EDITORIAL COMMENT IT has been amusing listening to Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF party have a go at its South African counterpart, the African National Congress (ANC), for daring to tell it that it was mismanaging the affairs in this country and that its failures were causing a big problem for the region, and especially for its southern neighbour. For the second time in two months, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa sent envoys to try and find a solution to Zimbabwe’s political gridlock that has left Africa’s potential bread winner at the top of the beggars’ list. Not content with being an international pariah, Zanu PF’s leadership appears to be now aiming yesterday for regional ostracisation with attacks on the very few allies it has left. At the very least, ANC’s initiative is an acknowledgement that the country is neither peaceful nor stable. While they may have been diplomatic at the Press briefing after their Wednesday indaba in Harare, the ANC delegation felt no need to sugar-coat the situation in the county once they were back in the safe grounds of their country. The situation in Zimbabwe, they said, was dire. It is obvious to all but the blind that Zimbabwe is not a democracy and that civilian rule is in name only. If one doubts that, they only had to listen to one Patrick Chinamasa. Shorn of the podium usually presented by a ministerial post, the Zanu PF acting spokesperson is making the most of his temporary posting in the continued absence of the stricken Simon Khaya Moyo. “We are an independent sovereign country. We agreed in our meeting that we are equal sovereign states,” he declared. “South Africa has no mediatory role to play in Zimbabwe. We know that the South African government is controlled by white men. Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa.” Chinamasa is a reasonable man on the balance of his record in the public service, but his statements lately have the feel of a man who feels he needs to shout loud and however stupidly for a place at the top table, where only the vampirical vultures can survive. “We don’t want complaints from anyone, even the US ambassador. We are grateful to our security forces; it is a warning that our security forces will defend this country,” he told us. That last statement is exactly what is wrong in the country, a crisis of militarisation of the State and society in Zimbabwe and democracy is dead. All democratic forces are in danger and President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF have dropped any pretensions of democracy and have mortgaged the country on their greed for power.
