SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa this Sunday jetted into Zimbabwe on a private visit to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s farm in Kwekwe, Midlands province.
Pictures of Ramaphosa, his Zimbabwean counterpart, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the country’s top businessmen were awash on social media courtesy of the ruling Zanu PF party’s social media influencers.
Ramaphosa’s visit coincided with boiling political temperatures within Zanu PF over the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3 (CAB3), which seeks to extend Mnangagwa’s incumbency.
Strangely, by late Sunday afternoon, not even State media had reported on the purpose of Ramaphosa’s sojourn to Precabe farm, a rendezvous for Mnangagwa’s secret meetings.
The South African leader appeared on social media images apparently at a dam at Precabe, and later spotted touring the property accompanied by Mnangagwa loyalists including Zanu PF Central Committee member and business mogul Kuda Tagwirei.
Ramaphosa was also captured seated next to a woman and businessman Wicknell Chivayo, Tagwirei and another Zanu PF Central Committee member and businessman Paul Tungwarara.
The visit by Ramaphosa comes amid xenophobic attacks on foreigners, including Zimbabweans, in South Africa.
Locally, the country’s top leadership is at loggerheads over CAB3, which has divided the nation.
Ramaphosa is Mnangagwa’s closest ally in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Meanwhile, social media users inundated the X platform guessing what could have prompted Ramaphosa’s unofficial visit to Zimbabwe, but were unanimous that it was a serious matter.
Prominent political commentator, Rutendo Matinyarare, wrote a lengthy comment on the visit, interpreting it as a clear message against what he termed “the unconstitutional attempt to extend Mnangagwa’s term in office” through CAB3.
“By Ramaphosa coming to Zimbabwe to visit President Mnangagwa on a Sunday—after a week in which South Africans were protesting vehemently against foreigners, in a country where Zimbabweans constitute 40% of immigrants, and where the Ramaphosa government did not stop the protests—a week in which the former head of the army and Vice President gave an allegory about how King Hezekiah spent the rest of his years in prison after asking God to prolong his life, and immediately there were calls for his dismissal—it is clear that the visit illustrates an urgent attempt by President Ramaphosa to mediate a dangerous rift between the Vice President and the President that could fracture Zimbabwe and destabilize the whole region,” Matinyarare said.
“Ramaphosa is here to say to our President: you need to fix your house by uniting and stop making reckless decisions that could destabilize the country and region by displacing more of your people into a volatile South Africa.
“It is clear that Zimbabwe is on the brink of another coup because of the reckless attempts by the President and his advisors to force-change the constitution in order for the current President to halt the ascendancy of Vice President Chiwenga. But that is not being taken lying down by the thousands of men and women who fought behind Chiwenga in Mozambique, Congo, and Angola and did peacekeeping in Sudan, Somalia and Chad, despite attempts to manipulate the leadership of the army,” he added.
Another X user lamented the total blackout by mainstream media which did not cover the event.
“President Ramaphosa was hosted by Mr. Mnangagwa in Kwekwe today, at the latter’s private farm. ZERO TRANSPARENCY…State media in Zimbabwe is muted, leaving communication to pro-establishment excitable Twitter ghost accounts.This isn’t diplomacy. It’s opacity.
“At a time when South Africa faces a simmering xenophobia crisis, exclusively targeting Africans, secret meetings are not only inappropriate but expose a leadership kwashiokor.
“Citizens deserve clarity on what is being discussed in their name. If anything at all.”
Late Sunday after returning home, Ramaphosa sought to pacify the conjecture and clarified his trip to Zimbabwe saying it was a working visit to meet Mnangagwa to discuss “issues of shared and mutual interest between the two countries.”
