Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said on Friday that South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu–PF) both need to be honest and frank about the issues in Zimbabwe.

Zulu, who was once part of an envoy to Zimbabwe in a previous effort at mediation, was speaking during a webinar session organised by The Brenthurst Foundation to discuss the ANC and Zimbabwe.

“Only with the truth on the table shall we be able to deal with the challenges that are facing Zimbabwe. We do believe that there is an opportunity for us once we are agree that we need to be frank with the issues, to look at what we did in the past,” she said.  

She added that political will is needed to move Zimbabwe forward.

“The people of Zimbabwe are crying for a solution because the dynamics at play in Zimbabwe are not helping the situation. As the ANC and the International Relations sub-committee, we agreed that we needed to continue to engage with Zanu-PF because we don’t want people to start thinking that we are against Zanu-PF. We are not against anybody, we just want to see the same things that happened in South Africa,” she highlighted.

She said Southern African Development Community needed to deal with the Zimbabwe issue differently and said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was committed to resuscitating and using past lessons in the latest approach to Zimbabwe.

“It is in our interest as the ANC to make sure that we are objective, honest and we engage objectively and honestly on the issue,” she stressed.