Staff Writer
ANXIOUS to avoid inviting the wrath of United States President Donald Trump, Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF says it will not get involved in Washington’s ongoing onslaught on South Africa over the land question.
Addressing a Press conference in Harare, the party’s secretary for information, Chris Mutsvangwa said Zimbabwe will not wade into the fight, but has chosen to give “diplomacy” a chance.
Mutsvangwa said dispossessed white farmers in this country have no reason to worry, despite a new drive by the authorities to issue title deeds on farmland. The government, he explained, will still honour its commitment to compensate the former farmers in line with the US$3.5 billion Global Compensation Deed.
Some of the ex-farmers, frustrated with what they see as the Zimbabwean government’s deliberate strategy to delay the compensation payments, are deriving newfound inspiration from Trump’s diplomatic war on South Africa and are now exploring the idea of taking their grievance to the US leader.
In a dramatic move, the US president (pictured above) recently signed an executive order withdrawing aid to South Africa. Annual assistance worth US$440 million — most of it for healthcare — was revoked in one fell swoop. Trump claims South Africa’s Expropriation Act discriminates white farmers, an accusation robustly denied by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who has vowed that his country “will not be bullied”.
These days, the nervous chatter in Zimbabwe’s corridors of power is centred around speculation on how Trump’s Harare policy will soon pan out. Upsetting an unpredictable Trump would cause a nightmare for the Zanu PF government, hence the convening of the unusual Press conference meant to calm nerves and avert a new round of US sanctions.
Mutsvangwa was at pains to explain that South Africa’s land question is different from that of Zimbabwe.
“We do have our opinions, but this is now a matter between two countries…We do have our opinions as a sister ruling party to the ANC, but at a time like this we prefer to keep our opinions to ourselves, and to let diplomacy to resolve contentious issues between two sovereign nations,” said Mutsvangwa.
He added: “So we want to abstain from an engagement in that debate, although there are affinities. But the affinities do not mean there’s congruence, there’s no congruence between the Zimbabwe land question and the South Africa land question. The South African land question has been treated as an internal matter between South Africans. We [in Zimbabwe] have a different land problem. Ours is a colonial-imperial land problem.”
Mutsvangwa alleged that a secret meeting was held yesterday at the US embassy in South Africa to plot against Zimbabwe and explore ways of dragging it into the Trump-South Africa war.
The Zanu PF spokesperson said this was predictable, coming at a time when the US executive order on the Zimbabwe embargo is due for review. He accused former senior opposition official Tendai Biti of being “peevish” by making negative remarks on Zimbabwe’s quest to issue title deeds on farmland. Biti has been quoted as criticising the title deeds scheme, saying there is a risk that it will reverse the land reform programme.
The Zanu PF spokesperson said those who are plotting to take their grievances on Zimbabwe’s land question to Trump have political motives.
“They just want Zimbabwe on yoke. They want Zimbabwe to become the attention of the American president gratuitously and unnecessarily. Why? Because they believe that if America can do something about Zimbabwe, it can speed up the prospect of them getting to power, sneaking through the backdoor of foreign support rather than through the front door of electoral politics. So these are Zimbabweans who are trying to stir up a situation between Washington and Harare. We have to put it on record: there are no parallels between the Zimbabwe land question and the South African land question.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured below) recently defended South Africa, saying the neighbouring country is being punished for pursuing its national interests.
“Both South Africa and Zimbabwe are seasoned boys in the struggle for independence and freedom, and the imperialists can do what they do. We shall pursue what we think is best for our countries. South Africa has been punished not for doing anything against any country, but doing what they think is best for themselves. That was the case with Zimbabwe,” Mnangagwa was quoted as saying.
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