Following threats by South Africa’s opposition party which said it wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe President Mnangagwa and securocrats over the recent savage crackdown on civilians by the country’s security forces, the Dutch Reformed Church has warned opposition parties and rights groups against adopting a hostile stance towards the government.
The Protestant Church warned that such threats to drag Pres. Mnangagwa and some of his top government officials to the Hague-based ICC over human rights violations will not solve the country’s crises, but only harden those in positions of authority, and prolong the people’s suffering.
In a journal on the current political tensions in the country, two of the church’s senior officials also urged opposition leader Nelson Chamisa to “abandon traditional politics” which has seen opposition parties in the region sometimes threatening to send senior government officials to the ICC.
Braam Hanekom, a director of the Centre for Public Witness and emeritus moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Western and Southern Cape and Llewellyn MacMaster, a moderator of Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, recently made a beeline to Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission.
Among the various interest groups, groups they met and spoke with were lawyers, civil society leaders, academics, Counselling Services Unit (CSU), politicians and local clergymen, including Pastor Evan Mawarire.
In the paper, the duo suggested mediation between Pres. Mnangagwa and the opposition, which they said should be facilitated by “level-headed” people to create a “win-win” situation.
“Assurance that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will not strike out at senior government officials is important… Otherwise a ‘fight to the end’ scenario is definitely on the table. Traditional opposition politics will not function now.
“Pressure alone, however, won’t work, because you are dealing with a military situation that actually only knows one form of action.
“What is urgently required is influence by people who do not necessarily want to overthrow a government, but are level-headed and looking to create a win-win situation,” the duo warned.
The duo also called on foreign ecumenical societies to intervene and help bring stability and political understanding in Zimbabwe.
“At this stage, we are pleading for intervention from institutions like the office of the Archbishop in Cape Town, the South African Council of Churches, the National Church Leaders Consultation, the South African and international governments.”
The Dutch Reformed Church warning follows threats by South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane who threatened to drag President Mnangagwa to the ICC over the military crackdown which claimed 17 lives, hundreds of instances of assault or torture, and enough arrests to fill prisons beyond capacity as civilians took to the streets to protest a 150% fuel price hike.
Democratic Alliance’s Threat To Approach UN, ICC Over Zimbabwean Crisis
DA’s shadow minister for international relations and cooperation, Stevens Mokgalapa called on SA President Cyril Ramaphosa on to reconsider his “quiet diplomacy 2.0” and advise Zimbabwean President Mnangagwa to stop the military clampdown on civilians.
“The DA strongly believes that the human rights crisis currently obtaining in Zimbabwe is of sufficient gravity to warrant an ICC investigation because, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, at least 12 people have been killed, 78 shot at and 240 faced assault, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.
President Ramaphosa and his government seem intent on sitting on their hands over the Zimbabwe crisis in much the same manner as Thabo Mbeki’s failed diplomacy. In 2008, people were attacked and murdered with impunity in another state-sanctioned military clampdown targeting innocent civilians after a disputed election.
Mbeki’s silence only served to worsen the human rights climate in Zimbabwe and led to a collapse of the economy, whose consequences are still being felt to this day with thousands of Zimbabweans flocking to South Africa to seek economic refugee.
The DA will not stand by while Ramaphosa repeats a ‘Quiet Diplomacy 2.0’ strategy that is sure to produce the same results as Mbeki’s ill-thought foreign policy.
The very same people who terrorised Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe are still in charge under Mnangagwa. The people of Zimbabwe were promised a new dawn when Mugabe was ousted, much like South Africa when Jacob Zuma stepped down. Both have proven to be myths.
The era of comradeship between Ramaphosa’s ANC government and Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF government, while human rights are being trampled on with impunity, is over. President Ramaphosa is faced with an easy choice: either he intervenes to stop civilian abuse by the military in Zimbabwe or his government will be one of the parties that will answer to the ICC on why they failed to act to stop the human rights violations,”
Stevens Mokgalapa, warned Ramaphosa in a recent letter.
International Criminal Court is an international tribunal that has powers to prosecute individuals fingered in serious crimes related to wanton killings, genocide, crimes against humanity and war transgressions.
After Zimbabwe attracted unwanted global interest in the wake of the trail of terror left by the country’s security forces, President Mnangagwa has tasked the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) to spearhead national dialogue to resolve the deepening political and economic crises in the country.
Local churches are complementing the NPRC in its endeavours to bring Pres. Mnangagwa and Advocate Chamisa to the negotiating table.
Last Thursday the distinguished members of the clergy who gathered in Harare for a high profile convention dubbed the National Dialogue Breakfast Meeting held at the Harare International Conference Centre on the planned national talks said this was the more surprising as both men had played leading roles in discussions which led to the formation of the nation-saving government of national unity (GNU) in 2009.
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