SOUTH African President and African Union chairperson Cyril
Ramaphosa yesterday said his special envoys to Zimbabwe must travel
back to Harare soon and engage all stakeholders to fully appreciate the gravity
of the crisis in Harare.
This comes as South Africa’s ruling African National
Congress (ANC) party intensifies efforts to assist Zimbabwe emerge from its
deepening crisis.
Ramaphosa last month dispatched former Speaker of
Parliament Baleka Mbete and former Safety and Security minister Sydney Mufamadi
as his special envoys to Zimbabwe, but the team sparked controversy after it
only met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and snubbed other key stakeholders,
including the main opposition MDC Alliance party.
The South African leader has been under pressure from
within the ANC, South African opposition parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters, the
Democratic Alliance and One South Africa, among many others, to act on the
crisis in Zimbabwe.
Pressure has also been coming from the region and global
community for South Africa to find a solution to the Harare crisis that has
seen dozens of citizens, including activists, journalists, lawyers and civic society
leaders under siege.
Several others have gone into hiding fearing arrests,
abduction and torture at the hands of State security agents.
“The ANC notes the work being done to continue silencing
the guns in Mali and Libya and ensure stability in Mozambique, Sudan and
Zimbabwe,” Ramaphosa said.
But Mnangagwa has always denied that there is a crisis in
the country.
Ramaphosa was speaking after a virtual national executive
committee (NEC) meeting of the ANC.
“The national executive committee welcomes government
efforts to engage the situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the deployment of
special envoys.
“It emphasised the efforts of the envoys in engaging all
the stakeholders in the country to assist in addressing the current situation.
ANC and government processes must complement each other,” he said.
“The envoys, indeed, went and met President Mnangagwa and
his delegation. They had extensive and quite lengthy discussions and in the
course of the discussions, it became clear that we needed to have a process
that they would engage other people there and we felt that we should give
consideration to that and that is something we would obviously want to see
happening.”
Ramaphosa said the ANC was also arranging a meeting with
Zanu PF on the Zimbabwean situation for “a party-to-party discussion”, but
emphasised the need for the South African ruling party to engage all
stakeholders as well
He said an ANC delegation would soon be dispatched to
Zimbabwe.
“The NEC also expressed the need to meet other stakeholders
in Zimbabwe and clearly important that we get as broad a view of what is
happening in Zimbabwe as we possibly can,” Ramaphosa said.
Zanu PF and government last month said the special envoys
were only sent to meet Mnangagwa over the Zimbabwean crisis, while the MDC
Alliance said it was disappointed after the emissaries left without meeting
other key stakeholders.
There were reports that Mnangagwa had personally blocked
the special envoys from meeting other stakeholders.
However, NewsDay heard that Mnangagwa had lined up the
Political Actors’ Dialogue (Polad) to meet the special envoys.
Ramaphosa said the ANC supported engagements with Zanu PF
in trying to understand the challenges in Zimbabwe.
“The NEC agreed also that the ANC must speak to all parties
and all stakeholders as well,” he said.
ANC chairperson for the international relations committee,
Lindiwe Zulu, last week said Zimbabwe was in a crisis, adding that people must
be “open about it”.
Her views echoed sentiments by Ace Magashule, the party’s
secretary-general, who said the country was indeed in a crisis and a solution
was urgently needed, despite denials by the Zanu PF government.
Zimbabwe has been reeling under multifaceted crises, that
include political, health and humanitarian.
The United States, the United Kingdom, European Union, The
Elders, African Union Commission, church and civic society, among others, have
called for inclusive dialogue to help resolve the logjam emanating from the
disputed 2018 presidential elections.
But Mnangagwa insists he will not talk to his main
challenger MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa until the opposition leader joins
Polad.
But Chamisa has vehemently stood his ground, accusing the
grouping of being an extension of the ruling party. Newsday
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