SOUTH Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) which is part of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) observer mission to the parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe has given freedom to its observers for an honest assessment of the situation in the run-up, during and after the March 29 elections.
Unlike in past elections where ANC delegations have always declared the elections to be free and fair despite international condemnation, recently elected leaders of the party have said they would be different from past observer missions. Treasurer─general, Mathews Phosa, speaking on the need for a true analysis of the Zimbabwean elections, recently said South Africa’s policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe had not worked hence the need to have a correct picture of what was on the ground. “I think Robert Mugabe abused us. We are now sending an observer mission which will compile a report on the implications of the collapse of Zimbabwe on South Africa's social and institutional infrastructure.
“The MPs will be expected to ‘debrief’ the ruling party when they return,” said Phosa, speaking at an ANC meeting.
He said the new approach to Zimbabwe would not be reflective of South African president Thabo Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, a former COSATU cadre who has been on the receiving end of Mugabe repression after he was prohibited from attending the 2006 ZCTU National Congress in Harare also said the planned report would be an attempt to "close the loopholes within government diplomacy".
“The party-to-party engagement must be stepped up. We are beginning to talk more critically of the implication of the collapse on South Africa. The ANC members who are part of the observer mission will be quite important for us. They will give feedback of their real observations that are not captured in the general report,” said Mantashe. ANC has already deployed Members of Parliament (MP) as an observer mission on behalf of the South African government. Their approach to the observer function will be a departure from previous missions where the findings were not discussed in Parliament, according to Mantashe. He said a report compiled by MPs after the 2005 elections in Zimbabwe had yet to be debated in parliament. Ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo, who will be heading the South African contingent of the SADC observer mission, said although the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe constituted a ‘crisis’, the pre-election atmosphere was calmer and more tolerant than during the 2005 elections. He said the observer mission will only look at complaints brought to its attention and will not factor in Mugabe's late announcement of the election date, or the new law that gives Zimbabweans part ownership of foreign companies, or the pay hike for civil servants.
“We want to help them have as credible elections as possible. We will stay out of their politics. We will only go as far as our invitation permits,” Mamabolo said. A preliminary team was sent earlier to check the integrity of the voters' roll and the environment in general. Mamabolo said the SADC team could not intervene in the Zimbabwean government's decision on which media organisations will be allowed into the country to cover the elections.
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