OUTSPOKEN South African opposition leader, Mmusi Maimane, says the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is to blame for the immigration crisis in that country by condoning Zanu PF’s bad governance.
Maimane made the comments after a South African High Court ruled that the termination of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEPs) was unconstitutional.
The permits were due to expire tomorrow, but Pretoria had already given ZEP holders a further six months to regularise their stay or face deportation.
Maimane said ANC had brought problems on South Africa by ignoring rigged elections in Zimbabwe.
“The immigration crisis was caused by a democracy crisis in Zimbabwe. As a robust constitutional democracy, we have a role to advance democracy in Africa and to defend democracy in Zimbabwe,” said Maimane in a series of tweets yesterday.
“To solve the immigration crisis in South Africa we must go directly to the source of the problem. We must treat the disease and not just the symptoms.”
He said ANC had emboldened Zanu PF misgovernance.
“The courts have no choice but to uphold refugee laws and the Constitution. If we want to solve the immigration crisis we have to go directly to the root of the problem, namely the dictatorship in Zimbabwe,” he said..
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“We must stop supporting elections which are not conducted in a free and fair environment, we must stop supporting elections that are rigged and we must stop allowing South African banks to be used by money laundering members of the Gold Mafia.”
“We must be honest and direct with them and tell them that we cannot afford to keep paying the bill for their oppression and corruption. Time is up.
“To solve this issue we need to make sure that there are free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in August. South Africa has influence on Zimbabwe and we must use it, more than we use our influence on Russia and Ukraine because this is happening in our neighbourhood.”
Maimane called for the release of Citizens Coalition for Change MP Job Sikhala who has clocked a year in remand prison.
