South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who arrived on Monday night to attend the Zimbabwe—South Africa Bi-National Commission summit taking place in Harare has no plans to meet the MDC Alliance, it has emerged.
The opposition, however, remain hopeful Ramaphosa will raise their concerns during his visit in which various projects will be up for discussion but whose success is premised on the unity of purpose among the people of both countries.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Jacob Mafume told Zim Morning Post, that South Africa needed a stable Zimbabwe to flourish.
“Whilst he is here we cannot comment on the president’s diary, if he is able to see president Chamisa as and when his timetable allows,” Mafume said, adding:
“We have had a continuous engagement with Ramaphosa. We have had a long standing engagement with South African government through many of its platforms. We do believe that if South Africa wants to be a good neighbor it has to engage with all sides of Zimbabwean crisis. We are fully aware that president Ramaphosa is ceased with the issues of Zimbabwean sand we have updated our dossiers with him and will continue engaging with South African government.”
In November last year, Chamisa wrote a letter to seek Ramaphosa’s attention on the Zimbabwean crisis but was never replied by either the South African government or Ramaphosa himself.
Two weeks ago the MDC President Nelson Chamisa went on a “diplomatic offensive mission” to put pressure on African leaders to intervene in the Zimbabwe crisis.
Meanwhile, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leader Daniel Shumba said there was nothing that would be changed by the visit of the South African president.
He reiterated that even if he wanted, Ramaphosa could not be a neutral mediator for the much needed dialogue adding the South African leader was strong supporter Mnangagwa’s “tyrannical” rule.
Shumba believes opposition parties need “to move on and start pushing for electoral reforms and stop dreaming of a change of government.”
He insisted: “Anything about a change of government is a fallacy”
