Don’t be distracted, MDC Alliance tells ANC

THE Nelson Chamisa-led opposition MDC Alliance yesterday waded into the fight between ruling parties African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF, urging the ANC not to be distracted in its quest to solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

This was said by MDC Alliance secretary for international relations, Gladys Hlatywayo in an interview with NewsDay, where she described Zanu PF’s threats to spill beans over the ANC leadership as the Zimbabwean ruling party’s antics to bully them.

Hlatywayo was referring to the recent tension between Zanu PF and ANC, which resulted in the South African ruling party bigwigs breathing fire, and ordering Zimbabwe’s ruling party to place its director for information, Tafadzwa Mugwadi, on a leash as his utterances were getting out of hand.

The tiff between the two Southern African

revolutionary parties started after Mugwadi recently threatened to spill the beans over the “real reason” South African leader President Cyril Ramaphosa dispatched a delegation to Zimbabwe.

Mugwadi issued the threats during his social media fights with South African journalist, Sophie Mokoena.

“The ANC should not be distracted from helping Zimbabweans to find a lasting solution to the political crisis,” Hlatywayo said.

“History has shown us that Zanu PF is not a sister party to the ANC. The ANC had relations with Zapu and not Zanu PF and, in fact, Zanu PF worked against the interests of the ANC during the antiapartheid struggle,” she said.

Hlatywayo said a lot of Zimbabweans were flocking to South Africa because they were fleeing the economic crisis caused by the ruling Zanu PF elite, and hence the need for a viable solution.

“It veered off the road a long time ago and that is why millions of Zimbabweans are flocking down south fleeing from political persecution and impoverishment,” she said.

Zanu PF national spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo recently said the ruling party had solid relations with the ANC and called to order any officials issuing unsanctioned statements.

“The ANC of South Africa and Zanu PF enjoy excellent and fraternal relations dating back to the days of our liberation struggle and which continue to blossom up to this day. To suggest that the ANC delegation came to Zimbabwe with a hidden agenda is compound mischief, uninformed, unacceptable and unpatriotic,” Khaya Moyo said.

“The President and first secretary of Zanu PF, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the President of the ANC, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa, called each other in high esteem and no one should attempt to soil this fraternal relationship. We are one people sharing a common liberation history, culture and destiny.”