Cape Town – Newly elected African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has said that his party does not support the idea of regime change in Zimbabwe, as he aims at building “relations with our sister parties” on the continent.
Mbalula said this while addressing the media on Monday night, in his maiden briefing as secretary-general.
“We must be very much concerned about what is happening in Zimbabwe, and what role we need to play to solve what is happening… because we do not subscribe to the idea of regime change in Zimbabwe. We need to campaign very hard to get things right, because Zimbabweans are coming to our country in their numbers because something is not right in their own country (and) we must support them.
“Once that country becomes what it was, there will be no Zimbabwean here. So, the British must think very hard about what they have done, and the Americans. They must uplift the sanctions so that Zimbabwe can grow…
Newly elected ANC secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, speaks about Zim;
– to build relations with sister parties
– Zim problems must be solved to stop Zimbabweans crossing border
– Zimbabwe must not be turned into a Western client state next to us
– lift Sanctions pic.twitter.com/MdbZ9wWpzs— Zim Media Review (@ZimMediaReview) December 20, 2022
Mbalula urged Western nations not use sanctions “to deepen the pain and the impoverishment” in Zimbabwe.
“The British know what they agreed in Lancaster. They must come to the party, and invest in the compensation of the Zimbabweans in the programme of land redistribution. The 40 or something billion pounds they promised Mugabe and Zanu-PF, they must come to the party and not use the issue land reform programme of Zanu-PF as a scapegoat and run away.
“So they must come to the party, and Zimbabwe will be a better country. Zimbabweans never (used to) come into this country, that was the bread basket of the African continent. It was an economy that was alive, people were working in Zimbabwe.
“Now you have Zimbabweans crossing (into South Africa), facing life and death … coming into our country, because there is no life. Life is here in South Africa and that has burdened our economy,” said Mbalula.
He added: “As the ANC we will not agree in ideological terms, that Zimbabwe must be turned into a client State, next to us…,” he said.
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Picture: Twitter/@MbalulaFikile
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
