BY THE CHAIRMAN: JULIUS MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Communities Point is disturbed by the recent reckless statement of the African National Congress Comrade Gwede Manthashe in which he all but stated that COSATU, Zimbabwe’s main opposition the Movement for Democratic Change and Zambia’s ruling party Movement for Multi-Party Democracy are agents of what he termed “regime change”: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-3738-COSATU+plotting+regime+change+ANC/news.aspx
In trying to qualify his statement with his attack on ANC own partner Congress of South African Trade Unions, Comrade Manthashe seemed to operate under the unfortunate illusion that opposition to former liberation movements is unheard of and that post-liberation political opposition derives from nudging by the West. While Communities Point is not MDC or Zambia’s MMD and will therefore not speak for them we are worried that Africa’s oldest and therefore supposedly the most mature political party is failing to be the guiding light in proffering an African political system that will be progressive and that does not promote the segmentation of its polity into the unnecessary discourses that we have seen playing in Zimbabwe where a genuine opposition has been called names unnecessarily.
The identities of the leadership of the three formations that call themselves MDC are MDC-T, MDC and MDC-99 and these are led respectively by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, Professor Arthur Mutambara and Mr Job Sikhala all of whom were not imported from any foreign country but are all nationals of the country. Mr Tsvangirai was born in Buhera which is in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe and he is a former Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the largest Zimbabwean trade union and a one time ally of ZANU PF. Professor Mutambara also hails from Manicaland Province and is a former student leader. Mr Job Sikhala was born in Gutu in Masvingo Province which is also in Zimbabwe and he is a former student leader. Not only is Comrade Manthashe’s allegation of “regime change” agenda inaccurate because it lacks substance but it is mischievous as it was made by a person who either does not have a clue of where Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces are or it is a deliberate ploy to mislead his audience into believing that there is an alien invasion in Zimbabwe which is of course very false.
THE HEGEMONIC ROLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
The utterances are further disturbing given the mediation role that South Africa is playing in Zimbabwe. It will be difficult for processes in which President Zuma is the mediator to be free from public scrutiny as the Secretary General of his party seems to be saying that ANC will do all it can to prevent the democratic will of Zimbabweans in its own bid to prevent “regime change” by COSATU. We are further disturbed by the term “regime change” in the context of democracy. We believe that the business of opposition political parties is to win elections and change governments, in other words the obvious agenda of opposition political parties has always been regime change. We are therefore perturbed at the attempts by the ANC Secretary General to criminalise opposition parties in Zimbabwe and worse still to criminalise Zambia’s ruling party.
South Africa is clearly confused about its responsibilities as the political and economic hegemony on the African continent. In modern politics that role is not prescriptive but mediatory and taking sides as what the ANC Secretary General seems keen on doing will not show South Africa in good light. It is difficult to understand why the same ANC that allows a thriving opposition in its own country and which has even gone to the extent of entering into an electoral pact by the architects of apartheid, the National Party, and which even governed with apartheid era President de Klerk as its Vice President does not wish the same for Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The hypocrisy in that is so clear because Zimbabweans also want the same racial harmony that South Africans enjoy and all they asked for is for real democracy to emerge. Communities Point is led by people whose legacies are in the liberation struggle with our parents, brothers and sisters having taken part in the liberation of the country. We believe the same applies to most people in MDC. The attempt to paint opponents of ZANU PF with exclusivity is irresponsible because the main judgment against ZANU PF is by Zimbabweans since they are the ones that have been affected by positively or negatively by its governance. The electorate that voted ZANU into power in 1980 is the same Zimbabwean electorate that voted overwhelmingly against it in 2008 and the statement of the ANC serves only to extend the falsehoods we have heard repeatedly from ZANU PF.
AGGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY
We now call upon Comrade Manthashe and the ANC to retract his statement as it all but shows that where Zimbabwe is concerned, ANC and South Africa have a side and the three MDCs and Zimbabweans can only trust them at their own peril. Furthermore we find the ANC’s attitude on the ruling party in Zambia unacceptable and tantamount to interference in the sovereign matters of a member of SADC and may qualify not as “regime change” but as a clear threat on the sovereignty of Zambia. This will be aggressive foreign policy because it disrespects the manifest will of the people Zimbabwe and Zambia by questioning their choices of government and trying to impose governments of South Africa’s and ANC’s choice. Such a development is clearly unacceptable.
www.communitiespoint.com or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or Julius.mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 00447529705413
cc Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
Zimbabwe African People’s Union
Movement for Democratic Change- led by Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change led by Arthur Mutambara
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy- Zambia
Movement for Democratic Change-99
Southern African Development Community
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