It is time the African National Congress clarifies the real nature of its relationship with Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF, the Democratic Alliance’s acting leader, Douglas Gibson, said in a statement on Sunday.
He was reacting to newspaper reports that ANC officials led by President Thabo Mbeki had met with leading Zanu-PF officials at the ANC’s Johannesburg headquarters to forge closer political ties.
The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that the June meeting was confirmed by ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and Zanu-PF chairperson John Nkomo.
A Zanu-PF member told the Sunday Times that his party had asked the ANC to help it secure a convincing majority in next year’s parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe — thus demanding more than a simple endorsement.
Motlanthe said on Sunday no such agreement had been made, but confirmed an ”open invitation” to Zanu-PF to study the ANC’s success in South Africa. He also denied that the ANC had agreed to make strategists available to Zanu-PF.
Zanu-PF’s Nkomo said his party and the ANC have ”close ties and shared vision in the region”.
In the DA statement, Gibson said: ”The South African public has a right to know what is going on.”
”We need to know exactly how close the ANC and Zanu-PF are. It seems that the relationship between the ANC and Zanu-PF is closer than most people realise.”
The ANC should tell South Africans how it is possible to have such a relationship with a government that:
- Has been criticised by an African Union report for undemocratic practices and human rights abuses;
- Is carrying out what Zimbabwe’s opposition described as ”ethnic cleansing”;
- Has destroyed the rule of law in Zimbabwe;
- Has introduced detention without trial; and
- Has closed down Zimbabwe’s independent media and stopped the foreign media from operating.
Said Gibson: ”The ANC likes to proclaim itself as an honest broker in Zimbabwe, which does not publicly criticise Zanu-PF for fear that it might be counterproductive. That excuse is growing increasingly threadbare.”
The ANC cannot be an honest broker between Zanu-PF and the Zimbabwean opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change, if it maintains covert fraternal relations with Zanu-PF.
”It is time the ANC made a choice: peace progress and democracy in Zimbabwe or still more repression under [President Robert] Mugabe and Zanu-PF.”
The ANC is undermining the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and destroying South Africa’s reputation as a bastion of human rights by surreptitiously supporting Mugabe and his government and applauding their unacceptable conduct, said Gibson.
”Mr Mbeki must break his silence and tell us the truth about Zimbabwe. Is it silent diplomacy or is it covert support?”