SA needs more diplomatic muscle to crack Zimbabwe’s defiant government
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Amid a spiralling economic and political crisis, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa addressed the people of his country on August 4. His speech, though sudden — four days after his government’s violent clampdown on the July 31 citizen protests — was highly anticipated. There may have been a desperate hope among some sections of the bruised citizenry that the president would, perhaps in the remotest of ways, acknowledge their suffering and hint at atoning for the state’s brutality.
However, the “crocodile” neither acknowledged the legitimacy of their widespread grievances against his leadership nor took any responsibility for bringing the country to this precipice. Instead, Mnangagwa argued that his administration “has been undermined by the divisive politics of the opposition, sanctions, cyclones, droughts and now Covid-19”, and blamed widespread protests on “a few rogue Zimbabweans acting in league with foreign detractors”. The president’s speech exposed a tone-deaf and intransigent government at war with its long-suffering citizens.
For the past two decades Zimbabwean citizens have engaged in diverse, valiant efforts to use every legally available avenue to expedite democratic reform. Many Zimbabwean citizens have made heroic efforts to shed light on the gross corruption and mismanagement that has characterised Zanu-PF's rule and created a staggering man-made disaster. They are now caught between a regime willing to go to any lengths to crackdown on dissent, the need to navigate the day-to-day difficulties of securing precarious livelihoods, and the fear of contracting Covid-19.
In the face of an unrelenting regime, and rising from the crushed hopes of July 31 2020 protests, Zimbabwean citizens have grafted the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign onto the energy and anger of the global outcry of #BlackLivesMatter.
Can the SA government, whose president has taken an, unequivocal stance on #BlackLivesMatter, continue with an indeterminate posture on the plight of its neighbour’s black lives?
Their economic and political fate, as aptly observed by SA Institute of International Affairs CEO Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, is intertwined with its own and that of the region. SA is ideally placed to push for change in Zimbabwe, with the two countries sharing many social, political and economic ties. SA remains Zimbabwe's most important trading partner. Zimbabwe imports 40% of its total imports from, and exports 75% of its total exports to, SA. However, despite the countries’ growing stake in each other’s fates, SA’s response to the deepening crisis across the Limpopo leaves much to be desired.
Zimbabwe is now considered ...
However, the “crocodile” neither acknowledged the legitimacy of their widespread grievances against his leadership nor took any responsibility for bringing the country to this precipice. Instead, Mnangagwa argued that his administration “has been undermined by the divisive politics of the opposition, sanctions, cyclones, droughts and now Covid-19”, and blamed widespread protests on “a few rogue Zimbabweans acting in league with foreign detractors”. The president’s speech exposed a tone-deaf and intransigent government at war with its long-suffering citizens.
For the past two decades Zimbabwean citizens have engaged in diverse, valiant efforts to use every legally available avenue to expedite democratic reform. Many Zimbabwean citizens have made heroic efforts to shed light on the gross corruption and mismanagement that has characterised Zanu-PF's rule and created a staggering man-made disaster. They are now caught between a regime willing to go to any lengths to crackdown on dissent, the need to navigate the day-to-day difficulties of securing precarious livelihoods, and the fear of contracting Covid-19.
In the face of an unrelenting regime, and rising from the crushed hopes of July 31 2020 protests, Zimbabwean citizens have grafted the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign onto the energy and anger of the global outcry of #BlackLivesMatter.
Can the SA government, whose president has taken an, unequivocal stance on #BlackLivesMatter, continue with an indeterminate posture on the plight of its neighbour’s black lives?
Their economic and political fate, as aptly observed by SA Institute of International Affairs CEO Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, is intertwined with its own and that of the region. SA is ideally placed to push for change in Zimbabwe, with the two countries sharing many social, political and economic ties. SA remains Zimbabwe's most important trading partner. Zimbabwe imports 40% of its total imports from, and exports 75% of its total exports to, SA. However, despite the countries’ growing stake in each other’s fates, SA’s response to the deepening crisis across the Limpopo leaves much to be desired.
Zimbabwe is now considered ...