Ramaphosa’s appointment of special envoys a good move, BUT…

While Zimbabwe’s main opposition MDC Alliance has welcomed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s move to appoint special envoys to asses the crisis in the troubled southern African country, the Nelson Chamisa-led party has raised concerns over the integrity of the appointees the African National Congress (ANC) leader made.

Ramaphosa recently appointed the duo of Sydney Mufamadi and Baleka Mbete as his special envoys to Zimbabwe amid amplified worries of human rights abuses largely blamed on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu PF party.

But the opposition has casted serious doubts about both the credibility and the impartiality of Ramaphosa’s special envoys who are set to visit Harare on a fact finding mission.

“The response by South Africa government to send a special envoy to assess the Zimbabwean crisis is a step in the right direction but credibility of any envoy matters,” said Stephen Chuma, the MDC-A Youth Assembly national spokesperson in a statement on Saturday.

“What we need is a credible special envoy comprising of people with unquestionable mediatory credentials and moral probity. Of course when your house is on fire you do not necessarily choose who comes to douse the flames but it is equally important to be very cautious of some knavish characters who would add petrol to the blazing house,” he said.

Chuma, who is also known as Sarkozy in political circles, said Ramaphosa must not treat the problems bedeviling Zimbabwe as an inter-party dispute but rather, as a crisis affecting the entire nation.

“While we appreciate that President Cyril Ramaphosa has been captured by the current Zimbabwean crisis, it important that he must not treat the current crisis as an inter party dispute,” Chuma said.

According to the youth assembly publicist who is also on police wanted list with several other opposition figures, Mufamadi is ‘a compromised character who is benefiting from the current corrupt system where he is a beneficiary of mining syndicates at the expense of suffering Zimbabwean citizens’.

Speaking of Mbete, Chuma said:

“(She) is the very same character who hero worshipped Emmerson Mnangagwa by sanitizing the coup, hence her impartiality and integrity is a cause for concern”.

He further argues that by appointing envoys from the ANC alone, Ramaphosa was ‘belittling’ the crisis in Zimbabwe to an inter-party dispute.

Chuma says ‘we better have a credible SADC and/or AU member delegation that is not compromised’ to intervene in Zimbabwe’s perrenial problems.

Zwnews