Zanu-PF, ANC in crucial crisis talks

A DELEGATION of the South African ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, which arrived in Harare last night, will today hold a crucial indaba with the Zanu PF Central Committee to discuss challenges bedevilling the region and come up remedies of tackling them.

Upon arrival at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the South African ruling party would hold closed-door meetings with their Zanu PF counterparts led by secretary for Administration, Obert Mpofu today.

"We are going to have a meeting with Zanu PF to discuss various issues," said Magushule.

In an earlier communiqué, Magashule said the meeting between the two parties was a bilateral engagement of former liberation movements requested by the national executive council (NEC) of the ANC to exchange notes on matters affecting the region.

Apart from Magashule, the ANC delegation includes, party national chairman Samson Gwede Mantashe, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (member of the NEC and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans), Tony Yengeni (member of the NEC and National Working Committee (NWC), and chairperson of the NEC on Peace and Stability), Lindiwe Zulu (member of the NEC, chairperson of the NEC on International Relations and Minister of Social Development) and Enoch Godongwana (member of NEC and chairperson of the NEC on Economic Transformation.

"We would like to have bilateral discussions with the leadership of the Central Committee of Zanu PF. We are looking forward to fruitful and constructive engagements between our two sister parties," read the communiqué from Magashule, in part.

The ANC delegation was met at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by a team led by Defence Minister and ZANU PF national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.

In a statement, Zanu PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said the ANC delegation would only meet with Zanu PF as the two parties were sister parties with a shared history, and today faced similar threats from detractors who among other things wanted to manufacture a non-existent crisis in the region.

Chinamasa said Zanu PF would use the bilateral engagement with its sister party to clear the unfounded assertions of a crisis in Zimbabwe.

"The ANC delegation will meet the Zanu PF delegation led by the Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu as part of party to party engagements. We are also aware that this visit is taking place against the backdrop of false claims of a nation in crisis. Zanu PF will take the opportunity to share the reality on the ground in Zimbabwe, South Africa and in the region candidly and frankly with their revolutionary sister the ANC.

"Following enquiries from various quarters and our friends from the media in particular on the purpose of this meeting. Zanu PF wishes to make it categorically clear that this is a meeting between the Zanu PF delegation and the ANC delegation only," said Chinamasa.

In their attempt to amplify a doomsday scenario in Zimbabwe, Western embassies, working with the opposition in Zimbabwe have engaged the services of South African and the local media to manufacture a non-existent crisis by churning unsubstantiated reports of a country that is in a crisis.

It is in this regard that the ANC team is expected to be debriefed by the Zanu PF team on the true picture obtaining in the country that include President Mnangagwa's open door policy with all Zimbabweans and his re-engagements efforts that have been lauded world as panacea for bringing the country back to the community of nations. The South African delegation will leave Zimbabwe tomorrow.