South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa’s envoys have been barred from meeting Zimbabwe’s main opposition party MDC Alliance. Pretoria sent Baleka Mbete and Sydney Mufumadi to Harare on a fact finding mission following the outcry of Zimbabweans on social media over human rights abuses currently happening in the country.
MDC Alliance has released a statement to air their displeasure with the development.
“STATEMENT ON CANCELLATION OF MEETING BY SPECIAL ENVOYS APPOINTED BY CYRIL RAMAPHOSA
The MDC Alliance was formally requested to be available for a meeting today, the 10th of August 2020, with the special envoys that were deployed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to Zimbabwe. A delegation remained on standby from 10am this morning only to be advised at the end of the day that the special envoys would be returning to South Africa without meeting the MDC Alliance delegation, in order to brief President Ramaphosa on the outcomes of their meeting with Mr Mnangagwa.
We can only assume that the failure to meet the MDC Alliance delegation was as a result of demands made by the Zanu PF delegation.
We reiterate that Zimbabwe is in a state of crisis that has been characterized by a de facto state of emergency, a crackdown on citizens, abductions, arbitrary arrests of government critics and the political persecution of journalists.
The Government in Harare is incapable of resolving these challenges because it lacks legitimacy. We are of the firm view that any solution to the ongoing socio-economic challenges lies in resolving the political crisis and answering the outstanding legitimacy question. It is clear that Mr Mnanangagwa is not ready to resolve the national crisis through genuine dialogue. However, the deteriorating plight of the Zimbabwean people means that a political settlement is more urgent than before. We will continue to mount pressure on Mr Mnangagwa to engage in sincere dialogue until the national crisis is resolved.
Fadzayi Mahere National Spokesperson”