Zuma faces criticism on Zimbabwe at European Parliament

In his first visit since he became president, the South African leader also appeared in front of the European Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, where he presented a positive view of the progress that he claims the three political parties in Zimbabwe have made in fulfilling the GPA.

Zuma strongly urged the international community to lift the targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe in order to remove ZANU PFs excuse that the coalition government was not being supported and sanctions were restricting officials from travelling to do their work. Zuma claimed this would enable the South African Development Community (SADC) to do more to help Zimbabwe.

He credited his predecessor Thabo Mbeki with tightening rules on how votes are counted in Zimbabwe, but offered not much else in terms of evidence of South Africas success.

A number of MEPs who keep track of developments in Zimbabwe were not convinced by Zumas statements and the harshest criticism came from British Conservative MEP, Geoffrey Van Orden, who accused Zuma of “acquiescing” while people in Zimbabwe starved. This forced President Zuma to defend the role his country has played, saying that South Africa “gave leadership before anyone else did”.

Criticizing Zumas performance in South Africa, British Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson talked about concerns over new media laws there and called on President Zuma to maintain press freedom. Zuma said the press was free of political control but conceded it was “politicised”. He defended the proposed media laws by saying the press shouldnt abuse freedom.