Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is not necessarily the solution to all of Zimbabwe's problems, the South African Communist Party's deputy general secretary, Jeremy Cronin, warned on Tuesday.

Speaking in Durban at the University of KwaZulu-Natal at a Chris Hani Memorial Lecture, Cronin said: "We must not imagine that the MDC is a solution to all (Zimbabwe's) problems. I would like to hear what is their programmatic vision."

He said that while he did not contest the MDC's claims to victory, it worried him that the organisation had not said how it would solve the country's problems.

"Poor people (in Zimbabwe) are being hammered and forced into exile."

Cronin paid tribute to the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) for refusing to unload the An Yue Jiang, which was transporting arms for Zimbabwe.

"It was a fantastic example to our government. One really salutes them," he said.

The ruling elite in Zimbabwe, he said, had become isolated from its support base during Mugabe's tenure and he warned that it "has happened slightly in South Africa as well."

He said that Zimbabwe was an example that "decline can happen very quickly and very rapidly".

While both South Africa and Zimbabwe had and were delivering in terms of education and health, there had been "no transformation of the productive economy.

"Growth doesn't tell you that your people are doing well."

Sapa