Zimbabwe and South Africa are two independent countries
with sovereign rights and some members of African National Congress (ANC)
should not harbour notions of coming to meet with opposition parties as that
would be a move without precedence, top Zanu PF officials said yesterday.
This comes as some South African officials, who include
Lindiwe Zulu and Tony Yengeni, who were part of an ANC delegation that met Zanu
PF officials on Wednesday, in a no-holds
barred indaba between the two former liberation war movements, continued to claim
there was a crisis in Zimbabwe and the South African ruling party would return
to meet the opposition in the country.
The abrasive attitude from some members of the South
African delegation flies in the face of the head of the ANC delegation Cde Ace
Magashule’s utterances to the effect that there was no crisis in the country
and that as a sovereign State, Zimbabwe had the capacity to tackle its
challenges, that were a common feature across the continent.
Responding to questions from journalists at a Press
conference held at Zanu PF Headquarters yesterday, the ruling party’s secretary
for External Affairs, Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, said fraternal parties could
only help each other on invitation.
“Friendly and sisterly organisations only come to the help
of each other on invitation. We help each other on invitation, we enjoy
sovereign equality, both as political parties as well as nations, therefore, no
party, especially a sister party can employ this on another sister party.
“It is common knowledge that some individuals in our sister
party the ANC had been made to believe that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe. We
are not sure how they became convinced with that, but some of them came here
with that notion, however, in our meeting the notion of a crisis in Zimbabwe
was quickly dismissed,” Cde Mumbengegwi said.
He said the meeting, which lasted for more than six hours
focused on the challenges bedevilling the region and how they can best be
resolved and pooh-poohed notions of a crisis that have been concocted by G40
fugitives residing in South Africa.
“The question of a sister party coming to the country of
another sister party to establish bilateral relations with the opposition party
is unheard of (as) that can only happen in the context of mediation and
mediation can only occur with the consent of the conflicting parties. But where
there is no crisis, there is no real need for mediation and therefore no
purpose will be served by trying to play a mediatory role, where there is no
crisis and where there is no conflict and more importantly, where there is no
consent of the parties involved,” said Cde Mumbengegwi.
During the Wednesday meeting, the two heads of the
delegation, Zanu PF Secretary for Administration Cde Obert Mpofu and ANC
secretary-general Cde Magashule made it clear from the onset that there was no
crisis in Zimbabwe.
“I know why you are asking, my counterpart (Lindiwe Zulu),
on landing in South Africa held a media briefing where she riveted back to the
original position that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe and therefore they needed
to come back to Zimbabwe to resolve that crisis, but surely how can you
unilaterally reverse a common position that the two delegations agreed on. I
want to assure you that it is not normal for a former liberation party to
impose itself on another and therefore we only hope that the views expressed
were individual views and we would be very surprised if there are the common
position of the ANC,” said Cde Mumbengegwi.
With some within the ANC still playing to the gallery, Cde
Patrick Chinamasa said the ruling party will get in touch with the South
African ruling party to establish whether its leadership shares the same
sentiments.
“That is outside the agreement that we reached in the
meeting on Wednesday. I have not followed what they said when they arrived in
South Africa. But what I can categorically say is the meeting was very frank
and candid. We agreed that Zimbabwe and South Africa are equal sovereign States
and that on the basis of being sovereign States, there is no need for
interventionist approach. There is no way an ANC delegation will come to
Zimbabwe to interfere in our domestic affairs”.
Cde Chinamasa said the brutal meeting between the two
former liberation war movements started with the two parties clearing
misconceptions of a crisis in Zimbabwe.
He said the two parties agreed that Zimbabwe, just like the
rest of the region, is grappling with the effects of draughts and natural
disasters such as Cyclone Idai as well as the added albatross rock of illegal
economic sanctions that were imposed by western nations.
Cde Chinamasa said the two parties, that agreed to meet
regularly and also to disregard social media attempts to set the agenda, will
meet regularly to ensure that detractors are kept at bay.
“The two revolutionary sister parties were able to find
each other during that meeting. We re-discovered each other and I think we got
our bearing correct. As we go into the future, I think we have set our compass
in the right direction. First we agreed that Zimbabwe and South Africa are
equal sovereign States. Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa that we
agreed very clearly.
“In the contest of international relations, South Africa is
not a big brother to Zimbabwe. It has no overseer role to play in Zimbabwe or
in the region. It has no mediatory role to play in South Africa, in Zimbabwe or
in other countries and not being a province of South Africa, it follows that
there is no interventionist approach to the way that South Africa would relay
to us.
“The challenges that the region is facing do not need any
outside interference, what Zimbabwe needs is access to capital, which because
of sanctions we are unable to have, Zimbabwe has only one option, to lift
itself up by way, which we have been doing for the past 20 years,” he said.
And amid repeated claims by South African leaders that they
are monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to bring some form of
help, Cde Chinamasa, a former Finance Minister, said from 1980 to present date,
Zimbabwe’s neighbour across the Limpopo River has not extended any dime.
“Let me put it on record, I am talking as a former Minister
of Finance, Zimbabwe has not received any assistance of whatever nature from
South Africa, other than us selling and importing from South Africa, if that is
the assistance, well maybe, but direct assistance, Zimbabwe has not received a
cent,” he said. Instead, Cde Chinamasa said Zimbabwe bore the brunt of South
Africa apartheid system by way of collateral damage that was inflicted by the
racists white former rulers, who still covertly call the shots in that country,
as well as the reputational burden of being a neighbour to a country at war.
“We have not received a cent as Zimbabwe, from the
apartheid economy or from the post-apartheid economy, that I can tell you
without any prevarication. The assistance which is now being touted about, if
it is true, clearly, if they had not stood by us economically in the past 20
years when sanctions were imposed on us, how can anyone seek to stand by us
economically when we are almost out of the woods,” said Cde Chinamasa.
Under the New Dispensation, the country is pursuing
President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030, which aims at making Zimbabwe a middle class
economy, and already the signs are pointing to the country achieving its
targets that will be anchored on agricultural production and productivity,
mining and tourism.
President Mnangagwa recently launched the US$8,2 billion
Agriculture Recovery and Livestock Growth Strategy, which came hard on the
heels of the launch of the US$5 billion Tourism Strategy.
To cap the recovery strategies is the Mining Industry
Strategy which is expected to contribute US$12 billion, with signs on the
ground showing that this could be achieved well before 2025.
Thus, Cde Chinamasa said Zimbabwe which is now on the verge
of economic transformation, does not need assistance from countries that have
for the most part offered only moral support, all the while making Zimbabwe a
warehouse of their produce.
He added that in 2008, South Africa, through its former
President Thabo Mbeki, was invited to mediate between Zanu PF and the MDC, and
that came at the invitation of Zimbabwe.
“Mbeki did not impose himself on us, we requested him in
order to defend the gains of our liberation which were being threatened by the
British who were threatening military invasion of Zimbabwe. The British and
Western governments will never agree or forgive for taking the land and giving
it to our people,” he said.
Zimbabwe, has been the pacesetter in empowering its people
whereas in the region citizens in countries that supposedly gained their
independence live on the economic fringes while the erstwhile colonisers call
the shots.
“We are the first country to do what we are doing, which is
what we pointed to the ANC delegation, we have taken our land, you need us if
you have to empower your people, we need each other. They have to empower their
people; in the same way we have empowered our people. It’s a revolutionary
obligation for the revolutionary parties to fulfil the gains of our liberation
struggle, whether it is here, in South Africa, Namibia or Mozambique,” said Cde
Chinamasa.
The meeting also discussed the issue of the illegal
economic sanctions, the skewed trade imbalances in the region that favour South
Africa, as well as the threat posed by remnants of the decapitated G40 faction
that have found sanctuary across the Limpopo. Herald
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