The wait is over. I and millions of other Zimbabweans who had bitten our nails with anxiety in anticipation of President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing his new Government of National Unity (GNU) cabinet now know who #CabinetTeamRSA is. And if you wanted a straight answer to my headline question, it is still a resounding yes!
You see, never in the history of South African elections have progressive Zimbabweans – both at home and particularly in South Africa − been so fixated on that country’s plebiscite outcomes.
Zimbabweans are a living testimony of the twists and turns of superficial, feigned national unity. Crafting GNU ministerial positions with a universal appeal is an exercise in political rocket science. Some things look easy on paper, yet the crude reality strikes when it is time for real graft. In 2008, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai went into a GNU with nationalist juggernaut Robert Mugabe, and things did not end well for him. The opposition was lambasted for failing to repeal toxic laws; and that cost them seats in subsequent elections. No wonder we have a big interest in the drama unfolding south of the Limpopo River.
As soon as election results began trickling in way back at midnight 29 May 2024, I could not persuade myself to retire to bed. Most electoral pundits had prophesied on the “if” tectonic implications of Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress losing its majority for the first time in thirty years. It seemed unlikely, yet it did.
I had salivated on the prospect of being first to witness the good news. Those with energy burnt the midnight oil throwing dice at the possibility of Jacob Zuma pipping the Democratic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party to the national winner’s podium. Now that we know who reaped what, despite Ramaphosa struggling to select a cabinet, the ocean is calmer.
You see, Zimbabwe has political tantrums of its own; a highly polarised country anaesthetised by the first-past-the-post system for forty years. Unlike “spoiled” South Africans, we are accustomed to outright winner ZANU PF grabbing the entire electoral contraband, then sitting there telling us, with self-righteous imperial entitlement, who will be minister for this and that, encountering not even a morsel of resistance.
Below expectations
Though it was predictable that the ANC would perform below expectations this time around, for camaraderie nationalist reasons, millions of ZANU PF supporters hoped the ancient South African liberation party would defy all electoral odds. Ties between the two parties were cemented in 2008 when the then RSA President Thabo Mbeki frog-marched us into an unholy Government of National Unity. The “argument” then was that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF had failed to garner a clear majority over Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Yet most observers agreed that Mugabe had lost, and tried to recover political relevance by ordering a re-run. This fanned extreme violence, prompting opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw in protest. This move attracted SADC to issue a negative verdict, thus laying foundations of an unfamiliar GNU.
Millions of Zimbabweans in opposition at home, in South Africa, and overseas have reason to celebrate ANC’s recent loss of majority. That party is culprit-in-chief in promoting ZANU PF political hegemony, thus had Ramaphosa failed to pull the negotiating strings, we would have felt even better.
In all Zimbabwe’s disputed elections – including the last August 2023 plebiscite – ANC bigwigs were always first to throw confetti at ZANU PF for undeserved victory. Moreover, ANC immigration hypocrisy is considered most toxic in keeping Zimbabwean immigrants off South African soil. In a twist of self-fulling prophesy, Dr Leon Schreiber, recently appointed South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, is already threatening to deport illegal immigrants.
Zimbabwe’s plight
However, unlike our 2009 version, the RSA GNU has diverse political players, including some like the Democratic Alliance who exhibit more progressive attitudes towards Zimbabwe’s plight. Nonetheless, our experience is that a grand GNU coalition is meaningless if the “majority party” allots itself powerful ministries. Questions were raised in the past five years why Naledi Pandor was vocal about “international affairs,” yet failed to condemn ZANU PF for its shenanigans.
Now that Ronald Lamola is the new Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Zimbabweans expect more sympathy towards our misery that ironically keeps conveyor-belting desperate citizens into South Africa. We hope Mr. Lamola will grab the bull by its horns and rebut the long-trodden ZANU PF claim that Zimbabwe’s woes are a result of “illegal Western sanctions.” His new position in that portfolio therefore eases our anxiety.
Now that Patriotic Alliance leader and convicted felon Gayton Mckenzie has been “excommunicated” to being Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Zimbabweans are relieved that he will never fulfil his fantasy of “switching off life-support systems for all foreigners admitted to South African hospitals.”
As much as we knew Bheki Cele as a subtle Dudula “sympathiser,” there is no time that he came out guns blazing against illegal immigrants, other than with a few isolated dramatised arrests. RSA GNU diplomatic protocol would not fit well with Gayton Mckenzie-type extreme positions against Zimbabweans, although several court cases were thrown at us relating to Special Exemption Permits. Now that Mckenzie has been excluded from a ministerial position associated with immigration, many Zimbabweans will breathe a sigh of relief. However, since both the DA and the EFF had thus far shown a more progressive attitude towards Zimbabweans, Leon Schreiber’s sabre-rattling is a cause for anxiety.
Sweet music
The ANC government has never asserted its dominance in SADC when it comes to Zimbabwe’s political and economic tribulations. Thus, whenever a ruling nationalist party is neutralised, it is sweet music for those who felt antagonised and abused by its power.
For years political activists have pleaded with South Africa to call its arrogant northern neighbour to order, but this has fallen on deaf ears. I guess nationalist camaraderie is more important than principle, at least from the ANC perspective.
Several ANC politicians in the past have labelled Zimbabwean opposition leaders as Western puppets that advance imperial colonial interests. Therefore, progressive Zimbabweans are celebrating the new South African GNU, given its multiparty diversity which hopefully will translate to less “hostile” foreign policy towards us.
[Image: CatsWithGlasses from Pixabay]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
If you like what you have just read, support the Daily Friend