I did not expect much to come out of the Zanu PF and ANC high powered meeting still I never imagined the meeting would be such a total waste of time. Zanu PF leaders are over the moon, the meeting was a great success!
“The Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union Patriotic Front is indebted to the steeped bona fide pan-Africanist spirit which facilitated the convening of the inter-party dialogue with our sister revolutionary party the African National Congress (ANC),” wrote Dr Obert Mpofu, Zanu-PF secretary for Administration, who also chaired the meeting.
“This opportune turn to dialogue is a response to the generously misrepresented Zimbabwean crisis following the Zimbabwean Lives Matter social media trend which has become the cyber rallying point to project our country in terms of a deep-seated socio-economic and political crisis. This heightens the urgency to expose the concealed architecture of the dedicated attacks on ZANU-PF through a misnamed national crisis.”
Of course, Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential crisis with its economy in total meltdown and 34% of our people now living in abject poverty. The health and economic challenges brought on by the corona virus pandemic have only turned the tragic situation in the country into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. To end the crisis, Zimbabwe must end the curse of rigged elections.
What the ANC envoys should have done therefore was to look the Zanu PF leaders straight in the eyes and told them Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate and, for the sake of saving the nation from more suffering and deaths, the party must step down.
Of course, this was yet another wasted opportunity to deal decisively with Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections.
President Ramaphosa and his ANC leaders are being foolishly in cheering Zanu PF along as the party drags the Zimbabwe deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. Zimbabwe’s descend into hell has cause heart breaking suffering and deaths to the people of Zimbabwe but some of that suffering has split over into the rest of Southern Africa region.
There is no doubt there has been a lot of celebration in Zanu PF circles at the ease with which Zanu PF bamboozled the ANC envoys into believe there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, only “challenges”, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Common sense would dictate a responsible neighbour would stand on the side of justice and tick off the drunkard for abusing his wife and children. The last thing the neighbour should do is pontificate about folly of sparing the rod and spoiling the child! “Bona fide pan-Africanist spirit!” Dr Mpofu calls it, smiling from ear to ear!
16 comments:
Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office, that is a basic reality that cannot be denied.
Nelson Chamisa and Dr Ibbo Mandaza's proposed National Transition Authority both accept that Zanu PF will retain its 2/3 majority in Parliament. It is naive to expect that parliament to then approve reforms designed to end Zanu PF's iron grip on power.
If we are serious about implementing the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance then there is no other way out than for Zanu PF to step down. If President Ramaphosa and his ANC adviser had taken time out to think then they would have come to the same conclusion. SA should be occupied with dropping the bomb shell on Zanu PF because the consequences of Zimbabwe crisis is the whole of Zimbabwe imploding with even more disastrous consequences.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is not corrupt but, by Jove, the man is dumb! His first envoy were send back with their tails between their legs, many people thought that this second envoys had a bit between the teeth and would be no push over. They have turned out to be even worse than the first lot. At least the first envoys did not end up joining Zanu PF is singing this "there is no crisis but challenges" nonsense.
If the people of Zimbabwe had looked to SA, SADC and AU for help in getting Zanu PF to step down we now know that all those village idiots are solidly backing Mnangagwa. They will only admit there is a crisis in Zimbabwe when the whole country is on fire just as happened in many, many other countries on the continent. Yeah, that is the African solution to African problems "steeped in bonafide pan-Africanist spirit!" Nothing but the finest pan-Africanist spirit!
@ Chikohomero
"This is a political party to political party conversation. I foresee the ANC moving along with the ZANU-PF narrative. ZANU-PF will play all the cards to make sure the ANC supports ZANU-PF and the narrative is that what is happening in the country is an imperialist narrative thus, the Western countries are the ones behind the turmoil in the country.”
In short, you believe the ANC delegates are so dumb they will be hoodwinked by Zanu PG thugs into believing black is white and wrong is the new right! Well events have proven you right!
Zanu PF thugs bamboozled the ANC delegates they went back believing there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. President Cyril Ramaphosa had pointed to the 3 million or so Zimbabweans in SA to escape political oppression and/or the economic hardship as proof of a crisis in Zimbabwe. No doubt Obert Mpofu and his Zanu PF friends managed to convince the South African Zimbabweans are in SA because they like a dip in the ocean and to taste SA wine!
President Ramaphosa was foolish in endorsing Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake. Well all we can say now is the dumb are getting dumber!
"We have agreed that as the ANC, we came here to engage with Zanu-PF and yes we have agreed that we will come back to meet other stakeholders or whoever you refer to … so that we understand and comprehend the challenges.
"We have received requests from Transform Zimbabwe political party, the United States ambassador, Simba Makoni, Zapu and the MDC Alliance … we agreed with Zanu-PF that it was important that we meet them .
"So we are going to arrange for our coming back to meet them," ANC’s Ace Magashule said.
To have agreed with Zanu PF’s position that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe was the most foolish thing ANC could have done in the circumstance and it is little wonder than Zanu PF and its apologists have been celebrating about it.
The truth the ANC dug itself into a hole when the party foolishly endorse Zimbabwe’s rigged July 2018 elections. With this last visit, the party has dug itself into a deeper hole! It is hard to see how ANC can ever get put of the hole to play a constructive hole in finding Zimbabwe a way out of the crisis.
Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition leader recently incarcerated for 43 days after calling for anti-government protests, told the SABC on Wednesday night that he had been advised that the delegation would be returning at the end of September.
Diplomatic sources said the meeting on Wednesday was essentially to get Zanu-PF to accept Ramaphosa's attempts to mediate in the crisis. To save face, Zanu-PF would maintain its hard-line stance of denying the opposition an audience with the ANC, which it would accede to down the line.
ANC compromised itself when it turned a blind eye to the November 2017 military coup, the blatant rigging of the July 2018 elections, the shoot to kill orders on 1st August 2018 and many, many other events who purpose was to silence dissent and criticism of the Zanu PF regime.
Recently, Zanu PF has also send back SA envoys with their tails between their legs on two separate occasions. The last delegates were bamboozled into publicly endorsing Zanu PF’s position that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.
After all these events clearly designed to appease Zanu PF leaders, it is hard to see how ANC can get Zanu PF to admit to rigging the July 2018 elections, a must, to force the party to step down. All these other solution designed to keep Zanu PF in power, to appease Mnangagwa and company, are a complete waste of time!
African leaders are known for supporting each other no matter what under the pretext of pan-Africanism! So now we have depots appeasing other despots and it is little wonder Africa has been groaning for good governance.
ANC leaders have compromised themselves when they turned a blind eye on Zimbabwe's November 2017 military coup, the blatant rigging of the July 2018 elections, the shoot to kill orders on 1st August 2018 and many, many other events who purpose was to silence dissent and criticism of the Zanu PF regime.
Recently, Zanu PF has also send back SA envoys with their tails between their legs on two separate occasions. The last delegates were bamboozled into publicly endorsing Zanu PF’s position that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.
After all these events clearly designed to appease Zanu PF leaders, it is hard to see how ANC can get Zanu PF to admit to rigging the July 2018 elections, a must, to force the party to step down. All these other solution designed to keep Zanu PF in power, to appease Mnangagwa and company, are a complete waste of time!
@ Romeo
The very fact that President Ramaphosa still continue to endorse the hen's teeth nonsense of sanctions being the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown speaks volumes of him!
The solution to Zimbabwe's crisis is three fold: first, acknowledge the root cause of the crisis is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent dictatorship for 40 years and it shows.
Second, Zimbabwe needs to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Since Zanu PF will never implement the reforms and reform itself out of power, the party must step down to allow the political space for others to implement the reforms.
Third, Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections as every election observer of substance has testified. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll for Pete's sake! The regime is illegitimate and must step down. All those seeking a solution in which Zanu PF plays a role are doing so to appease Mnangagwa and company. It is high time that people accept that Zimbabwe is facing an existential crisis; it is the survival of the nation that is at issue here and not that of Zanu PF leaders!
African leaders are renowned for coming out with all guns glazing in support of their fellow Africa leaders under the pretext of pan-Africanism even when that means thrashing values, principle and the rule of law! It is therefore no wonder the continent has had more than her fair share of despotic rulers, whose whim is the supreme law of the land. The continent’s vast natural resources have become a curse and not a blessing.
SA’s post Nelson Mandela ANC leaders have sold their souls to the devil when it comes to their dealing with Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF thugs. South Africa compromised themselves when they turned a blind eye to the November 2017 military coup, the blatant rigging of the July 2018 elections, the shoot to kill orders on 1st August 2018 and many, many other events.
Zanu PF thugs have just sent back President Ramaphosa’s envoys with their tails between the legs for the second time in as many weeks! The last lot were bamboozled into publicly endorsing Zanu PF’s position that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.
The South Africans have said they will return “in a month”. A month!
So SA is totally convinced there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. An African solution to an African problem and, for the cherry topping, there is no hurry in finding the solution much less implementing it. Everything is “steeped in bona fide pan-Africanist spirit”, as Dr Obert Mpofu would have said with his Cheshire cat smile - that remained for half an hour after he was gone!
Of course, Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential crisis with the economy in total meltdown and the situation has been made much worse by the corona virus pandemic. Zimbabwe needs a competent government a.s.a.p.
Zimbabweans must take up the important task of finding solutions to end the country’s curse of rigged elections and bad governance with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. We are not going to get any help from ANC in this because the die is cast, President Ramaphosa is supporting his fellow African leaders regardless the regime is illegitimate and the tragic human suffering and deaths the crisis is causing on ordinary Zimbabweans!
@ Nox Dima
“Does these issues of rigging elections and illegitimate ends Zimbabwe crisis?
“Lets unite Zimbabweans!”
The call for unity is one that has been repeated by Mugabe and his cronies at every opportunity and now Mnangagwa and his cronies are doing the same. This is nonsense!
Mnangagwa started call for national unity soon after the November 2017 military coup or be it the call was overshadowed by the “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call. The regime was cocksure investors were going to flood into the country to answer his call. No investors have showed up let alone the expected flood and, after a year or so, the truth finally sunk in and the clarion call stopped.
President Mnangagwa has continue to wear the multi-coloured scarf, which was emblem of the “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call. He is doing it out of habit; he knows the cause is long dead in the water.
The “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call was doomed to failed because Mnangagwa had done nothing to end all these things that had made it impossible to do business in Zimbabwe. He promised to end corruption; to hold free and fair elections, etc.; etc. but failed to honour any of these promises.
Investors are a shrewd lot, they were not going to flood into Zimbabwe just because Mnangagwa said it was safe for them to do business. They could see with their own eyes that the country was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. By the same token Mnangagwa’s call for unity was equally doomed.
Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections so he and his cronies can continue to rob the nation blind. Unemployment has soared to 90% and as of last year, 34% of our people lived in abject poverty. The corona virus pandemic has made things worse.
Mnangagwa’s call for unity is a call to silence dissect and criticism. He does not want any one to talk about the corruption, the rigged elections, the tragic human suffering and death, etc. Of course, we would be very foolish indeed to accept such a narrow and, indeed, idiotic interpretation of unity.
We are to be united round corruption, lawlessness and abject poverty and despair!
One of the delegates, Toni Yengeni, who heads the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party's peace and stability committee, told journalists on landing at Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria that it was risky to allow the situation in Zimbabwe to fester.
"There are problems in Zimbabwe, major challenges both of social, economic and to some extent of a political nature," Yengeni told SABC journalists.
Head of delegation, ANC's secretary-general Ace Magashule echoed similar sentiments, although he was a bit 'measured'.
"We have agreed that there were challenges in Zimbabwe that must be confronted. As liberation movements, we should respect human rights. We respect freedom of association and freedom of speech," Magashule said.
He told the South African media that they would fly back to Harare in a few weeks where they would meet with other stakeholders including civil society, opposition members and the church to get to the bottom of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
ANC's international relations committee chairperson Lindiwe Zulu rubbed in saying, "..we had to put all those issues on the table, issues of human rights and others... we went beyond that. Unless we are frank with each other, it won't help the situation. I can assure you, it was a meeting with a difference.”
"Always remember that the one who liberates you will seek to have a stake over your freedom. We are still struggling to show that we all contributed to the liberation struggle as others want to monopolise it. We must be our own liberators and it starts with the mind," said ZCC’ s Kenneth Mtata.
The ANC delegate are putting on a more bold face than they did when they were in Harare.
South Africa has compromised too often and on the big issues like the rigged July 2018 elections. The solution to the Zimbabwe situation demands an acknowledgement of the root cause, i.e. the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. How is President Ramaphosa going to tell Mnangagwa he rigged the July 2018 elections when he endorsed them as “Gone well!”
Ramaphosa is destined to appease Mnangagwa just as British PM Neville Chamberlain did with Adolf Hitler with his now infamous “Peace in our time!” appeasement treatise! Ramaphosa’s blundering incompetence is cause for worrying!
Chairperson of the ANC's international relations sub committee, Zulu said the current situation warranted this move.
"We've got issues of national importance here. This is one thing that needs to be understood and be understood very clearly. When there is a problem that has a negative impact on us as a nation. What is happening is not an impact on the ANC, it's an impact on our people and our economy.”
She is spot on there, the crisis in Zimbabwe does not affect ANC members and supporters only but all South African. It is a national issue.
It is a great pity that the trip was a waste of time given it accomplished nothing but that was not the fault of the envoy but he who send then, President Ramaphosa.
SA knows there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, knows its root cause is the country’s repeated failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and should know the solution is to implement the democratic reforms and end this curse. So for President Ramaphosa to then send one delegation and then a second one to find out what the cause of the crisis is foolish, to say the least.
"We know that the South African government is controlled by white men." That is hiting well below the belt and with every intention to do so.
The irony is Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, in every sense of that phrase, and yet it has the chic to tell its prosperous and stable neighbour how it should govern!
We are dealing with ruthless thugs and SA's softly, softly approach has only given the Zanu PF thugs the red bull wings!
@ Mucharowana
The whole proposition that SA needs to meet various players in Zimbabwe to know that Zimbabwe is in a crisis is preposterous. Zimbabwe’s crisis is 40 years old and the root cause is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Why President Ramaphosa needed to send envoys to find that out only goes to show he is just a confused nobody with no clue what he is doing.
Frankly, President Ramaphosa shot himself in the foot when he endorse Zimbabwe’s July 2018 rigged elections. It was a very foolish thing to do and it is little wonder he cannot extricate himself from that initial fcuk up.
To end the crisis in Zimbabwe we need to implement the democratic reforms that will stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Since Zanu PF will never reform itself out of power, the party must step down. President Ramaphosa cannot ask Mnangagwa to step down when he is the one who said Zanu PF was legitimate.
The best President Ramaphosa should do is admit he shot himself in the foot and invite the UN to help end the crisis. The last thing Zimbabwe wants is another Zanu PF led GNU which will not implement any reforms. Sadly, with blundering Ramaphosa in charge, that is where we are heading!
"Neighbours including South Africa can only provide much-needed regional, continental and global solidarity. Solidarity doesn't replace agency. Remember Steve Biko's advice to the Liberal White supporters during the struggle against apartheid.
"Always remember that the one who liberates you will seek to have a stake over your freedom. We are still struggling to show that we all contributed to the liberation struggle as others want to monopolise it. We must be our own liberators and it starts with the mind," Mtata said.
We should be open minded and evaluate any solution put on the table on its merit and not on who offered it. Zimbabwe’s crisis has lasted 40 years and dragged the nation to the very edge of the precipitous abyss. If Zimbabweans were so clever, then why have we failed to come up with the solution.
Stop this nonsense of Zimbabwean solution to a Zimbabwean problem, African solution to an African problem, etc. Zimbabwe’s problem is one of bad governance this is a problem as old as human history and to suggest that it is a uniquely Zimbabwean problem is therefore foolish.
ZCC should table their proposed solution and stop stipulating what others should say and not say!
@ Brain Kagoro
Zimbabwe’s “imperial presidency” and leadership infallibility have four inseparable and consistent allies in populism, cronyism, grand corruption and violence. The deliberate re-organisation of all state structures to ensure an impenetrable network of allies from the State House, Treasury, military, intelligence, police, Foreign Affairs, judiciary up to the lowest strata of government. Where state capture fail, there has always been that sinister back-up toolbox so aptly used since Independence, namely criminalisation of opponents or deploying violence against them. This weaponisation of the law is a tragic re-enactment of Rhodesian fascism. A rule by law and terror!
South Africa’s “quiet diplomacy” approach, anchored on the belief that Pretoria could influence the behaviour of others by secret negotiations or by refraining from taking a specific action, has over the years proved to be either counter-productive, ineffective or simply an unwitting postponement of catastrophe. The South African government’s reluctant to project its power to impose solutions on other African countries is often unbecoming of a regional hegemony. South Africa does not want to be seen as a policeman of Africa or, for that matter, a neighbourhood bully.
Harare needs more friends now than it has ever done. But the leadership of Zimbabwe are supremely proud people and are unlikely to take too kindly to South Africa lecturing them on governance and human rights. Herein lies the dilemma for the hawks in Harare; they need South Africa’s neutrality or friendship. A hostile South Africa might complicate life significantly or the post-coup regime.
Thomas Sankara summarised it this way: “Our revolution is not a public speaking tournament. Our revolution is not a battle of fine phrases. Our revolution is not simply spouting slogans that are no more signals used by manipulators trying to use them as catchwords, as code words, as foil for their own display. Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country.”
The whole argument that SA’s ability to solve Zimbabwe’s crisis has been hindered by that country’s softly, softly approach and the so called quiet diplomacy is nonsensical because it presupposes that SA know the solution and is otherwise constrained in applying it. The true is SA has no clue what is going on in Zimbabwe much less have a solution for the crisis.
If President Ramaphosa knew what was going on then he would not have send the envoys.
Of course, SA should know there is a crisis in Zimbabwe and that it has been going on for decades. The root cause of the crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The solution is to get the democratic reforms to stop the vote rigging implemented.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and President Ramaphosa with his typical blundering incompetence endorse those elections as acceptable. And so Ramaphosa can not ask Zanu PF to step down to get the reforms implemented.
President Chamisa wrote on Twitter :
“21 years after the movement was born & #TheMarchIsNotEnded.
2020 has been a tough year but today I am reminded that the hope for the future lies in our hands.
We remain humbled by your support and loyalty to the ideal of a better Zimbabwe for all in our lifetime.Happy Sabbath!!”
This is nonsense! The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power and after 21 years, 5 of which they were in a GNU, MDC has failed to bring about even one change.
MDC leaders sold-out during the 2008 GNU and have been selling-out ever since. MDC A has been campaigning for a new GNU so a few of the leaders can be cabinet ministers again. A parliament with 2/3 Zanu PF MPs will never implement the comprehensive reforms. Never! With no reforms, nothing will change and so all these “hope for the future lies in our hands” is just hot air!
Just because millions of ordinary Zimbabweans have no clue what is going does not mean everyone else is equally naive and gullible. MDC leaders have given up hope of getting the reforms implemented and all they want now is to force Zanu PF to give them a bigger share of the spoils of power.
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