President Cyril Ramaphosa weighed in on the Zimbabwe elections where Emmerson Mnangagwa reigned supreme.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged Zimbabwe’s opposition leader – Nelson Chamisa to follow proper channels when challenging the recent election results.
Chamisa has rejected Saturday’s election results where the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared ZANU-PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa victorious.
The opposition leader said the results are fraught with fraud, voter intimidation and corruption – while election observers from the Southern African Development Community region also released a preliminary report stating the elections fell short of the required standards to be deemed free and fair.
Chamisa further dubbed Mnangagwa’s victory as a “sham”.
READ: Zimbabwe’s president Mnangagwa wins second term in disputed vote
Speaking on the sidelines of the presidential young men and boys indaba in Soweto on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said until the results are overturned, the South African government recognises Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s democratically elected president.
“Zimbabwe has made a declaration and it’s on that basis that we have issued our congratulatory message. So, there rest of other things still need to be processed, no doubt, and everybody including the governmental of Zimbabwe accepts that. So, let’s wait until everything is processed,” he said.
The 2023 Zimbabwe elections were marred by legal intervention, delays, shortage of ballot papers in some regions.
“There is going to be change in Zimbabawe whether ZANU-PF people want it or not. It’s not going to be easy but there shall be change,” said Chamisa following the results.
Late on Saturday, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced that President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, won a second term with 52.6% of the ballots against 44% for his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, 45, of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.
But for political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya: “The CCC has good grounds to go to court and challenge the outcome.”
‘Something wrong somewhere’: Some in Zimbabwe disillusioned at poll result
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced that President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term with 52.6% of the ballots against 44% for his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.
In the streets of Harare, some people were disillusioned at the outcome.
“The results were no good, there’s something wrong somewhere,” Godwell Gonye told the AFP news agency.
Another man, who asked to remain anonymous, confessed he had not looked closely at the results.
“We accept them for as they are, it’s the decision of the majority and we respect it,” he said.
ZEC chair Justice Chigumba said Mnangagwa secured more than 2.3 million votes and Chamisa more than 1.9 million.
By securing more than half the votes cast, the president avoided a run-off.
Voter turnout was 69%, the commission said.
Meanwhile: Mbalula may support Mnangagwa, but the ANC is yet to formulate its official position
Independent observers say there was widespread intimidation during the Zimbabwe elections.
They say the elderly and people with disabilities were not catered for at the polling stations.
Fikile Mbalula, however, hailed the re-election of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Despite ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula championing Zimbabwe’s electoral results, the party has yet to formulate its official position.
According to independent observers, though, the elections were flawed and rife with “intimidation”.
On Monday, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told News24 the party had sent senior national executive committee (NEC) members to Zimbabwe to observe the polls.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC was “thoroughly” going through the two official reports from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which denounced Zimbabwe for, among other things, violating its Constitution by “restricting” access to the voters’ roll, including “intimidation” and “a severe restriction of the freedom of expression”.
At the weekend, Mbalula showed his support for Zanu-PF in a series of social media posts, including sharing pictures of the Zimbabwean ruling party’s rally, calling the gathering a “sea of people”, and hailing the re-election of Emmerson Mnangagwa as president, writing “viva President Emmerson Mnangagwa”.
Mbalula did not respond to requests for comment.
On Sunday, though, after a backlash because of his posts, he backtracked.
“I have not pronounced on Zim elections outcome. After the Zim electoral commission pronounced President Emmerson I said “viva” that’s all,” wrote Mbalula on X (formerly Twitter
Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC was waiting for reports from its NEC members who were sent as observers to Zimbabwe. The delegation included Lindiwe Zulu, of the party’s international relations subcommittee, and Polly Boshielo, who chairs the peace and stability committee.
The SADC, however, which said it sent 68 observers to Zimbabwe, painted a picture of the elections being riddled with intimidation from a “quasi-security intelligence organisation”, called Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ).
“Our observers confirmed the existence of this group as its officials or agents were easily identifiable at some polling stations as they were dressed in regalia emblazoned with the FAZ name and were accredited local observers.
“These and other unidentified persons, who were not polling officials, were also observed taking down the voters’ names before they cast their votes. In some areas, voters were intimidated by the actions of these individuals,” reads the SADC’s report.
It added that some polling stations opened “more than 12 hours after the stipulated time”, saying the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission blamed the “unavailability of ballot papers” for “this unprecedented development”.
This challenge, however, was specific to Harare and Bulawayo.
Due to the delays, some voters left without casting their votes, while others remained in lengthy queues throughout the day and night.
At 50% of the polling stations, people with disabilities, the elderly, and pregnant women were not given priority to vote,” the SADC found.
“In 3% of polling stations observed, indelible ink was not checked on the voters before allowing them to cast their vote.”
Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa accentuated the SADC’s views.
His party – Citizens Coalition for Change – lost narrowly to Zanu-PF.
Chamisa said Mnangagwa had launched a “coup” in the elections, as he had done when former president Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military in 2017.
“You can’t survive these too many times. This time, no further… we have drawn a line in the sand,” said Chamisa after Mnangagwa was declared the winner.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, at a press briefing, EFF leader Julius Malema said the elections were not “free and fair, but his party welcomed the fact that there was an absence of violence, as elections in Zimbabwe are ordinarily characterised by violence”.
