By Jane Mlambo| Self exiled former cabinet minister Professor Jonathan Moyo and his once surbodinate George Charamba have put to rest the contentious issue of special envoys dispatched by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Zimbabwe on a fact finding mission, saying their mandate was only between heads of state and no other person as widely thought.

The opposition MDC Alliance on Monday cried foul after they were ‘snubbed’ by Dr Sydney Mufamadi and Baleka Mbete who were send by Ramaphosa to Zimbabwe following a deafening social media outcry by Zimbabweans against human rights abuses perpetrated by suspected state agents.

Posting on Twitter at different intervals, Charamba and Moyo debunked misconceptions that the two envoys were supposed to meet other stakeholders before being denied a chance by the government.

Moyo posted definitions of special envoy, facilitator and mediator to clarify the mandate of the Mufamadi led team.

“SPECIAL ENVOY: a diplomatic messenger who carries a message from A to B, and vice versa. A FACILITATOR: a go-between who eases or lessens tensions between parties. MEDIATOR: a go-between who brokers a deal or agreement between parties,” said Moyo on Twitter.

Charamba also posted a thread titled clearing confusion over purpose and mandate of presidential special envoys.

“Presidential Special envoys are deputations between two heads of State. Theirs is to deliver a message from one head of State to another and, to take back the response to sending Head of State.

“They may not re-interpret their mission or purpose to do any other businesss without undermining their status as special envoys. There is thus no sensible reason to have expected the Mufamadi-led Special Envoys to have branched out of their strict mandate defined by the two interacting Heads of State and Govt by meeting other groups inside the country.

“Simply, that is not the role of Presidential Special Envoys. Second confusion is to imagine this is a sub-regional intervention. It is not. It is merely a BILATERAL interaction between two close Heads of State representing two close sister republics.

“If Sadc has to get involved – and there has to be very good grounds for that outside adulterated images circulated by the hashtag nonsense – that will happen through appropriate mechanism, namely Sadc Organ,” said Charamba under his Twitter name Jamwanda2.