Opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has urged South Africa to assist in setting up a donor fund to help restore the dignity of citizens in the wake of man-made governance crisis in Zimbabwe.
Responding to South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation minister Grace Pandor, who said Zimbabwe’s challenges can only be fixed by citizens themselves, Chamisa said her remarks were the correct diagnosis to the major problems affecting the country.
Chamisa said as the MDC, they welcome South African mediation to end the suffering faced by citizens of Zimbabwe.
“For months now, we have been asking our African brothers and sisters to look into the man-made governance crisis in Zimbabwe & help us restore the dignity of citizens.We are heartened by Minister Pandor’s correct diagnosis of the major problem in Zimbabwe as toxic politics.
“We in the MDC stand ready to welcome South Africa and SADC’s mediation in Zimbabwe to end the suffering that has gone on for far too long, and give our people hope. In the face of provocation and persecution, our commitment to a sustainable, peaceful outcome has not shirked.
“Dr Pandor has called for “practical solutions”. I wish to plead with SA, in the interim, to help set up a donor fund for our people from which we can pay our doctors a decent wage. There is a silent genocide in hospitals which cannot wait for politicians to find each other,” said Chamisa.
Delivering her keynote address at a University of South Africa symposium on Zimbabwe held under the theme: “Best path to prosperous Zimbabwe”, Pandor said South Africa is ready to assist but without imposing on Harare.
“I think it’s important to begin by saying the social, political and economic situation that is confronting Zimbabwe is one of the most challenging facing us in this southern Africa region. I think this is a stark fact, a reality that all of us can agree upon. This symposium, we regard it as our modest contribution to [the] beginning of a process of finding solutions to the many complex challenges which we believe will be resolved primarily by the people of Zimbabwe with the assistance of all the countries in the [Southern African Development Community] SADC region.
“There is no sense of arrogance that as South Africa we have the solution. The real, sustainable solutions will come from the people of Zimbabwe and we should not fool ourselves [to think] we have the solution. We would like to be a party to assisting and finding a way of resolving the problems as they confront our brotherly and sisterly country,” said Pandor.
