OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday
THE South African government on Tuesday condemned the general political violence in parts of Zimbabwe and the latest attacks on businesses.
”South Africa does not, and will never condone the violence seen in the country, excuse the occupation of farms and serious harassment of people in rural and urban areas, and strongly condemns the latest spate of business invasions in Zimbabwe,” said the South African high commissioner (ambassador) to Harare.
In a factfile clarifying South Africa’s position regarding the situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe, High Commissioner Jeremiah Ndou restated President Thabo Mbeki’s remarks on the events in Zimbabwe, saying events there remained of great concern to his government.
The statement recalled that Mbeki once said: ”It is clear that we must deal with the issue of Zimbabwe in order to deal with a negative perception related to what I am told is the ‘fear of contagion’.”
The Zimbabwean political scene has since last year been plagued by violence related to general elections and occupation of white-owned farms by veterans of the country’s liberation war and landless blacks.
While acknowledging the need for land reforms in Zimbabwe, Mbeki said it had to be done in a manner that served the interests of both blacks and whites and ”that it had to be done within the context of law without violence, respecting the fact that people do have property rights.”
”It is quite obvious that we cannot allow a situation … where people occupy the land of others illegally,” the statement quotes Mbeki as saying.
Ndou expressed his government’s concern over the invasion of especially white-owned businesses in Zimbabwe in recent weeks by war veterans, during which at least 16 South African firms came under attack.
”The South African government is very concerned with events in the past few weeks where the business community has been threatened and harassed,” he said.
He said South Africa would continue to work with the Zimbabwean government to solve the crises in the country because ”South Africa cannot accept a perceived signal that foreign investment might not be protected in the region.”
Mbeki has come under fire from some critics for his soft diplomacy on President Robert Mugabe’s handling of the situation in Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Nzuma recently said her country had a responsibility to avoid a ”complete collapse” of Zimbabwe. – AFP