Zanu-PF dares SA, Botswana

THE ruling Zanu-PF has pooh-poohed on the ongoing mediation efforts by fellow liberation movements in the region to resolve Zimbabwe's political logjam, with the party's national political commissar Victor Matemadanda saying South Africa and Botswana were least qualified to mentor the country on governance issues.

Addressing a Manicaland provincial party meeting in Mutare at the weekend, Matemadanda said South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party lacked moral standing to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis as it was yet to attain full independence.

This came as a 10-member ANC delegation, led by the party's secretary-general Ace Magashule, is expected in Harare today for a party-to-party dialogue aimed at resolving the country's worsening human rights and economic crises.

"There is no country that can talk about land reform apart from Zimbabwe and Guatemala on this earth. Guatemala failed and now Zimbabwe is the only country holding fort, and now you have people who have never taken an inch of their land, they want to lecture us telling us about a crisis in this country," Matemadanda said.

"They even failed to have their own national anthems, they have even failed to enjoy their independence. Some have not yet attained independence and yet they want to involve themselves in an independent country's issues."

South African President Cyril Rhamaposa is dispatching special envoys to Harare for the second time in two months to deal with the political crisis in the country.

Matemadanda ruled out suggestions that the country was in a crisis, saying only the land question needed to be resolved and that was the centre of the problem.

"The American project, the European Union project called the MDC Alliance has died a natural death, and now the effort that is there from the imperialist world is to resuscitate the MDC by causing confusion in our party. People are losing focus now that there is no MDC and now they are saying crisis, crisis.

"We can't be lectured on human rights. For close to a hundred years, we were being denied the basic right to vote and be voted for."

The Zanu-PF politburo member also attacked South African opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, labelling him a political delinquent.

"This is a revolutionary party. Do you think we should sit down to hear what (EFF leader Julius) Malema wants to tell us what to do?

"Or that we can listen to him as he speaks, the same person fired from ANC for failing to respect party protocol and order? A person that was ruled out of order by his political party now becomes a champion of peace in Zimbabwe, nonsense," he said.

Matemadanda had no kind words for former Botswana President Ian Khama saying he was incapable of talking sense after failing to have a family of his own.

"There is another man who has a crisis of not knowing whether he is black or white, he is in Botswana, but worse, he has never been able to convince just one woman to be his. That is Ian Khama," he charged.

"A man who has never married to say I want to involve myself in the issues of Zimbabwe, when you don't have the courage of telling a woman that you love her. Zimbabwe is above that level of being advised by men who have never married. We have better things to think of and do."

Last week, soon after Ramaphosa announced that he would dispatch another team to Harare, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba attacked the southern African nation, saying it was the least qualified to resolve the "crisis" in Zimbabwe.

Charamba described South Africa as a young democracy whose role in Sadc was questionable due to the continued domination of the Afrikaners in her economic affairs.