News24 | 'Nobody should tell us who should be our friends', ANC says after inviting Zanu-PF for election

Jason Felix and Soyiso Maliti

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The ANC invited Zanu-PF as guests amid criticism from opposition parties over their presence during South Africa's upcoming general elections. (Gallo Images/Netwerk24/Jaco Marais)

The ANC said pandering to the noise of the opposition for inviting its Zimbabwean ally Zanu-PF as a guest for the general election would be disowning people the governing party worked with during the apartheid struggle.

This is according to ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who has come out guns blazing in defence of the ANC's decision to invite the Zimbabwean ruling party as "guests in South Africa" for the upcoming election.

Opposition parties have criticised the move due to Zanu-PF's history of electoral irregularities and the intimidation of opponents to clinch victory in its own country.