The principle of moral outrage is predicated on two assumptions: (1) That the person expressing such outrage has moral capital, and (2) that the mistreatment is unjustified.

Applying this principle to the episode earlier this month in which President Jacob Zuma boycotted the EU-Africa summit in solidarity with Robert Mugabe, reminds us once again of a tragic truth: African leaders are fatally delusional, for when Zuma acted that way, he must have been totally convinced about the righteousness of his stance.

Now just about the time of Zuma’s histrionics, the South African Ombudsman released a report that gave credence to accusations of illegal use of public funds to upgrade the president’s sprawling private residence.

This was not the first time that Zuma had been accused of corrupt practices. During the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, he was dropped as deputy president when a court, though acquitting him of corruption charges, found that his dealings were highly questionable.

But perhaps the most damning revelation of Zuma’s character happened during his trial for rape of the HIV-positive daughter of a friend of his. During court proceedings, the would-be president demonstrated a medieval attitude towards women in a country crippled by sexual violence and dubbed the “rape capital of the world.”

This was not the only shocking narrative in the trial; in a country with the highest Aids statistics, Zuma showed comical and tragic ignorance of the disease.

Tragic because it was his type of ignorance that had fuelled the epidemic and comical because he proposed, as an HIV- preventive measure, hitting the shower immediately after sexual intercourse.

In the larger African political arena, Zuma has sided more with dictators than with the African people. When the people of Libya rose up against decades of Gaddafi’s tyrannical rule, it was Zuma who led a mission to broker a truce that favoured the tyrant staying in power.

Again with respect to Zimbabwe, Zuma’s diplomatic actions are geared towards support for Robert Mugabe’s egomaniacal dictatorship. Zuma has consistently failed to leverage the leadership of the biggest economy on the continent in support of efforts to deal with poor governance, theft of public money, rule of law and accountability.

Moral leaders

By contrast, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu became global moral leaders, lending their great moral authority to struggles for justice, democracy and equity in countries around the world.

Zuma’s action with respect to the Brussels summit becomes even more indefensible (or telling of his political philosophy) when we consider the circumstances surrounding Mugabe’s boycott of the same meeting.

The Zimbabwean leader, family and close associates had been slapped with travel sanctions by the EU in response to Mugabe’s violent crackdown on members of the opposition during an election that many observers believe was won by the opposition MDC.

However, the EU relaxed its travel ban, allowing Mugabe but not his wife to travel to the meeting in Brussels. Mugabe who wears, so to speak, his megalomania on his sleeve, refused to attend.

Would his attendance have made a qualitative difference there? Since he assumed power, Mugabe has shown only hostility to the struggle for reinstitution of democracy in Africa. His management of the Zimbabwean economy has all the positive aspects of an out-of-control train.

At conferences debating Africa’s future, his contributions are limited to throwing insults at the long-retired Tony Blair, the rest of the time being taken up by long naps.

Robert Mugabe’s attendance at the Brussels summit would have been a mockery of the struggle by African people to move Africa to the next democratic level.

In any case, Mugabe would have made no contribution of value at the summit. Therefore, Zuma’s Brussels protestation exemplifies the tragic futility of African leadership, people purporting moral authority in defence of the morally indefensible.

Tee Ngugi is a social and political commentator based in Nairobi