The ANC has angered the Zimbabwean opposition by backing Zanu-PF
Jaspreet Kindra
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has slammed the African National Congress’s endorsement of the ruling Zanu-PF, accusing South Africa’s ruling party of aligning itself “with despots”.
The MDC has also accused the ANC of misrepresenting what transpired at a meeting between the two parties in Harare last month.
The MDC was reacting to comments by the ANC’s secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe in the Mail & Guardian last week in which he endorsed Zanu-PF’s stand on land, and rejected the notion that Zanu was manipulating the land issue for electoral purposes.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said there was a public perception that the ANC supported despots rather than the democratic process.
He said: “The ANC believes a Zanu-PF victory is assured – they have forgotten how injustice inflames people and makes them defiant. Zanu-PF has publicly rejected peace forums involving all political parties. Why is the ANC’s Kgalema Motlanthe not being truthful about this?”
The secretary general of the MDC, Professor Welshman Ncube, has criticised Motlanthe for “completely misrepresenting” a four-hour meeting he and other MDC officials had with him in Harare last month to discuss an all-party political forum.
As the M&G reported, Motlanthe said that at the meeting the MDC had rejected Motlanthe’s suggestion to form an all- party forum, in an effort to reduce tensions in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s election.
Ncube said during the meeting Tsvangirai and MDC chair Isaac Matonga committed their party to the concept of a peace forum.
“Motlanthe asked us to keep the content of the discussions secret because he said he was involved in a sensitive negotiations process.
“We respected that and have awaited further word from him. On six occasions I have called his mobile and left messages. He has never returned them.”
According to Ncube, Motlanthe asked whether they would participate in a peace committee. “We were very enthusiastic. We said we believed such a structure would work if all political leaders at national, provincial and local level worked to deal with violence. Motlanthe said the ANC believed it had sufficient leverage to persuade Zanu-PF and its political leadership.”
Responding to Motlanthe’s argument in the interview that the Zimbabwean government had “no choice” in resorting to appropriation of land, Ncube said the land issue was a pretext to unleash political violence by war veterans who rely on a Z$2 000 monthly pension from the government. He said black commercial farmers who support the MDC have also come under attack
“We told Motlanthe that Zanu-PF had the power to acquire any land that it deemed necessary for resettlement at any time since April 18 1990, or to put in place a strategy to resettle people. Instead more than 2,5-million hectares of government land set aside for the purpose remain untouched.”
Ncube added: “We looked to South Africa in admiration and hope. It is now a grave disservice to the people of Zimbabwe and the region that they align themselves with despots.”
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