”We Don’t Owe Mnangagwa Anything”, Jacinta Zuma says Zimbabwe Must Take Responsibility For Its Own People

By Agencies

Jacinta Zuma, the leader of March and March in South Africa, has sharply criticised Zimbabwe and other governments over their response to concerns about violence linked to protests over undocumented migrants, saying they should “come and fetch their citizens” instead of cautioning them to remain safe in South Africa

Zuma made the remarks during an interview in which she was asked about messages reportedly issued by the United Nations, Zimbabwe, Ghana and other countries cautioning citizens against violence.

“They must not caution their citizens against violence, they must come and fetch their citizens,” Zuma said.

Her comments placed particular emphasis on Zimbabwe, whose citizens she said should not become South Africa’s responsibility if their own government was failing them.

 “If they are not safe in South Africa, they must caution them to go and hop to the next country or come back home,” she said. “Don’t caution them to stay here. We don’t want your citizens anymore.”

Zuma argued that foreign governments had not discouraged their citizens from entering South Africa when they left their own countries, but were now urging them to remain safe in South Africa.

“The time when they were running away from their countries to South Africa because they claim their countries were not safe, they didn’t caution their citizens not to come to South Africa, did they?” she said. “Now why are they cautioning their citizens to continue staying in South Africa and be safe?”

She then singled out Zimbabwe directly, saying South Africans should not carry the burden of Zimbabwe’s internal failures.

“If you as a government of Zimbabwe or whatever, failing your own citizens, don’t make them our responsibility,” Zuma said. “We don’t owe Mnangagwa anything. If he is failing his own citizens, that mustn’t be a burden on us.”

Zuma said South Africans had their own domestic challenges to address and argued that the benefits of South African electoral choices should not be extended to citizens of other countries.

“We’ve got our own problems that we must take care of,” she said. “When we vote, we’re not voting for Zimbabwean people to reap the rewards of what we are voting for.”

She also criticised the United Nations, accusing it of applying pressure selectively. Referring to the United States, Zuma said the UN had failed to stop Trump and ICE, but was now speaking on South Africa’s handling of undocumented migrants.

“The United Nations must know: they failed to tell Trump to stop ICE,” she said. “Why are they coming to tell us that we can’t get rid of people that we don’t…”

She added that the UN should address immigration enforcement in the United States before seeking to influence South Africa’s position.

“If you want us to believe that your role as the United Nations is anything worth taking seriously, start by dealing with Trump and ICE, then we’ll take you seriously,” Zuma said.