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Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu, December 12, 2017 (Photo: Kopano Tlape GCIS)
Minister Lindiwe Zulu has defended the ANC’s use of a military plane to fly to Zimbabwe, and the relevance of the former liberation movements was questioned during a webinar on neighborhood relations.
The ANC did not go to Zimbabwe to “take a walk,” said Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu at an online seminar organized by the ANC’s OR Tambo School of Leadership on Wednesday evening.
“There was no other way we could have gone there,” she said, apparently irritated by criticism from opposition parties that ANC members had abused state resources.
Criticisms of an ANC delegation that boarded an Air Force plane earlier this month to meet with their counterparts at Zanu-PF did not come specifically during the seminar, which was addressed by staunch party scholar Pallo Jordan and veteran Zimbabwean analyst Ibbo Mandaza. but Zulu commented during the question and answer session.
Zulu said the ANC team had been “ordered by the National Executive Committee” to go, hinting that due to the Covid-19 shutdown, it had no other means to reach Harare.
Officials met with Zanu-PF over challenges (most have called it a crisis) in Zimbabwe, but Zulu, with Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, apparently went there. first of all in their official capacity to meet with their counterparts on government affairs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa requested a report on how party officials came to benefit from a taxpayer-paid flight, while the ANC promised to return the money even as the party’s study group in Parliament found the trip it was justified. .
“It’s very unfortunate that there is all this media drama and statements being made,” Zulu said. “I can tell you right now that we had one of the most open, honest and frank meetings, in both directions, to the point that the general secretary of Zanu-PF [most likely a reference to Obert Mpofu] He said that this is almost the first meeting that we have had of this nature where the comrades said: ‘Yes, we are liberation movements, yes, we have been in the trenches, but how relevant are we today as liberation movements? Do we really see the opportunities for us to come together and respond to the needs of our people? ‘”
Mandaza, however, did not think so. “Lindiwe is exaggerating the role of the old liberation movements,” he said, “unnecessarily, especially with regard to Zimbabwe.”
He speculated that it could be a “public relations stunt on his part to make amends with Zanu-PF.”
After the ANC meeting, Zulu has backed away from his much more critical stance the previous month, when he said there was a “crisis” in Zimbabwe.
Mandaza continued: “She must know, as we all know, Zanu-PF is very battered as a party, it depends on the military, but most important of all, it is completely naive and self-indulgent on anyone’s part. Including herself, to think that Zanu-PF can change the fortunes of Zimbabwe. “
Mandaza also commented on the fact that the ANC had not met with anyone outside of Zanu-PF, as Ramaphosa, at an ANC briefing the previous week, had promised the party, and how his envoys I tried to do during your visit the previous month.
“I think it is very important in the interest of national dialogue that South African mediation should encourage what is left of Zanu-PF, what is left of the state of Zimbabwe, which is in decline, to involve other political parties and civil society in national dialogue ”to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, he said.
“Zanu-PF is nothing like a liberation movement, despite its claims to the contrary. She has lost her soul a long time ago. “
Mandaza also said that on the part of South Africa, “it is naive to expect that the ANC alone can solve the problems that are here and so real in our countries. As former liberation movements, we must not allow ourselves self-denial of the kind that was seen in Harare. It’s time for introspection like never before. “
He said the talks between South Africa and Zimbabwe should also address issues such as the trade imbalance, the illicit export of minerals to South Africa, some through collusion by elites, and the exodus of skilled workers from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Jordan, who has kept a low profile after resigning from leadership positions in 2014 after lying about having a PhD, also criticized the ANC’s soft and gentle approach to Zanu-PF, as well as comments from officials of the Zanu-PF who accuse the ANC. interference.
“They don’t need to ask you for help when your neighbor’s house is on fire. Your neighbor might well say, ‘No, no, no, I can handle this, you don’t need to come help me’, but the neighbor should never interpret the offer of help as an attempt to interfere, and I think, unfortunately, that’s the spirit in which the Zimbabwean comrades have received interventions from the ANC.
“The ANC is not perfect and does not claim to be perfect, and I will never suggest that they are perfect. But I think the spirit in which the ANC delegation came to Zimbabwe was not to interfere in Zimbabwe affairs, but as a good neighbor who sees the house on fire and comes to help.
“And in any case, even when your neighbor says, ‘I can handle this,’ it is in your interest to help your neighbor put out the fire, because that fire could spread to your house,” he said.
Along the same lines, Jordan said, it was important for the region to do something about the insurgency in Mozambique and treat it as a problem that affects the entire region, rather than as a national problem.
“In terms of the region, we need to put in place that framework in which countries act collectively,” he said. “The difficulties we face are much more difficult than each country can handle alone.” DM
