A recent visit to President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Precabe Farm by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is enough evidence that the ANC supports his dictatorship in Zimbabwe, opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA) has said.
In a statement released on Monday, the DA, which is in a government of national unity (GNU) with the ANC, questioned how Ramaphosa could so easily fraternise with Mnangagwa despite his tainted human rights record.
DA spokesperson on international relations and cooperation Ryan Smith accused Ramaphosa and the ANC of being selective regards speaking out on human rights abuses. He said their silence on human rights issues across the region and continent were the reason South African was bearing the brunt of illegal immigrants.
Ramaphosa flew into the country over the weekend for what appeared to be a bromance with Mnangagwa at his farm in Kwekwe.
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"The DA condemns, in the strongest possible terms, Ramaphosa's unofficial visit to Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa's private residence on Sunday," said Smith.
"This visit takes place as the ruling Zanu PF attempts to entrench its dictatorship in Zimbabwean law through the recently gazetted Constitution Amendment Bill No. 3, which would introduce far-reaching proposals to usher in extended and potentially limitless presidential terms for the Zanu PF under the guise of technical reforms to electoral cycles and governance structures.
"While the Presidency has tried to spin this visit as an "in-person catch-up between two neighbours", it is blatantly clear that once again South African foreign policy under the ANC continues to sideline our constitutional values of freedom, democracy, and human rights in favour of propping up the African fraternity of despots and dictators the ANC relies on for regional support.
"Zimbabwe's democratic backslide is the sole reason for the immigration crisis South Africa has been subjected to since the late 90s, which places a tremendous burden on civic and social services, and stokes violent societal division in our country."
South Africa has never condemned any abuse of state security personnel by the present or past Zanu PF regime.
Added Smith: "It is not the people of Zimbabwe who are to blame for fleeing to South Africa for a better life, it is President Ramaphosa and the ANC who continue to ignore human rights abuses and democratic capture in their own backyard out of pure political expediency."
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"For as long as South Africa refuses to stand up and condemn dictators and human rights abusers on our continent, our country will forever be the only place of asylum for the refugees the ANC continues to create.
"This is yet another example of the ANC's diplomatic hypocrisy as it selectively addresses human rights abuses elsewhere in the world while ignoring the same acts just next door."
The DA distanced itself from Ramaphosa's visit, calling his party deeply unprincipled and unsustainable,
"As a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA rejects the ANC's attempts to openly fraternise with neighbouring dictators and deny the lived reality of millions of persecuted Zimbabweans who live in international limbo as a result.
"It is unsustainable and deeply unprincipled for the ANC to maintain the status quo of democratic capture on the African continent.
"Tens of thousands of South Africans lost their lives in the fight for freedom, yet today's ANC sits side by side with the enemies of freedom across the continent."
Over a million Zimbabweans, most of whom are economic refugees, are believed to be living in South Africa illegally.
Their presence and that of other undocumented Africans, has played a central role in xenophobic attacks that have been reported in recent weeks.
