The African National Congress of South Africa (ANC) says Zimbabwe?s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must be allowed to hold public meetings if this year?s parliamentary elections are to be declared free and fair. ANC secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe told journalists after the party?s national executive committee meeting that he was worried that the MDC still required permission from the police to hold public meetings. (18-JAN-05)
This article was originally published in yesterday?s issue of the independent Zimbabwean newspaper the Daily News. It has been edited for republication here.
“We have been concerned about several things. The MDC is a party that is represented in parliament and it controls several municipalities. This position impairs their ability to interact with their constituencies. “Over the years we have been continually saying to them that you cannot have a properly registered party restricted in this way,” Motlanthe said. He also confirmed that his party will continue to talk to the ruling Zanu PF over the MDC’s concerns.
Is Mugabe losing even his most loyal friend now?
President Thabo Mbeki’s ANC and government have in the past come under fire over their quiet diplomacy and failure to condemn the ruling Zanu PF government’s dictatorial and undemocratic practices in Zimbabwe. Now that the MDC has threatened to boycott the March election if Mugabe does not conform to the Southern African Development Community guidelines and principles for free and fair elections, it seems that ANC’s stand on the issue has taken at least one step away from its former die-hard loyalty and silent, bit no less uncompromising or uncritical support of President Mugabe and his politics, whatever they might be.
-Positive signal
-Given the hostile fragility of the political situation in Zimbabwe, and the widly agreed opinion that Mugabe can only hold on to the presidency for as long as Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries quietly let him, signals of this kind, that as influential a player in the politics of the region as ANC now seems to be running out of patience with Mugabe’s and his party’s increasingly brutal power abuse, must be considered positive, despite the dangers that the country may well fall into total chaos should Mugabe?s reign come to an end, says Niels Jacob Harbitz, HRH’s project manager for East Africa. -Such signals are also exactly what Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders have been askiong for, for instance when they visited the Human Rights House in Oslo two months ago, Harbitz adds.
