editorial comment
Zanu PF has never taken constructive criticism well, no matter the source.
For two months, the ruling party’s officials have been taking turns to insult and threaten organisations and countries that have been calling for a resolution to the multifaceted crisis facing the country.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa variously called Zimbabweans that characterised the problems bedevilling Zimbabwe as bad apples, rogue elements and dark forces, among many uncomplimentary names.
Ahead of the much hyped visit by ANC officials last week for meetings with Zanu PF, the ruling party was itching to get backing from the South Africans for its narrative that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF boasted that as a fellow liberation movement, the ANC would appreciate that those who say there is a crisis in Zimbabwe were pushing a foreign agenda to justify the persecution of the country.
The ANC came and they saw, they were convinced that indeed Zimbabwe was facing a deep-rooted crisis that needed outside intervention.
They reasoned that the only solution would be to get Zimbabweans talking among themselves and the ANC made a commitment to return for more engagements with the opposition and civil society.
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Zanu PF, however, came out guns blazing on Friday claiming that the South African government was controlled by white people, hence the move by the ANC to talk openly about the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Patrick Chinamasa, the acting Zanu PF spokesperson, charged that Zimbabwe was not a province of South Africa to warrant Pretoria’s intervention in local politics.
Chinamasa’s response, though expected from a party that always has a propensity to live in denial and believing in its own propaganda, was a new low.
The reality is that the region, not just South Africa, is fed up with the man-made disaster that is Zimbabwe and there is a realisation that the post-Covid-19 economy would be very harsh.
South Africa, which is home to millions of Zimbabwean economic refugees, will not be able to handle the pressure from its own citizens who will become more dependent on the state for survival.
Absorbing more economic refugees from a failed state on its doorstep will be a tough task.
The ANC is alive to those realities and is trying to be proactive by engaging Zanu PF to put its house in order.
The sooner the Zanu PF mandarins realise that the region is getting fed up with the party’s failure to govern, the better for them.
