ZANU PF yesterday threw down the gauntlet and ordered South
Africa to stop mediating in the Zimbabwean crisis after being angered by the
frank talk from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s six-member mediation team which was
in Harare on Wednesday.
After a closed-door meeting which ended in the evening,
Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu told the local media that the
discussions were cordial, but his African National Congress (ANC) counterparts
reserved their comments only to drop the bombshell on landing in Pretoria,
describing the situation in Zimbabwe as dire.
The team, led by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule,
indicated that it would soon fly back to Harare for more consultations with
other stakeholders such as the opposition, civic society and church.
But Chinamasa yesterday pulled a surprise, slamming the
door on Ramaphosa’s envoys, declaring that “South Africa has no mediatory role
to play in Zimbabwe”.
“We are an independent sovereign country. We agreed in our
meeting that we are equal sovereign States. South Africa has no mediatory role
to play in Zimbabwe. We know that the South African government is controlled by
white men. We agreed that we should strengthen the integration of our region
and of our economy. It will take time but we will get there.”
He said the only discussion they would entertain from ANC
would be centred on identifying threats between the two liberation movements
and their regional peers.
“Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa. We are able to
identify the threats between the two parties and the rest of the liberation
movements in our region. We work towards putting regional integration first on
the agenda. Our meetings going forward will be on growing our economies.”
Chinamasa added that Zimbabwe has not received any
financial aid or economic assistance from South Africa and Zanu PF could not
understand why Ramaphosa wanted to intervene in the Harare crisis.
“Zimbabwe has never received money from South Africa,” the
former Finance minister said. “We have never received money from South Africa
apartheid government or post-apartheid government, no economic assistance. Why
would they want to stand by us now when they have not assisted us before? At
our request, we have only received diplomatic assistance from South Africa.”
He also ruled out talks involving Ramaphosa’s team and
local opposition leaders.
But, chairperson of ANC’s international relations committee
Lindiwe Zulu told South African media that they would arrange a meeting with
Zimbabwe’s opposition, civic society and other stakeholders to discuss the
crisis in the country.
“The good thing is that there is a full agreement that we
had to make up with the other parties,” Zulu told South African talk radio 702.
“It is just that the time wasn’t also enabling us to meet
them, we spent the whole day more than we thought we would from morning to evening
just party-to-party engagements.
“We agreed also to meet with other political parties and
there is nothing going to stop us. Even at the Press briefing, our
secretary-general Ace Magashule indicated to the Press that we are going to go
back and meet with other political parties.”
She added they would also make time for United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols.
But Chinamasa rubbished the arrangement. “We don’t want
complaints from anyone, even the US ambassador. We are grateful to our security
forces; it is a warning that our security forces will defend this country.”
He accused the opposition MDC Alliance of fuelling unrest
in the country to justify its “crisis” narrative. Newsday
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