SA envoys jet into Harare as Zimbabwe burns

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The much awaited envoys of President Cyril Ramaphosa are in Harare and locked in a meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Pictures of the Envoys, Sydney Mufamandi, Baleka Mbete and Ngoako Ramathlodi are circulating on social media after the government spokesman Nick Mangwana tweeted to announce their presence.

President Mnangagwa is seen in the photos in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s envoys who were sent to Harare after a massive public outcry over human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Their mandatory terms of reference which specify what exactly their interventions are have not yet been publicly disclosed. Speculations are however saying the envoys will try to initiate a Government of National Unity (GNU).

Political analysts and citizen movements have however warned that nothing will be achieved if the engagements were to be limited to political elites.

“That will be a futile exercise if the envoys are going to meet only MDC A, Zanu PF, MDC T and any other political parties and exclude citizen movements who organised the protests against looting and human rights violations,” warns a Zimbabwe political analyst Tambanavo Chamanyawi who is based in Cape Town.

Chamanyawi told Zimbabwe Observer that the exercise was supposed to be citizen driven adding that the Envoys should also seek to meet Honourable Job Sikhala, detained leader of Transform Zimbabwe Jacob Ngarivhume and incarcerated journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.

“There is a danger that citizens might distance themselves from any elite arrangement if they cut pacts which exclude them,” said Chamanyawi.

A leading citizen movement which is coordinating on going lockdown protests 31 July Movement (J31M) has already warned that they would not be part of an elite pact yekudya.

Spokesman of J31M, Sikhala who is in hiding said the citizens will not agree to an elite arrangement which excludes them.