No-one expected President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the inauguration of Mozambique’s new president, Daniel Chapo, in Maputo last week. Not a single voice — within and outside South Africa — would have criticised him for not going. Before the ceremony took place, international relations minister Ronald Lamola was expected to represent South Africa.
The reason for the lack of condemnation had he not attended is simple: the Mozambique election did not meet the standards of either Mozambique or many other independent observers. Even the country’s top electoral court had to change the election result when it considered the matter on December 23 because the theft of opposition votes had been so blatant.
Yet Ramaphosa went to Mozambique, all smiles, and put his stamp of approval on the controversial elections, endorsing the contested new president and his Frelimo party’s very possibly fraudulent stay in power.
It is yet another act that shows just how spineless Ramaphosa and the ANC are in standing up for rule of law in our neighbouring countries and even globally. When faced with the chance to make a principled decision, the ANC government is extremely quick to hunt with the wolves and trample on the rights of ordinary, poor citizens.
The reason why South Africa has an illegal immigration problem today is because the ANC — since the days of Thabo Mbeki as its president, through to Jacob Zuma, and today Ramaphosa — has encouraged and protected illiberal and undemocratic regimes in the region.
When Robert Mugabe was stealing elections, jailing civil society leaders and looting the fiscus of Zimbabwe in the 2000s, Thabo Mbeki travelled the globe to speak up and protect him. The result is here for everyone with half a brain to see: Zimbabweans have fled their collapsed country and are in South Africa in their hundreds of thousands if not millions, causing resentment and strife among a populace that is unemployed, poor and marginalised.
Just four months ago, after yet another disputed election in Zimbabwe, Ramaphosa showed up at the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Ramaphosa did not need to attend that ceremony. The Daily Maverick pointed out at the time that of the 16 presidents of Sadc, only three — Ramaphosa, Mozambique’s then-president Filipe Nyusi and Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Félix Tshisekedi — turned up. No other head of state from Africa’s 51 states or anywhere on the globe turned up either. But there was our gullible Ramaphosa, smiling widely, endorsing what was universally slammed as a cooked, crooked election.
To understand just how terrible Ramaphosa’s attendance of the Mnangagwa inauguration was, you have to read the Sadc assessment of the election. Nevers Mumba, the former Zambian vice-president who led the Sadc election mission to Zimbabwe, said the poll “fell short of the requirements of the constitution of Zimbabwe”, the country’s Electoral Act and Sadc’s Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
His team denounced the restriction on free speech before and during the election, voter intimidation by Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party, state violence and the arrest of election observers from various civil society organisations.
Anyone who thinks that this is the end of the protests in Mozambique is deluded. The people of that country know that the election was deeply unfair and manipulated
These criticisms do not emanate from Americans, Europeans or other nations which Mnangagwa and his party like to brand as enemies of the people. They came from the Sadc observer mission, made up of officials from Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Eswatini and here in South Africa.
It tells you something about the president of South Africa that despite this he was the first to congratulate Mnangagwa on his sham “electoral victory” last September. It tells you something that the governing party in SA, the ANC, was the first to congratulate Frelimo in October last year for winning elections — even before the result was verified! Guess who also rushed to congratulate Frelimo? Zanu-PF of Zimbabwe.
We all know the price of South Africa’s endorsement of the fire in Mozambique. Ask any member of South African business what commerce in Mozambique looks like and they will tell you that over the past three months borders have been shut, the port has been shut, mines have suspended work, roads have been blocked, and fear and uncertainty rules. Ask the people of Mozambique and they will point you to the more than 300 people who have died in clashes with police.
Anyone who thinks this is the end of the protests in Mozambique is deluded. The people of that country know that the election was deeply unfair and manipulated. They know ballots were stuffed. They also know that the reason Mozambicans are being pulled out of the bowels of the earth in Stilfontein is because they have fled hunger at home. If Mozambique is destabilised further, more Mozambicans will be coming to try their luck here.
Ramaphosa and the ANC continue to act without principle. They act for the powerful of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and not the poor. They refuse to take the ethical and moral high ground. They are telling undemocratic leaders across the globe that “we have your back”.
They are endangering their country and their people through their cowardice.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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