Parties call for fresh election
Political parties have welcomed the military intervention in Zimbabwe, calling for President Robert Mugabe to resign.
Moving fast on the heels of the developments, political parties in Pretoria and across the Limpopo River said free and fair elections should be held soon to ensure a democratic transition.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has called on the UN, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to ensure the elections are realised in 2018.
The EFF went a step further, urging SA to offer Mugabe political asylum to enable a peaceful transition. “We must do this to aid peace, allowing Zimbabweans to immediately stabilise their country and institutions for the sustainable civilian rule and a better future,” the party said.
SA has a long history of offering refuge to unseated African leaders in need of a safe haven.
Former Madagascar president Marc Ravalomanana lived in SA between 2009 and 2014 after he was forced out of office during a coup that claimed more than 100 lives.
Then Lesotho prime minister Tom Thabane also took refuge in SA after he had fled the mountain kingdom in 2015, when a failed coup plunged that country into political crisis.
The DA has implored the South African government to abandon its “quiet diplomacy”.
The Zimbabwe Communist Party (ZCP) and the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association welcomed the military takeover.
The ZCP said while military action could not be condoned under normal circumstances, events that undermined Zimbabwe’s democracy and the quality of life of its people had led to this climactic point in the country’s body politic.
“The politico-military action taken by the Zimbabwe National Army is the result of the chaotic state of Zimbabwe as a whole and the ruling party, Zanu[-PF],” the ZCP said.
On Tuesday, ANC secretarygeneral Gwede Mantashe told journalists the ANC would not get involved.
“If things go wrong there, of course we’ll be concerned because it’ll impact on us, but we have no authority over them,” he said.