A 10-member delegation from South Africa’s African National
Congress (ANC) is expected in the country on Tuesday to meet its ZANU PF
counterparts as part of the revolutionary parties’ efforts to strengthen mutual
cooperation and apprise each other of developments on either side of the
Limpopo.
ZANU PF director for Information and Publicity Cde Tafadzwa
Mugwadi confirmed the visit.
“I can confirm that the delegation will arrive on Tuesday.
I am not sure of the full names of the team, but obviously it is going to
include the top brass of the ANC. I understand that ANC secretary-general Cde
Ace Magashule will lead the team.”
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe acknowledged receipt of
enquiries from The Sunday Mail, but had not responded by yesterday.
The latest engagement comes as the two liberation movements
are being targeted for attacks by forces bent on ousting them from power.
Last week, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa came under vicious
attack at the National Executive Committee (NEC) — the party’s highest
decision-making body — where he was told by some members to resign.
In a statement after the virtual special meeting between August
28 and August 30, the NEC said their leader was clearly under attack from a
“well-choreographed” campaign.
“The NEC emphasised that what seems to be a
well-choreographed campaign against the President will not distract the
movement from undertaking an intensified programme against corruption and state
capture . . .” it said in a statement after the crucial weekend meetings.
The party is battling allegations of corruption against
senior party officials over procurement of Covid-19 personal protective
equipment.
Similarly, Government has also been under coordinated
attack from some opposition political parties and organisations, including some
Western missions, especially following the abortive July 31 demonstrations,
which were touted as an uprising.
The attacks were concentrated on social media, where old
and rehashed videos and pictures were recycled to give an impression of a
political crisis in Zimbabwe.
The contrived footage also found its way on SA television
channels. Mugwadi, however, said the meeting will deliberate on
mutual challenges that the two parties are facing.
“It should be made clear that this meeting is not based on
the so-called notion that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe. There is no crisis in
Zimbabwe and our position as ZANU PF is that the only crisis that is there is
actually in the opposition, which has been torn into smithereens because of the
issues that they took to court.
“We now have a scenario whereby the opposition now wants to
frame their crisis as a national crisis. It is not the duty of ZANU PF to
assume that the crisis in the opposition should be turned into a national
crisis.”
ZANU PF, he added, expects the ANC to lend its muscle to
regional efforts to lobby for the removal of sanctions.
“Sanctions are the biggest crisis facing Zimbabwe and we
expect that as a fellow liberation movement, the ANC, which managed to fight
the ruthlessness of apartheid, can also render us assistance in fighting this
embargo.”
Addressing the ANC’s NEC meeting last week, the South
African president said he had agreed with President Mnangagwa that is was
important for the ANC to get a clear picture of the situation in Zimbabwe.
“In my discussions with President Mnangagwa, he informed me
that their Politburo wanted and desired to be in conversation with the ANC to
discuss the situation much more fully in Zimbabwe and we agreed that this
delegation must now proceed.”
Last week, Zanu PF secretary for Administration Dr Obert
Mpofu said the only crisis in Zimbabwe was the “continued demonisation of our
Government”.
“In the face of this pro-opposition postured ‘political
crisis in Zimbabwe’, this ZANU PF-ANC dialogue on Zimbabwe must reinforce our
ideological convergences inasmuch as it should unpack the two nationalist
parties’ shared existential threats.
“While there is a dedicated onslaught on Zimbabwe and ZANU
PF in particular to disfigure the political situation in the country, we hope
our ANC counterparts will be better acquainted with the genuine state of
affairs in our country beyond the sinister propagandas of our detractors,” he
said. Sunday Mail
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