Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has slammed South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane over his threats to engage the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the alleged crimes against humanity by the Zimbabwean government.
Zimbabwe has lately been embroiled in a deadly political crisis in which State forces cracked down on protesters opposing the government’s recent fuel price hike. At least 12 people died while 78 were shot at and about 1,000 including children were detained.
Last week Maimane warned to seek ICC’s legal intervention if South African President Cyril Ramaphosa failed to engage his Harare counterpart, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on the alleged citizen torture. He also urged Ramaphosa to halt his “quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe’s crisis.
Reacting to Maimane’s remarks on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) this week, Zanu-PF’s spokesperson Simon Moyo accused Maimane of assuming aggression when Harare “has an open door policy to citizens and the international community”.
Zimbabwe, the United States (US) and a few other countries are not signatories of the Rome Statute – a global treaty that established the ICC and was activated in 2002 – are not obligated to cooperate with the court.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has urged the international community to intervene on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
