The human rights situation in Zimbabwe is force everyone to take side: sitting on the fence is not an option!

“We believe that as a country, this issue on sanctions has nothing to do with human rights neither has it to do with issues of democracy,” said Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president, Joseph Kanyekanye.

Is this the position of CIZ or was Kanyekanye expressing his own individual view and not that of CIZ? Well if and CIZ believe it was the latter then they must come out now and say so. Kanyekanye has thrown the gauntlet; is there anyone left in CIZ with the guts to pick it up?

To say that targeted sanctions have “nothing to do with human rights” is to deny all that Mugabe has been doing from the rigging elections, the murder of opposition party supporters, the seizure of white owned farms, etc. By rigging elections and murdering opposition supporters Mugabe were denying Zimbabweans the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and, worse, still their right to LIFE. By seizing the farms he was denying the farmers the right to own property and to due process.

Any business owners, members of CIZ or not, who endorse Kanyekanye’s position publically or by saying nothing – silence here would be taken as approval – must know they are siding with Mugabe. 90% of our people are out of work and the regime has thugs marauding in our cities and countryside terrorising and murdering innocent people. Pretending all this is not happening may help you serve your business from being nationalised and/or collapse for a few more mores but one has to think of how many more Zimbabweans lives one might have saved if they had spoken out against the regime now.

The situation in Zimbabwe has reached the point where no one can pretend continue not to see the tragic human suffering that is happening in our country much less give one’s approval by saying nothing even when the situation demands it. Ladies and gentlemen, honourable member of CZI like it or not you have to take sides – Mugabe’s side or the suffering masses - sitting on the fence is no longer a viable option!

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MDC should have never agreed to the lifting of sanctions, the banning of radio stations like S W Radio Africa and free press. Of course Mugabe is right in accusing MDC of cherry picking and he has used this as an excuse for not honouring any of his GPA promises. The GPA was a one-sided affair favouring Mugabe and now the dictator will make it even more so.

MDC said they would “walk out” of the GPA if it did not work out the only reason MDC is still in the GNU and will never walk out is because of the personal benefit the individual derive in being Prime Minister, DPM, Ministers, etc! Of course it is exactly for the same reason that the likes of Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabegwa remained in government for decades. Others like Mnangagwa, Mujuru, etc. are still very much an integral part of Mugabe and Zanu PF!

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My greatest hope is Zimbabweans will someday finally understand that it takes much more than cheap rhetoric and wishful thinking to have a free, democratic and prosperous nation. We can have as many protest and revolutions and topple one tyrant after another but only for another one to take his/her place.

As for Mugabe he should derive little comfort from the fact that Zimbabweans have yet to discover the recipe for a creating a free nation. His ruthless repression has driven the nation into the depths of despair already; we all know that desperate people do desperate things! Indeed we have seen this happening already; Zimbabweans risked their lives and over 500 were murdered to vote Mugabe out of office in 2008. They knew just how incompetent and flawed Tsvangirai was and did not care. Some people said they would have voted for a monkey just to make sure Mugabe lose; that is how much the hate the dictator and how desperate they are to see him go!