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If you’re at all empathetic, it’s pretty hard to follow news from around the world and not be a little despondent.

Here at home, the corruption and looting continue unabated, with our most vulnerable citizens bearing the greatest brunt of that criminality, and our neighbours to the north find themselves suffering at the hands of a brutally violent regime with zero regard for even the most basic of human rights.

Sadly, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has shown himself to be cut from the same cloth as Robert Mugabe, which is something that those who were paying attention have been saying since day one of his reign.

Not that the South African government will kick up much of a stink, because why start caring about such frivolities now?

In his cartoon for the Daily Maverick, yesterday, titled ‘Observes’, Zapiro has hit the nail on the head:

In case you’re playing catch-up, President Ramaphosa has sent a two-person envoy to Zimbabwe, made up of Sydney Mufamadi and Baleka Mbete, to take a closer look at what’s happening in the country.

Or, as Ramaphosa put it in a statement, to investigate “recent reports of difficulties that the Republic of Zimbabwe is experiencing”.

That’s a really odd way of saying state-sanctioned violence aimed at quelling any dissent towards the ruling party, with journalists brutalised and arrested, and images and videos of extreme violence towards citizens shared around the world via social media.

Mufamadi and Mbete have now met with President Mnangagwa:

President @edmnangagwa meets President @CyrilRamaphosa‘s envoys, Cdes Mufumadi, Mbete and Ramathlodi at Statehouse this afternoon.#TheRealZimbabwe pic.twitter.com/x3b5VLuX27

— Nick Mangwana (@nickmangwana) August 10, 2020

#TheRealZimbabwe? I don’t think those jailed for exercising their so-called freedom of speech would agree.

Mnangagwa has said that the allegations of human rights abuses against his government were “divisive falsehoods”, which is no doubt the line trotted out during that meeting above.

The envoy has not yet met with any opposition leaders.

In a scathing editorial, Business Day laid out why Ramaphosa’s words on Zimbabwe ring hollow, and our continued lack of action is a disgrace:

If history is to prove any guide, people are right to be sceptical about the Mbete-Mufamadi initiative producing anything worth celebrating. From Thabo Mbeki to Ramaphosa today, SA presidents have been expertly played by their counterparts in Zimbabwe, who have used such initiatives to regroup and sharpen their tools of oppression…

While SA’s authorities might indeed believe their “quiet diplomacy” approach makes them honest brokers who are best suited to engineer a solution, it should not come as a surprise that their peers in Zanu-PF see their silence as tacit approval…

SA and most of the Southern African Development Community have been so impotent on Zimbabwe for so long that it seems pointless to again point out how this destroys their credibility. Who would believe Ramaphosa, as the head of the AU, when he speaks about the continent’s potential, if SA continues to stand on the sidelines and watch what is happening in Zimbabwe?

Ramaphosa ticks a few boxes by sending an envoy, nothing is done, and the brutal regime continues unabated.

Will we ever exert any sort of actual pressure on Zimbabwe and Mnangagwa, or will we just stand idly by?

You fear it’s the latter.

[sources:dailymaverick&businessday]