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SA envoy advises Zim authorities to respect Levy

SA envoy advises Zim authorities to respect Levy
By Chibaula Silwamba
Thursday June 19, 2008 [04:00]

SOUTH African High Commissioner to Zambia Moses Chikane has advised the Zimbabwean authorities to respect President Levy Mwanawasa as leader of the SADC region. And African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Zacharia Pitso Tolo has blamed the xenophobic killings on that country's ruling party and government leaderships' failure to educate the ordinary people on the role of other African countries toward the liberation of South Africa.

In an interview yesterday, High Commissioner Chikane said it was unfortunate that the Zimbabwean authorities were verbally attacking President Mwanawasa. He said whatever President Mwanawasa was doing on the Zimbabwe situation was not for personal glory but on behalf of all people in the SADC region.

"I think it's very unfortunate; President Mwanawasa is not the leader only for Zambia, he is the leader of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)," High Commissioner Chikane said. "Not only should he be respected as a leader of a country but he should also be respected as a leader of the region because he represents the will of the region. Whatever he does and the manner he does it, is not because he wants to do it that way, it's not for self-glorification, it is because it's the felt need of his constituency which is the region."
He said it was sad for anybody to attack President Mwanawasa who represents so many people in the region.

"Equally, I think, it is not conducive for our leaders to also continue to attack each other. Leaders need to consolidate the aims of the African people instead of spending a lot of energy despising each other. It is indeed sad," High Commissioner Chikane said. "I was encouraged when I saw the statements from the leaders including the opposition, Mr Sata, Mr Hakainde Hichilema and former president Kenneth Kaunda to say this matter should be settled as quickly as possible. We hope that these words of reason should continue to appeal to our leadership and ourselves to refrain from doing that. We need each other in peace than in war."

Zimbabwean authorities have accused President Mwanawasa of being a puppet of the western countries, hired to bring about quick regime change in Zimbabwe.
And High Commissioner Chikane said the presidential election runoff in Zimbabwe, being contested by opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ZANU-PF's President Robert Mugabe, would not be free and fair if indeed the violence going on in that country was politically motivated.

South African President Thabo Mbeki is the mediator in the Zimbabwean political impasse.
And Tolo said leaders in South Africa took it for granted that their citizens knew their history and failed to embark on a campaign to teach them on the struggle and democratisation of their country.

However, he said the government and the ruling party were ashamed of the recent attacks on foreigners and were doing everything possible to educate their people on the role neighbouring countries played in the struggle against apartheid.

Meanwhile, South Africa's ANC and family member of a freedom fighter yesterday exhumed the body of Job Tabane who died in the liberation struggle in 1987 and was buried in Zambia.

Tolo, who is also ANC's exhumation and reburial committee chairperson, said Tabane's remains would be reburied in his home village of North Western Province in South Africa.

He said Tabane was a senior military personnel in the ANC's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. He said Tabane was killed in Swaziland but was buried on July 19, 1987 at Leopards Hill Cemetery in Lusaka, where the ANC headquarters was based at the time.
"Our views and the families of these combatants have always been that at one point the remains of those who are lying in various countries, the campaign should start to take the remains of these people to South Africa where they can be buried either at our hero's acres or they should join their various families in communities where they came from," said Tolo.

Labels: ANC, SADC

posted by MrK @ 3:25 AM