The ruling party accused the ANC of interfering and acting like Zimbabwe’s “prefect”.
“We note that this is not the first time a senior ANC leader has sought to speak like Zimbabwe’s prefect,” Zanu-PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said.
“Zanu-PF categorically states that Magashule’s utterances were completely out of order.
“For the record, there is no brutality of whatever form happening in Zimbabwe, but enforcement of lockdown regulations in line with recommendations by the World Health Organisation, our Ministry of Health and Child Care and what has become common practice on COVID-19.”
He added: “We have seen on social media, videos of South African soldiers beating their non-compliant citizens using fists and sjamboks while in some regrettable circumstances, we have seen them spraying rubber bullets on their citizens resulting in serious injuries and deaths, to the extent that it has been reported
that members of the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) killed eight citizens in the streets during enforcement operations. Zanu-PF has not uttered a word in public.”
He also referred to the Marikana massacre in the North West province in August 2012 where police opened fire on striking mine workers.
“We have watched Marikana massacres that remain unprecedented since the turn of the millennium by government forces, but we have sought to respect South Africa’s capacity and right to deal with those matters internally,” Chinamasa said.
“We, however, are taken aback by these latest irresponsible utterances by Magashule, who by all means should have sought clarifications from his counterpart Obert Mpofu.”
He said Magashule had relied on information from “fortune-seeking” activist groups and “faceless social media posts” on issues about Zimbabwe.
Presidential spokesperson George Charamba accused the exiled members of the Zanu-PF faction better known as the G40 of lying to South Africans about the situation back home.
“I hope you are aware that in that statement that same secretary-general was attacking his own President. There is just too much manipulation of statements for propaganda purposes,” Charamba said.
“This is a man who is facing charges around procurement of PPE (personal protective equipment) in South Africa and that is public. He has a bone to chew with his organisation and its leadership.
“We don’t get misled by errant statements from someone who is roguish, we don’t.””
