Let’s not talk about Zimbabwe and democracy right now - ANC’s Fikile Mbalula

TAKUDZWA HILLARY CHIWANZA

Amid an acerbic political environment prevailing, the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) Fikile Mbalula has said that it is politically prudent at this time to focus on practical solutions to resolve this political crisis. 

Mbalula added that the leadership of the ANC is engaged in a number of delicate engagements regarding the situation in Zimbabwe. 

This comes in the wake of a bitter exchange of words in which Mbalula alleged that the opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) and its leader Nelson Chamisa are puppets of Western imperialism.

Mbalula has also moved to block a public lecture on the election and the implications for SADC. “At the moment, the leadership of the ANC is engaged in a number of delicate engagements regarding the situation in Zimbabwe,” he told David Masondo, the director of the OR Tambo School of Leadership, in a letter. 

The lecture is due to be presented by Zimbabwean academic and public policy analyst Ibbo Mandaza. But now is not the time to have it, Mbalula says, because having it “at this time, at what is clearly an ANC platform, would complicate these initiatives”.