By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The opposition parties have expressed concern over reports that the African National Congress (ANC) has asked Zanu-PF for assistance with its elections campaign, given the Zimbabwean ruling party’s controversial electoral record.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the party’s decision to invite Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, to help with its election campaign.
Ramaphosa was on the campaign trail in Atteridgeville when he said he did not understand the concerns because the Zimbabwean ruling party would merely observe from the sidelines.
“An observer mission is not an interfering mission, it’s to come and see. They don’t interfere, they don’t get involved, they just come and observe,” he said.
“Our relationships with various political parties is something that is open. It is not a secret. We are allying with various parties from a policy point of view, and therefore when elections are held in our country, there is nothing wrong in saying, ‘Hey fellow sister organisations, we are having elections in SA and come and see how we conduct our elections’.
“Even when we hold conferences, we invite them, and similarly, we also invite other parties to come to observe. Now, an observer mission is not an interfering mission. They don’t interfere, they don’t get involved, they just come and observe.
We are transparent, there’s nothing hidden and we are also going to have many other global organisations [such as] the United Nation, the African Union, the European Union will also be here.
“So, those who are concerned about the participation of other parties are afraid and I don’t know what they are afraid of. There is nothing to be concerned and to be afraid of because they are just coming to observe and to also draw lessons,” the president added.
The South African opposition was quick to point to Zanu-PF’s problematic electoral record as news spread of the development.
Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa (Bosa) said it was “widely accepted” that the Zimbabwean ruling party “rigs elections in Zimbabwe to favour itself and to continue its misrule of the party”.
Zanu-PF “has presided over an autocratic, authoritarian and repressive regime”, Bosa said.
Maimane’s party had a message for Zanu-PF: “They are not welcome in South Africa.”
The Democratic Alliance (DA), meanwhile, charged that the ANC’s invitation to Zanu-PF to participate in its campaign programme “amounts to political interference with our elections”.
The party did not elaborate on which provisions of the Electoral Act it believed the ANC had violated through this, but said it would lodge a complaint with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) over a “foreign political party” actively “pursuing a partisan political agenda on behalf of the ANC”.
The DA noted that after Zimbabwe’s most recent elections in August 2023, which saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa win a second term, election observers, including the regional SADC Election Observer Mission, had raised concerns over the freedom and fairness of the polls.
The ANC, however, endorsed the election results — and considers Zanu-PF a sister party.
South Africans will go to the polls on 29 May 2024 to the elect the leadership for the seventh administration out of the 70 political parties and 11 independent candidates that were published by the IEC as final contestants in these elections.