5 March 2003
Speech by Dumisani Makhaye - ANC MPP, KwaZulu Natal Legislature
I intend dealing with the DP resolution on Zimbabwe on an informed basis. There are certain realities that I hope all of us can agree upon while not seeking a false consensus on the issue of Zimbabwe.
One of those issues that we can, I believe, accept as a reality is that Zimbabwe is our neighbour and, that unlike friends, we cannot choose neighbours.
The other reality is that the distribution of wealth in Zimbabwe, especially land, is uncharacteristically skewed in favour of the white tiny minority even by colonial standards. It was this realisation that during the Lancaster talks Britain made a firm undertaking that it will financially assist the post-colonial government to settle the land question in Zimbabwe by buying land from white landlords and redistribute it to the millions of the African landless majority.
It is also a reality that without the solution of the land question in Zimbabwe there will never be a lasting peace in that country.
It is a reality that Britain has not honoured that agreement. The British themselves do admit to this.
It is also a reality that Zimbabwe is one of the biggest trading partners of South Africa on the African continent. Any further destabilisation of that country will directly impact negatively on our country. Millions of Zimbabweans will simply swim across the Limpopo and flood our country with refugees. They will not be swimming across the English Channel into Britain. This imposes a greater responsibility on South Africans to respond to the problems of Zimbabwe with sensitivity and responsibly.
It is also a reality that Zimbabwe is a sovereign state with the right to self-determination. Whether we all here agree that Zimbabwe is not the tenth province of South Africa is something else.
Zimbabwe and South Africa have diplomatic relations and as such there are particular responsibilities that flow from that type of relationship. In diplomacy certain things are done and achieved without making noise and playing to the gallery.
It is a reality that South Africa does not have the power nor a desire to have the power to impose its will on any sovereign state, including the sovereign state of Zimbabwe. We have no hegemonic nor expansionist interests. We will not fly over Harare and bomb it simply in order to be praised by those who have not honoured the agreement they solemnly agreed to nor shall we allow ourselves to implement policies that were rejected by the majority of voters.
It is a reality that the ANC is the only party in South Africa that has held and is ready to continue holding bilateral talks with the Zimbabwean government, Zanu-PF, Movement for Democratic Change, the British ruling party and the British government. I know this because I have been part of the ANC delegation to at least one of these bilateral talks.
The ANC has had communication with some important voices within the white farming community of Zimbabwe who have expressed support for positions taken up by the ANC and its government on the Zimbabwean question. Some of them have warned against the imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe because it will have direct and immediate negative impact on them as farmers.
Which other party as a party in South Africa has ever met all these interested parties on the Zimbabwean question? Of course, we will not accept a false responsibility some racist selfish interest South African groupings want to impose on us to fight on their behalf to unseat President Robert Mugabe from power. The MDC and Morgan Tvsangarai cannot also expect us to fight their own battles in Zimbabwe. The destiny of Zimbabwe will be determined by Zimbabwean themselves.
The world community is beginning to appreciate positions taken by the ANC and its government on the Zimbabwean question. There are important voices within the European Union that are beginning to refuse to fight what is essentially a British problem with Zimbabwe. France has recently invited President Robert Mugabe to Paris. The Non-Aligned Movement has called for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe. British and Australian positions are getting more isolated within the Commonwealth community of nations.
The ANC and its government has been very vocal on those issues in Zimbabwe that violate the very stated policy, law and constitution of Zimbabwe whether from Zanu-PF, MDC or elements within the state, including elements within the Zimbabwean judiciary who think they are above the law and can break the law with impunity. When the law takes its course against them, they cry foul and plead the independence of the judiciary. They hope to be the only ones to be unaccountable to anybody.
Strangely, elements from the South African judiciary who themselves think they are the only ones that are unaccountable to anybody, including some from the ranks of the struggle, have instinctively come to the defence of elements of the Zimbabwean judiciary who think they are above the law. Yet they were as silent as lambs when the DP attacked Justice Desai.
If the issues of Zimbabwe are so clear, who then and for what reason generates so much confusion about positions are taken by the South African ruling party and its government on Zimbabwe?
Vladimir Lenin once commented: "People have always been foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises."
The noise about Zimbabwe is not a noise for Zimbabwe. It is a noise about white South African property rights to the exclusion of all other rights. Land distribution is a wrong lesson for the rest of Africa who may resort to the same tactics in the redistribution of the land, including in South Africa. It is not about the defence of human rights. In Palestine, genocide against the Palestinian people by the Sharon military clique is carried out daily. There is no condemnation from the quarters who proclaim themselves champions of human rights.
In Rwanda almost a million people were massacred through ethnic cleansing. In the Congo thousands of people continue to be massacred. In Swaziland basic human rights are being violated on a daily basis. In Pakistan an unelected military junta is in power. Yet there is not even a murmur from the Democratic Party and its fellow travellers. Is it because the victims in these countries are not white?
The Democratic Party and its lackeys have for many years preached the gospel of an inevitable and impending apocalypse under an African rule. To pound its constituency with this fear, Zimbabwe is pointed out as a typical example of what will happen to South Africa under the African rule.
The ANC wants to re-assure all South Africans, Black and White, that no land distribution in this country will take place outside the constitution and outside the law. They must not listen to the prophets of doom who pursue a racist agenda. The ANC will continue to deal with land redistribution in a responsible way by giving more resources to this important activity as we have done in this yearıs budget. Patriotic South Africans, farmers and farm-labourers, black and white, government, private sector and the labour movement all have an important role to play.