Dispatch in Dialogue Time for SA to get real with Zanu-PF
There is a highly peddled fear that the downfall of Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe will set off a domino effect
The ANC sent a high-level delegation to Zimbabwe in September to meet its counterparts from the ruling Zanu-PF. This was a follow-up to the envoys sent by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to try to help address the growing political crisis in Zimbabwe. SA has been seized with the Zimbabwean problem for a long time. Could there be a different approach this time around?
The relationship between the ANC and Zanu-PF, their sister liberation party across the Limpopo, has reached a moment of reckoning. Their relationship is not as historical as it is made to be but has grown stronger with the help of the man-made Zimbabwean crisis.
The ANC has backed the plunder and tyranny in Zimbabwe by its silence and diplomacy on Zanu-PF atrocities over many years.
The adage “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are” is well used for a reason. Nevertheless, the association between the ANC and Zanu-PF is the antithesis of it. The ANC has done a tremendous job in protecting freedom and constitutionalism in SA.
Under the ANC government, SA has a highly appraised democracy equipped with strong and uncompromising institutions. The three pillars of the state and the separation of powers are there for everyone to see and appreciate. Institutions such as the public protector have forced even presidents to account, notably the Nkandla debacle and the CR17 campaign.
Nothing like this or anything close can be said of the Zanu-PF regime in Zimbabwe. But why does the ANC’s glow blow cold when Zanu-PF is involved?
One, the thread that is now holding the relationship between the ANC and Zanu-PF is that both are revolutionary parties. This is a very loose and desperate thread. Two, there is a highly peddled fear that the downfall of Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe will set off a domino effect that will lead to the downfall of the ANC and, by extension, other liberation movements in the region.
Well, one has to be clouded by deep illusion to think Zanu-PF is alive. The breath it holds today is very short and its heart is pumping weak. It has enough troubles internally and it has plenty externally.
The ANC, on the other side, has lost its two-thirds majority but it could reform itself back to a two-thirds majority.
The variables between the spectacular, self-inflicted fall from grace of Zanu-PF and the decline in popularity of the ANC hold no relationship. The ANC has no reason to fear an imaginary domino effect. There isn’t any.
In actual fact, the ANC should facilitate the urgent exit of Zanu-PF and for a good reason.
The ANC might have succeeded in assisting Zanu-PF to stay in power but the issue of Zimbabweans and their influx into SA seeking greener pastures is becoming a huge problem for the receiving country.
Zimbabwe has been the biggest supplier of immigrants, both legal and illegal, to SA for two decades. Facing mounting pressure from a viral #PutSouthAfricaFirst wave that is backed by overzealous and unrestrained parody social media accounts, the ANC has found itself with no choice but to treat the Zimbabwe situation as urgent.
Following a spate of statesponsored abductions in Zimbabwe and growing dissatisfaction of citizens with unfettered state corruption, Zimbabweans took to social media to plead for the world’s audience. The hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter was born. Its reach is wide and its force is strong. It also caught the SA frequency well.
The world has always, for some reason, afforded SA the prime responsibility of the Zimbabwean situation. The SA government had to make a move. In August, it deployed former minister Dr Sydney Mufamadi and former deputy president and parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete as special government envoys to have a discussion with Zimbabwean government officials on human rights abuse allegations.
In true junta style, the Zimbabwean government restricted the envoy from meeting opposition parties. The diplomatic trip lost its subject and the envoy returned with only one side of the story.
There is no denial that Zimbabwe’s socio-economic problems are political problems and that the advent of Zimbabwe’s degeneration is political. The situation is now so horrible that diplomacy will not assist. The only hope for a meaningful engagement is a direct discussion between the ANC and ZanuPF.
The ANC followed up the government’s special envoy with its own high-profile delegation led by secretary-general Ace Magashule. The delegation is now remembered for the means with which it went to Zimbabwe rather than the end it was seeking. They went aboard a state-owned defence force jet, in the company of defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Of course this is a worrying transgression of the principle of separation of party and state, but one thing must be understood clearly — the ANC had to go to Zimbabwe. Spending time on the mode of transport should not divert from the urgent matter on the ground.
Social development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, a member of the ANC delegation to Zimbabwe and the head of international relations in the ANC, has since admitted there is a political crisis in Zimbabwe.
There always has been. She has also conceded that SA has to intervene into the affairs of Zimbabwe because Zimbabwean problems are SA problems. These were also the words of the late MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai. He repeatedly advised the SA government that Zimbabwean problems are SA’s domestic problems.
The SA government has over the years resorted to tightening immigration policy in an effort to curb the mass movement of foreigners into SA. This effort has failed dismally to restrict the bulk inward movement of foreign nationals because it addresses the problem at the mouth of the river and not the source.
The risk mass migration of Zimbabweans to SA poses is beyond socio-economic — there is a serious security risk. Recently the government of SA, through the department of public works, erected a security fence along the Limpopo border. The feebleness and unsuitability of the fence, and the tender process around it, dominated the news after it was quickly torn down by crossing immigrants.
However, the main issue here is not the fence. It is about the brazen disregard for national boundaries by journeying immigrants. This is a serious security risk.
Unfortunately, the agenda of the official government engagement between Mapisa-Nqakula and her Zimbabwean counterpart Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri centred on the Mozambique insurgency and not the security risk posed by droves of unverified immigrants from Zimbabwe coming into SA by the day.
While the Mozambique insurgency is an urgent matter too, it is better left to the SADC portfolio for defence and security. Otherwise, between the ANC and Zanu-PF, what should top the agenda is the clampdown on individual liberties, press freedom and human rights in Zimbabwe.
Magashule expressed concern over overwhelming reports of human rights abuses coming from Zimbabwe. That both he, as secretary-general of the ANC, as well as Zulu as head of international relations in the ANC, who publicly admitted there is a problem in Zimbabwe inspires hope towards an objective and frank intervention.
However, the record of ANC leadership and the SA government as adjudicators in Zimbabwe’s past problems tells us to be cautious. In 2002, the SA government legitimised an illegitimate Zanu-PF victory attained through an unfree and unfair election by adopting a biased view of the SA Observer Mission and unlawfully hiding away the Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke report.
In 2008, then president Thabo Mbeki gave Zanu-PF a lifeline and the people of Zimbabwe a temporary solution through the Government of National Unity. In 2018, after another robbery of the people’s will by Zanu-PF and more killing of peaceful protesters by security forces, former president Kgalema Motlanthe chaired a commission of inquiry that was highly compromised. The commission failed to heal the wounds of the people of Zimbabwe.
In the midst of mounting pressure from domestic politics and the international community, the ANC should see to it that it delivers justice to the people of Zimbabwe and ensure order is restored north of Limpopo, not for anybody’s sake but for the sake of its own country.
It must shackle the fictitious sister-party bond that has bred a catastrophic bias in its handling of the Zimbabwe situation.
Tinashe Mutema is an economist and political analyst