President Mbeki put his credibility on the line on Friday by firmly predicting that over the next year the Zimbabwean government and opposition would resolve all their differences, and that lasting peace would come to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Burundi.
Mbeki is involved in efforts to resolve all three conflicts. He made the predictions at the end of the Africa summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Durban.
He also predicted that the negotiations to resolve the war in Sudan would be concluded and there would be an agreement in Liberia to bring together all the political forces now fighting at the gates of the capital Monrovia.
These agreements would mean Africa had made advances on those issues of peace and stability which everyone agreed were critical for the future of the continent, Mbeki said.
Zimbabwe was not formally discussed at all at the summit and WEF officials conceded they had deliberately kept it off the agenda because they did not think any discussion on it would be constructive.
But Mbeki nonetheless issued his firm predictions.
Mbeki was asked afterwards if he was basing his optimism on some breakthrough in the mediation effort he is conducting between Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF government and the opposition MDC but he refused to comment.
On the surface Zimbabwe seems very far from peace with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai now facing a second charge of treason after organising a national strike last week.
On the DRC, where Mbeki has brokered various peace deals but where ethnic fighting still rages in the Ituri region on the Uganda border, Mbeki said that within the year there would be a transitional government and peace.
In Sudan, Mbeki said there would be a conclusion this year to the negotiations to end the civil war between the government and southern rebels, which have now become thoroughly bogged down.
In Burundi, where South Africa has brokered a peace deal, but where two armed Hutu rebel groups are still fighting the Tutsi-dominated government, Mbeki said that the peace process would continue, leading to democratic elections in just over a year.