Harare, September 9 — A delegation from South Africa’s governing African National Congress party has evaded meeting Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties and civil societies which anticipated to brief the regional superpower about this country’s mounting political and economic crisis.
This is the second time this year officials from South Africa have dashed engaging opposition parties over the ballooning crisis in Zimbabwe.
Last month, Zimbabwe’s immediate Southern neighbor’s government delegation was in the country, but only managed to meet the ZANU-PF government before it left without meeting the opposition parties.
Barely a month later, through its governing ANC, South Africa has repeated the snub of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties and civil societies.
“We have received requests from other stakeholders namely Dr. Simba Makoni, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance), US Ambassador, but we have jointly decided with ZANU-PF that we will come back and meet with these organizations,” said Ace Magashule, secretary-general of South Africa’s ANC.
“Following inquiries from various quarters and our friends from the media in particular on the purpose of this meeting, ZANU-PF wishes to make it categorically clear that this is a meeting between ZANU-PF and the ANC delegation only,” said a statement from ZANU-PF prior to the arrival of the ANC delegation.
But, all the same, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had deployed the governing ANC officials to meet all concerned parties in Zimbabwe over the country’s deteriorating political and economic situation.
Instead, come Wednesday meeting between South Africa and Zimbabwe ruling parties, among other things, they agreed to engage in programs to empower youths and women in their countries while they also agreed to convene and meet regularly to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest.
Harare, September 8 — South Africa’s delegation from the country’s governing Africa National Congress (ANC) dispatched by the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to meet Zimbabwe’s governing party and opposition parties have been barred from neither meeting the latter nor the civil society organizations.
The delegation from Zimbabwe’s Southern neighbor was expected to arrive in the country on Tuesday evening.
Although Ramaphosa, South Africa’s President had deployed his governing ANC officials to meet all concerned parties in Zimbabwe over the deteriorating political and economic situation here, this country’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party has been adamant that the meeting would only take place between itself and the ANC delegation.
“Following inquiries from various quarters and our friends from the media in particular on the purpose of this meeting, ZANU-PF wishes to make it categorically clear that this is a meeting between ZANU-PF and the ANC delegation only,” a statement from Zanu-PF reads.
Last month, South Africa’s government delegation was in Zimbabwe, but only managed to meet the ZANU-PF government before it left without meeting the opposition parties here as was widely anticipated.
Meanwhile, Obert Mpofu, ZANU-PF’s secretary for administration told journalists in Harare that ANC’s delegation led by the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule, would be welcomed in Zimbabwe.
“They are the ones with issues, so we will hear from them,” said Mpofu to reporters.
Zimbabwe has featured in the international media of late following reports of rife human rights violations by the State here amid abductions, brutalization, and jailing of government critics.
On July 30, a day before the country’s scheduled anti-government protests, Tawanda Muchehiwa, Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University journalism student and nephew to the country’s top scribe Mduduzi Mathuthu, was abducted from his home in Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city.
However, following a high court ruling demanding his immediate release, two days after his abduction, Muchehiwa was found dumped two kilometers from his family home in Bulawayo, heavily ridden with injuries.
With ANC blocked from meeting Zimbabwe’s opposition amid a crisis that the country’s ZANU-PF-led government has vehemently denied, in South Africa, former DA opposition leader Mmusi Maimane took to Twitter, displeased apparently by the developments.
“The ANC delegation must meet all the key stakeholders in Zimbabwe, otherwise we are wasting time. They must meet the MDC Alliance, they must meet the key civil society groups, they must meet journalists who have been victimized by Zanu-PF,” said Maimane.
MARANDA, May 19 — 46-year old Livious Nhundugwa of Maranda township in Zimbabwe’s Mwenezi district and his one-time friend, 43-year old Taguta Chikondo, are now sworn enemies despite the two belonging to the country’s ruling Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
On 16 April this year, the two staunch Zanu-PF supporters exchanged blows at the remote township in their village, drawing a sizable crowd that was apparently surprised to witness the two die-hard Zanu-PF supporters pounding one another savagely.
What sparked their brawl was an argument about corruption which the former-Nhundugwa, blamed on party stalwarts, with the later-Chikondo having none of it, rather pinning the blame on the country’s biggest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance).
“You are getting lost, I know you want to stray to MDC Alliance,” Nhundugwa shouted at the top of his voice in the midst of his argument with Chikondo.
“MDC brought sanctions to our country,” added Nhundugwa.
But, irate and impatient, Chikondo would have none of it.
“Everyone knows here that Zanu-PF leaders are corrupt and have kept us in this economic messy over the years stealing from us; we vote them into power because they have managed to sustainably lie to us, but this won’t last,” Chikondo told Ubuntu Times later after his brawl with Nhundugwa which was broken up by onlookers.
Yet, as the two little known Zanu-PF backers traded blows deep in this remote district, further up in Harare, just a week ago, the Zanu-PF government could not conceal the internal fights among government officials.
Zimbabwe’s military chiefs in November 2017 attend the inauguration of Emmerson Mnangagwa as President following the ouster of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe whom the military helped to depose. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Zimbabwe’s shortest-serving Deputy Minister of Information, Energy Mutodi recently came out on Tweeter claiming that he is living in fear following his public rebuke by Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs minister, who distanced the government from statements he (Mutodi) made on Twitter, suggesting that Tanzanian president John Magufuli is struggling to contain the Coronavirus crisis in the East African country.
Mutodi had said ‘living in fear of the Chris Mutsvangwa-SB Moyo coalition. I hope it won’t resort to wartime tactics. Appealing for prayers.’
Mutsvangwa is a Zanu-PF politburo member, also former advisor in the Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office, thought to be aligned to a Zanu-PF faction that include officials like Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, a former army chief in this Southern African country.
Apparently sounding the triumph of the military factor in the Zanu-PF government, on the evening of May 20, Zimbabwe’s Minister Mutodi was dismissed from his government post although reasons of his expulsion were not mentioned by a government statement.
As ordinary Zanu-PF supporters like Nhundugwa and Chikondo fall out in typical fights that have apparently rocked the upper echelons of power in the Zanu-PF government, like in the days of former President Robert Mugabe, fresh divisions have erupted again, hitting Zimbabwe’s government harder.
Delegates throng what became a faction-ridden conference of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party in 2016 in Masvingo presided over by the then President Robert Mugabe months before he was ousted from power in a military coup the following year. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
But, Zimbabwe’s ruling party officials like Tafadzwa Mugwadi, have denied the existence of the political infighting, dismissing these as imaginary rather.
“I would not have wanted to comment on ordinary disagreements involving two government officials, but whatever their differences are, they have no bearing on Zanu-PF at all and do not reflect anything about ZANU-PF. Factionalism only exists in small minds,” Mugwadi who is the Zanu-PF Information director, told Ubuntu Times.
“There is no factionalism in Zanu-PF, rather, it exists at the house next door among the opposition,” added Mugwadi.
The divisions that have visited the Zanu-PF government in Zimbabwe are not new here.
For the first time after the removal of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power in 2017, army generals saluted their new commander-in-chief Emmerson Mnangagwa who they had put in power to replace the toppled old Mugabe. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Former late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was also ridden with divisions that eventually led to his ouster in a military-led coup in November 2017.
During Mugabe’s reign, two factions wrestled to succeed him—the Lacoste Faction which was linked to the army and the G-40, Generation 40, which was aligned to the then First Lady, Mrs. Grace Mugabe who battled it out then with the current President to succeed her geriatric husband.
Now, to ordinary anti-government activists here like Melinda Manwere, it seems history is fast repeating itself in Zimbabwe.
“The military factor keeps resurfacing here forming another faction yet again to fight Mnangagwa just as it did when it ousted Mugabe,” Manwere told Ubuntu Times.
Zimbabwean former President Robert Mugabe’s last 2016 ruling ZANU-PF conference in Masvingo, the country’s oldest town before he was toppled from power in less than a year. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times.
Even media experts like Rashweat Mukundu see nothing new about Zanu-PF factionalism resurfacing in the Zimbabwean government.
“The ruling party has never been cohesive post the coup more importantly over divisions on sharing spoils of the coup inclusive of mining rights, tenders, and other business deals; the latest spat between Mutodi and Moyo is not over ideological or political differences, but control of state resources more so a growing sense with some that Mnangagwa has monopolized the state with the support of a few individuals. And others feel edged out from the feeding trough,” Mukundu, who is the Africa Adviser at International Media Support (IMS), told Ubuntu Times.
Although both are top Zimbabwean government officials, typifying the deep divisions besetting the Zanu-PF government, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister had hit back at the country’s Deputy Information Minister, Mutodi via Twitter.
“Mutodi’s remarks did not represent the views of the Zimbabwean government,” Moyo had said.
Across the African continent, an unprecedented wave of youth-led uprisings is shaking the pillars of political regimes that have held power for decades. In...
The trending successful military coups in West Africa today indicate the continuation of political processes and leadership by another method. Their executions have been...
Needless to say, the 2023 elections happened amid overwhelming disillusionment with the system and popular discontent with the major establishment political parties—the ruling All...
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is arguably the African Union’s (AU) biggest project since the launch of the continent’s Agenda 2063 in...
There are intense political and intellectual debates unfolding in Africa. Since February 24 last year, when war broke out in Europe following Russia’s special...
A packed FNB stadium with over one hundred thousand supporters demonstrated the mass appeal of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) amongst South African voters...
The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) launched the #WeAreEqual Campaign on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at a banquet ceremony held in...
An incident involving a thirteen-year-old girl child at the Crowthorne Christian Academy in South Africa led to the schools' closure and the re-sparking of...
To most academics, intellectuals, and pragmatists advocating for a genuine Pan-African renaissance six decades after the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU,...
The Western liberal consensus has long been intervening and interfering in Africa. The first form of intervention was through the slave trade from the...
