Harare — THE planned setting up of a ministerial taskforce to spearhead the anti-sanctions drive and to seek the normalisation of relations with the European Union is a step in the right direction.
As we report elsewhere in this issue, Government is putting together a team of ministers to lead engagement with the European Union to revive
relations severed by the illegal sanctions.
The team, which will be led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will also comprise ministries of finance, regional integration and international co-operation and industry and commerce.
We, however, feel the taskforce should go a step further, and engage the US that has been at the forefront of blocking our lines of credit from the Bretton Woods institutions.
President Mugabe is on record saying, time and again, that our quarrel is with the British government that reneged on obligations to fund the land reform programme, it is not with the British people or the EU let alone the United States.
Our hands have been extended for the past 10 years, and our hope is once the taskforce is in place, it will hit the ground running to ensure that the albatross of sanctions is removed.
It is also our hope that the EU and the US will also heed the calls from Sadc, Comesa, African Union, the Non-Aligned Movement and progressive people the world over that the sanctions have to go to enable the Government to provide a better life for all.
This emerging culture of holding out begging bowls to UN agencies to meet non-productive expenditure like paying salaries for civil servants and/or providing essential social services is not Zimbabwean.
We are a proud nation and have the ability to run our affairs given a fair environment and not one overshadowed by sanctions.
We feel, in relying on handouts, Government will not only be postponing a problem but will be addressing the symptoms and not the disease.
What we need is funding for capital projects that will enable us to be self-sufficient in perpetuity.
To do that we need to benefit from our membership of multilateral lending institutions like the IMF and World Bank, get investment like any member of the international community and trade with our traditional partners without let or hindrance.
For this to happen, the illegal economic sanctions foisted on us by the European Union and the United States, at the instigation of Britain, have to go.
We all know the rain began beating us soon after these countries declared economic warfare on our people and scared away investors by foisting us with an artificial investment risk tag.
These are the root causes of the prevailing socio-economic hardships, the paralysis of the industrial sector and collapse of social services.
While we appreciate the assistance of UN agencies and other countries, our efforts should be directed at campaigning for the lifting of the sanctions which will enable us to meet our development needs like a sovereign people.
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" Consider Kenya - the showcase of the EU's help: More that 65% of the population unemployed and landless - even as colonial foreigners squat of vast acres of prime ancestral land. More than half of the population starving. Elected members of parliament looting the country dry - and then mortgaging the future generations to foreigners by borrowing so that they can pay themselves even more...." Zimbabwe should be so lucky.
Actualy... you hold a very dim view of the world... Normalization actually refers to Zimbabwe interacting with other countries through mutual respect and dignity, and through shared democratic values. Clearly when you have a butcher in power who loses an election (43%, even less than what McCain got) and still holds onto the throne through a campaign of intimidation and violence, this can not be condoned. Would you buy your neighbours apples if you knew he was raping his daughter and molesting his son?
Zimbabwe needs a government that is democratically elected with a respectable human rights record that doesnt hold political prisoners, or abduct people and torture them, or alter government agreements secrectly, or steal money from funds targeting the helpless, where judges rule based on law, rather than the assets they have been given, where parties are free to campaign for government, where the military is not told who to vote for, were 1000's of ballots turn up out of no where, where people are turned away from polling stations and told they arent allowed to vote, and their vote turns up anyway, I could go on for days. At the moment, you simply cannot guarantee that any monies sent to Zimbabwe for the purpose of helping the country rebuilt wont end up in the back pocket of the corrupt regime. And you cant guarantee that any products that are traded by the corrupted that are sanctions have not come at the expense of the poor in Zimbabwe.
"We all know the rain began beating us soon after these countries declared economic warfare on our people and scared away investors by foisting us with an artificial investment risk tag."...Mmm lets see;
i. Illegal appropriation of land in defiance of the SADC treaty to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
ii. Government sanctioned and sponsored violence against citizens of Zimbabwe.
iii. Ignoring Zimbabwean court orders for the release of detainees / abductees.
iv. Corruption and the poltics of patronage rife.
v. Security chiefs blatantly ignoring their constitutional duties.
vi. A total collapse of the local currency as a result of government prolifigacy and financial indiscipline.
vii. Lunatic economic policies which are reversed at whim.
viii. Suspension of the rule of law, corrupting election results, etc etc etc
Yeah .. the investment risk sounds artificial to me. Not!
My good friend ... you seem to forget that the land issue is the fundamental reason for most of the problems on your list. The settlers and colonials went to war to protect their way of life, previleges and their perceptions of the order of the world: namely deeply rooted racist and colour based laws and governance. They slaughtered and murdered Africans of Rhodesia, created mass graves in Chimoyo, Tekwe, Nyadzonya, Angola nad many other places outside and within the country. And these same white settlers now come forward and pretend nothing happened. No sir, where is the justice? we wont forget. The best these Rhodesia Front settlers can do for every one is for them to leave, bag and baggage, and depart for Australia or whereever. Just go. Even MDC membership suffere at the hands of rhodies. There was no rule of law in rhodesia, was there? Oppressive laws? Racist laws? Discriminatory laws? And now who is crying foul?
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