Source: Zanu PF’s foul arrogance – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 5th September 2020
President Ramaphosa is to send another delegation to Zimbabwe following Mnangagwa’s refusal to allow the last South African envoys to meet the opposition to discuss the crisis facing the country.
Ramaphosa, speaking after an ANC meeting, said the party had resolved that it must engage all stockholders. He added that South Africa felt the challenges facing its neighbour and was keen to see an end to the crisis.
The MDC welcomed the decision but Mnanagagwa’s spokesman George Charamba was dismissive, saying that South Africa over-estimated its capacity to solve conflicts on the continent.
With typical Zanu PF pretentious arrogance he said: ‘Whence comes this impression that South Africa can intervene in Zimbabwe, assuming there are grounds for such intervention? On what basis, what might, what capacity, beyond that of solidarity, camaraderie and good-natured concern by a neighbour?
‘South Africa is the youngest state in our region. It faces myriad problems of a long apartheid. It has no capacity to help any African state in SADC, beyond friendly solidarity. Let that sink into minds of all and sundry.’
Charamba suggested that South Africa could not intervene in Zimbabwe except through SADC: ‘South Africa is no donor state in SADC. If anything, its long apartheid legacy makes its post-1994 subregional role quite problematic for the rest of SADC states who know the continued dominance of Afrikaner capital in SADC does not benefit the ANC or blacks in Soweto or Khayelitsha. That is the sordid truth.
‘South Africa cannot intervene militarily in any SADC country. That lesson was driven home during the Mandela days when it sought to do so in Lesotho. Since that disastrous escapade, South African diplomacy has been tempered and restrained to function within SADC structures, as should be! Just what is the logic and implication of Zimbabweans of insufficient history and national consciousness asking for South African intervention in Zimbabwe outside SADC structures?’
Charamba claimed ‘only Zimbabwe has the capacity to play a stabilising role in SADC’ while accusing South Africa of allowing itself to be ‘instrumentalised’ by Western powers against Zimbabwe. (See: https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-191365.html.)
The insulting language employed by such Zanu PF extremists as Charamba is characteristic of deranged cults as they approach Armageddon, displaying what psychiatrists might categorise as Tourette’s syndrome, when people say offensive things because they just can’t help it.
In last week’s diary we reported Zanu PF’s paranoid attack on senior South African official Lindiwe Zulu for saying there is a crisis in Zimbabwe. We refrained from mentioning that she was called ‘a stupid and idiotic street girl’ . . .
Recently the Ambassador of Zimbabwe’s most generous aid provider, the United States, was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ (meaning a black person who sides with the whites) for speaking of a crisis in Zimbabwe. Then there were the gratuitous insults levelled at the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Harare Robert Ndlovu. He was basically called an evil traitor for criticising the government’s handling of the situation. And of course human rights activists in Zimbabwe are routinely reviled as ‘foreign agents’ and accused of inciting violence . . .
Other Points:
- Zanu PF is scornful of other Africans, dislikes whites but loves the Chinese, even though they are notoriously racist towards black people, who they regard as less than human. Despite bitter clashes with their Zimbabwean workers, the Chinese are being given a free run in Zimbabwe and have now begun a exploring for coal in the protected Hwange National Park. One of the leading wildlife conservation organisations, Bhejane Trust, said Zimparks rangers arrested some Chinese they found drilling. They delivered them to the police but they soon reappeared with a permit giving them the right to carry out exploration drilling. Apparently with no consultations, President Mnangagwa had granted special concessions to two Chinese companies (see: https://allafrica.com/stories/202009030350.html).
- Because of the coronavirus we can no longer physically meet outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London, so we have a virtual Vigil while the lockdown continues. We ask our activists to put on Vigil / ROHR / Zimbabwe regalia and take a photo of themselves holding an appropriate poster reflecting our protest against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The photos are uploaded on our Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/albums/72157715776546702.
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COMMENTS
I agree with this article which has pointed out ZANU PDF’s arrogance. In the past few days, I was following discussions conducted by the media on the Zimbabwe situation by SABC & Aljzeera. During the discussions by panellists from ZANU PF, Prof Ibbo Mandaza, Dewu Mavhinga, Pigou (from SA), it was annoying to observe the arrogance of ZANU PF members such as Matuke , Obert Gutu, Nick Mangwana & Bright Matonga behaving as if they were discussing with their ZANU PF hoodlums who have no capacity to reason.
Pigou from SA correctly pointed out that it is pointless discussing with ZANU PF apologists as they are not genuinely open to sharing ideas on national issues such the state of human rights issues. It was clear that these apologists are arrogant and impervious to reasoning rationally as if they are handsomely paid to defend the indefensible.
Honestly how can they say those questioning the human rights issues in Zimbabwe have a regime change narrative in front of glaring evidence that Joanna Mamombe and her two colleagues were abducted, tortured and sexually abused by alleged state agents; a young person Tawanda Muchehiwa was abducted and tortured by state agents and yet they talk and behave as if they don’t know about it.
The government has denied a hand in these human rights abuses and several other abductions at times alleging that there is a third force behind the abductions as well that the abductions are stage-managed. To highlight the state’s hypocrisy, the security forces responded promptly in hunting down two gunners who murdered a soldier and seriously injured another soldier in Chivhu over the weekend, capturing and killing them in no time. The logical question is why have the security agents not hunted down those who stage-managed the Joanna Mamombe and her two colleagues who were alleged to haves been armed; those who stage-managed Dr Magombeyi’s abduction and torture; Tawanda Muchehiwa’s abductors and torturers who were reported to be armed. To date no arrests have been made and yet the culprits were reported to be armed. Why is there no appetite to hunt these culprits down if they are not state agents.
ZANU PF should stop nauseating people by their unintelligent utterances and denials as if they addressing imbeciles when facts and evidence is there for all who care to look at such issues rationally.