South African opposition leader Julius Malema has asked why President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are failing to reprimand their counterpart President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s oppressive regime.
Addressing delegates from his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party this week, Malema said SADC is a group of brothers and they do not call each other to order when it is necessary.
He gave an example of how the regional leaders including Ramaphosa are allegedly failing to condemn Mnangagwa’s alleged undemocratic behavior against Zimbabwean people.
“We have a problem here in Zimbabwe. These members of SADC don’t call the government of Zimbabwe to order, because it’s a group of brothers. That government is violating people there,” he said.
“We cannot have these regional and continental bodies including Pan African Parliament which are not biting on countries that are engaged in wrong activities.
“What is wrong with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling President Mnangagwa to order? It will be coming from a good place. They are all brothers, they are all Africans and they all speak for the interests of Africans.
“So, we can’t have a situation where we have regional and continental bodies that become a meeting of elites without concrete solutions to the problems confronting the people of Africa.”
Ramaphosa and Mnangagwa are close allies. When the latter controversially won the August 23 disputed elections, Ramaphosa was among the first presidents to congratulate him.
While SADC noted that the plebiscite fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, Ramaphosa had to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration ceremony along with Mozambique’s Filipe Nyusi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Felix Tshisekedi.
Only three out of 16 SADC heads of state attended the event.
The plebiscite was marred by irregularities including ballot stuffing, interference of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) through a Zanu-PF aligned shadowy organisation Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ), suppression and intimidation.
Most international observers concluded that the elections did not meet democratic standards.