Cabinet has congratulated the Zimbabwean government for their successful parliamentary and local elections, but would not make any early pronouncements on whether the elections were free and fair.
Zanu-PF’s long standing leader, Robert Mugabe, won the presidential poll with 61% while his party obtained a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections.
Defeated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, cried foul and has taken the matter to court.
The Cabinet has commended President Jacob Zuma as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitator on the Zimbabwe dialogue for ensuring that all political parties were committed to peaceful elections.
However, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat was cautious in stating that the Cabinet is not commenting on the state of elections before the next SADC meeting.
Botswana, a SADC member, has expressed doubts about the fairness of the elections.
She was speaking during the post Cabinet briefing in Pretoria.
“We’re in no way making a pronouncement on the elections, we’re congratulating them that the elections ran smoothly without violence and without incidents of severe violence”.
