Julius Malema calls for the removal of Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa (FULL TEXT)

EFF CALLS ON ZIMBABWEAN GOVERNMENT TO FOCUS ON PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND END STATE-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE AGAINST CITIZENS.

South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Sello Malema has called for the closure of the Zimbabwean Embassy in South Africa until President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government upholds human rights.

Malema statements follow South Africa’s former Public Protector and founder of The Thuma Foundation Advocate Thuli Madonsela sentiments saying the Zimbabwean government needs to be called to account for the recent arrests of activists following anti-corruption protests in the country last week.

The Zimbabwean government, which is currently engaged in the torture, incarceration, sexual assault and victimisation of protesters, has no moral authority or standing to claim to speak on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe.

This government, which is compensating land thieves for land which was acquired through a revolutionary process, has declared the people of Zimbabwe as enemies, through the deployment of the military to suppress genuine protest.

Journalists are targeted, and it is not the first time, as the Mnangagwa regime has a history of suppressing information, switching of social networks in order to hide the brutalisations of the people of Zimbabwe.

The EFF, therefore, as a movement committed to Pan-African unity, peace and stability in the continent, speaks with authority when it condemns the regression on revolutionary gains that have defined post-colonial Africa.

The fleeting paranoia of ZANU-PF around factions of their organisation does not concern us, and we must never be confused as a part of a faction of ZANU-PF.

The EFF does not owe ZANU-PF any allegiance, and we have now identified them as part of a long-line of oppressive regimes and failing liberation movements which no longer have a vision for the continent.

We are therefore not fazed by the utterances of ZANU-PF officials and reiterate that compensating white former land-owners is a reactionary move that Zimbabwe cannot afford, and these funds should rather be directed in uplifting the livelihoods of ordinary poor Zimbabweans and developing Zimbabwe.

Furthermore, we find it condescending that a diplomat, deployed to the Zimbabwean Embassy in South Africa has taken it upon himself to descend into the political arena with the EFF.

As much as the EFF encourages engagement of its policy positions, it is not the duty of an ambassador who is here to sustain relations between two sovereign governments to engage in a political tussle with domestic opposition parties.

We condemn this in the strongest terms as partisan and undiplomatic behaviour, and it will set a bad precedence for the future.

The ZANU-PF government and particularly the Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa must focus on putting an end to the violence in Zimbabwe instead of frivolous paranoia around G40 factions and the EFF.

We call on the African Union, and all governments in the SADC region to make an intervention in the crimes against humanity being committed by the Mnangagwa-regime against the people of Zimbabwe.These interventions must be tangible, and we, therefore, call for the removal of the Zimbabwean Embassy in South Africa until human rights are restored in the country, and the lives of people are not taken by a repressive government.

Failure to do this will result in direct action by the EFF to prevent any official of the Zimbabwean government from participating in meeting in South Africa while they wage war on ordinary people in Zimbabwe.

Quiet diplomacy by SADC towards human rights violations in Zimbabwe has never worked, and it will not start working now.

There must be an end to the arrest without trial and victimisation of activists, and all progressive forces must condemn the ZANU-PF government for the brutality it is practising on the people of Zimbabwe.

We cannot keep quiet while a military regime wages war on people in Zimbabwe.

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS Vuyani Pambo (National Spokesperson)

On Monday South African and Zimbabweans, celebrities took to Twitter to call for a halt on the abuse of human rights by state agents.