SB Moyo Responds To African Union Commission's Statements Concerning "Erroneous & Highly Misleading Reports" Circulating About Zimbabwe

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo has penned the following letter in response to the African Union Commission’s statement on what he called erroneous & highly misleading social media reports that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe.

Responding to AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat’s who on the 10th of August urged Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law, SB Moyo said there was no crisis in Zimbabwe and Mahamat must have consulted with him or SADC first before publishing the statement he was responding to. Said Moyo:

I write to express my surprise and concern over the statement issued in your name, on 7 August 2020, concerning the situation in Zimbabwe which appears to lend credence to the raft of erroneous and highly misleading reports circulating on a variety of social media platforms, deliberately placed so as to cause embarrassment to my country and its leadership. Let me stress, at the outset, that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe neither are there any human rights violations as purported in your statement.

The innuendoes and insinuations contained therein could have been avoided had AUC done some due diligence. While my country is not averse to justifiable or evidence based on criticism, the rules of natural justice and common courtesy demand that you hear the other side before making any conclusions.

This did not happen in this case, notwithstanding the fact that H.E the President, myself and the Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe in Addis Ababa are always at your disposal to consult and clarify matters.

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The principle of subsidiarity demands that the chairperson should have consulted with the sub-regional organisation SADC in order to clearly establish the true facts on the ground before such a statement was issued. I am sure SADC would have clarified matters and put the attacks against Zimbabwe in their true context.

The fact that the statement was issued shortly after a visit to AU Headquarters by the British Minister of Africa and reflects a disturbing alignment with the United Kingdom’s well-known negative perspective on Zimbabwe and London’s abiding antipathy towards Zanu PF.

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