Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe has delivered a thinly veiled swipe at former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa, urging him to take his 2023 election dispute to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who assumed the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday.
The 2023 Zimbabwean elections were marred by irregularities, with the SADC observer mission report finding that the plebiscite failed to meet regional standards.
Other local and international electoral observer missions, including the European Union, condemned the polls as flawed.
Speaking at the burial of Brigadier General (Rtd) Elasto Madzingira at the National Heroes Acre in Harare on Wednesday, Kazembe, in a seeming jab at Chamisa, suggested that he now has a direct line to Mnangagwa, who is now the head of the regional bloc.
“Now those with their issues can bring them to the chairman. There is no need to board a plane. He is closer to you and ready to hear you,” Kazembe said with a hint of sarcasm. “Over the weekend, you can also find him at his farm in Kwekwe; go with your issues, and you will be heard.”
Chamisa, who maintains that Mnangagwa’s victory was facilitated by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), has previously expressed his electoral grievances to SADC. The opposition leader sent two letters to the bloc in late 2023 and early 2024, but his pleas have gone unanswered.
Zimbabweans had hoped for SADC intervention to resolve the 2023 election dispute, but those hopes have been dashed after the bloc appointed Mnangagwa as chairman, despite the controversy surrounding his victory. With the bloc’s leader now the subject of the very complaints Chamisa has raised, the opposition leader’s hopes for a fair resolution seem to be fading.
Idolizing ED by Kazembe kazembe shows political immaturity….