Paul Nyathi All appears not well inside Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU PF party following the ANC delegation visit on Tuesday – ZANU PF Acting Spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa has blasted neighbouring South Africa for what he described as a big brother attitude towards Zimbabwe.
Speaking at a ZANU PF press conference on Friday in response to claims by South African leaders that they are monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to bring some form of help, Chinamasa, a former Finance Minister, said from 1980 to present date, Zimbabwe’s neighbour across the Limpopo River has not extended any dime.
“Let me put it on record, I am talking as a former Minister of Finance, Zimbabwe has not received any assistance of whatever nature from South Africa, other than us selling and importing from South Africa, if that is the assistance, well maybe, but direct assistance, Zimbabwe has not received a cent,” he said. Instead, Cde Chinamasa said Zimbabwe bore the brunt of South Africa apartheid system by way of collateral damage that was inflicted by the racists white former rulers, who still covertly call the shots in that country, as well as the reputational burden of being a neighbour to a country at war.
“We have not received a cent as Zimbabwe, from the apartheid economy or from the post-apartheid economy, that I can tell you without any prevarication. The assistance which is now being touted about, if it is true, clearly, if they had not stood by us economically in the past 20 years when sanctions were imposed on us, how can anyone seek to stand by us economically when we are almost out of the woods,” said Chinamasa.
Chinamasa said Zimbabwe which is now on the verge of economic transformation, does not need assistance from countries that have for the most part offered only moral support, all the while making Zimbabwe a warehouse of their produce.
He added that in 2008, South Africa, through its former President Thabo Mbeki, was invited to mediate between Zanu PF and the MDC, and that came at the invitation of Zimbabwe.
“Mbeki did not impose himself on us, we requested him in order to defend the gains of our liberation which were being threatened by the British who were threatening military invasion of Zimbabwe. The British and Western governments will never agree or forgive for taking the land and giving it to our people,” he said.
Zimbabwe, has been the pacesetter in empowering its people whereas in the region citizens in countries that supposedly gained their independence live on the economic fringes while the erstwhile colonisers call the shots.
“We are the first country to do what we are doing, which is what we pointed to the ANC delegation, we have taken our land, you need us if you have to empower your people, we need each other. They have to empower their people; in the same way we have empowered our people. It’s a revolutionary obligation for the revolutionary parties to fulfil the gains of our liberation struggle, whether it is here, in South Africa, Namibia or Mozambique,” said Chinamasa.
Watch Chinamasa’s press conference in the video downloading below.