Mind own business; ZANU PF tells ‘Ramaphosa special envoy’ off

The ruling ZANU PF has chided South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his party for trying to find a lasting solution in Zimbabwe, saying SA is least qualified to mentor the country on governance issues.

The statement has been made at the time Ramaphosa’s special envoy is expected in Zimbabwe today, and seem to poured cold water on the ongoing mediation efforts by fellow liberation movements in the region to resolve Zimbabwe’s political impasse.

Apparently, few months ago, Ramaphosa sent his special envoy to Harare, on a fact finding mission after allegations of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, but they were denied the opportunity to meet other stakeholders.

And addressing a Manicaland provincial party meeting in Mutare at the weekend, the party’s national political commissar Victor Matemadanda said South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party lacked moral standing to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis as if it was yet to attain full independence.

This came as a 10-member ANC delegation, led by the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule, is expected in Harare today for a party-to-party dialogue aimed at resolving the country’s worsening human rights and economic crises.

“There is no country that can talk about land reform apart from Zimbabwe and Guatemala on this earth.

“Guatemala failed and now Zimbabwe is the only country holding fort, and now you have people who have never taken an inch of their land, they want to lecture us telling us about a crisis in this country,” Matemadanda said.

“They even failed to have their own national anthems, they have even failed to enjoy their independence. Some have not yet attained independence and yet they want to involve themselves in an independent country’s issues.”

South African President Cyril Rhamaposa is dispatching special envoys to Harare for the second time in two months to deal with the political crisis in the country.

Matemadanda ruled out suggestions that the country was in a crisis, saying only the land question needed to be resolved and that was the centre of the problem.

“The American project, the European Union project called the MDC Alliance has died a natural death, and now the effort that is there from the imperialist world is to resuscitate the MDC by causing confusion in our party.

“People are losing focus now that there is no MDC and now they are saying crisis, crisis.

“We can’t be lectured on human rights. For close to a hundred years, we were being denied the basic right to vote and be voted for,” he said.

-Newsday