Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa during his visit to Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe’s farm. (Photo: Presidency/X)
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa’s unofficial visit to Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe’s private residence over the weekend raised eyebrows. Mnangagwa received Ramaphosa on Sunday at his farm in Zimbabwe.
The visit comes amid the controversial proposed constitutional amendment that would allow Mnangagwa to serve longer as president of Zimbabwe – longer than the Zimbabwean constitution currently allows.
The DA also condemned Ramaphosa’s visit to a “dictator”.
“As a member of the Government of National Unity (GNE), the DA rejects the ANC’s attempts to openly fraternize with neighboring dictators and deny the lived reality of millions of persecuted Zimbabweans who consequently live in an international no-man’s land,” says Ryan Smith, the DA’s spokesperson on international relations and cooperation.
Smith warns that the recently published Constitution Amendment Bill no. 3 could potentially mean unlimited presidential terms for ZANU-PF under the guise of technical reforms to electoral cycles and government structures.
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa during his visit to Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe’s farm. (Photo: Presidency/X)
‘Zimbabwean Guptas’ hang out
According to the presidency, Ramaphosa’s visit to Mnangagwa was simply a “personal catch-up session between two neighbours” to discuss issues of mutual and bilateral interest.
But Ramaphosa was not Mnangagwa’s only visiting guest.
Controversial Zimbabwean businessmen Wicknell Chivhayo and Kudakwashe Tagwirei were also there. Chivhayo and Tagwirei are known as the “Zimbabwe Guptas”.
Smith says the businessmen’s presence raises serious questions about Ramaphosa’s apparent support for regional corruption and state capture on an international scale.
“What was the point of the Zondo commission of R1 billion if President Ramaphosa himself learned nothing from the outcome?” Smith asked Monday.
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa during his visit to Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe’s farm. (Photo: Presidency/X)
“Although the presidency tried to describe this visit as a ‘personal reception between two neighbours’, it is blatantly clear that South African foreign policy under the ANC is once again putting aside our constitutional values of freedom, democracy and human rights in favor of supporting the African brotherhood of despots and dictators that the ANC relies on for regional support.
“It is obvious that the ANC has no interest in the regional stability of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or its members, as the South African government continues to pretend that nothing is wrong in neighboring democracies; that civilians are not killed in the streets by their governments, or that opposition members are not violently suppressed and confined.”
Smith believes it was already telling when Ramaphosa and Ronald Lamola, minister of international relations and cooperation, remained silent when Mnangagwa and his government had the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Tendai Biti, arrested in March.
State authorities detained Biti, leader of the Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF), in March this year along with other party members and a local journalist in the town of Mutare, as they tried to encourage greater public participation against the proposed constitutional amendment.
Smith claims Zimbabwe’s democratic decline is the sole reason for the immigration crisis that South Africa has been subjected to since the late 90s.
“However, it is not the people of Zimbabwe who are to blame for many fleeing to South Africa for a better life,” he says.
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa during his visit to Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe’s farm. (Photo: Presidency/X)
“It is President Ramaphosa and the ANC who continue to ignore human rights violations and democratic hijacking in their own backyard out of pure political convenience.
“As long as South Africa refuses to stand up and condemn dictators and human rights abusers on our continent, our country will forever be the only place of asylum for the refugees the ANC continues to create.”
Smith believes Sunday’s visit is just another example of the ANC’s diplomatic hypocrisy, “as the party selectively condemns human rights violations elsewhere in the world while ignoring the same acts next door. The ANC does not address human rights violations as a matter of principle, the party only does so where it can make political money.
“It is unsustainable and deeply unprincipled for the ANC to maintain the status quo of democratic takeover on the African continent. Tens of thousands of South Africans have died in the fight for freedom, but today the ANC sits side by side with the enemies of freedom right across the continent.”
Maroela Media sent an inquiry to the presidency on Monday afternoon and is awaiting a response.