ZSD welcome Germany questioning basis of EU lifting sanctions against Mugabe regime

The Zimbabwe Social Democrats welcome the Germany government’s questioning the EU’s decision to lift sanctions against all Zanu PF leaders except President Mugabe and his wife given the regime’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections last year.

 “I do not know what they are using to justify the lifting of measures on President Mugabe. This can be best answered by the EU not Germany alone,” a Germany Official told a New Zimbabwe reporter.

Zimbabwe is stuck is this political and economic limbo because Mugabe rigged last year’s elections. The USA, EU and even the Chinese, President Mugabe’s long standing allay, have all refused to contribute anything to the Zanu PF regime’s flagship economic recovery plan, ZimAsset, because none of them can trust the regime to address the key economic problems like corruption and trust it to up hold the rule of law.

The regime’s failure to arrest the country’s economic meltdown, as exemplified by the empty ZimAsset begging bowl, has resulted in the country sinking to new depth of economic misery and despair. Unemployment has soared to 90% plus, many cities and towns do not have something as basic as clean running water, 300 000 or 80% of children have dropped out of school because their parents can hardly feed them much less have money to pay their school fees, etc.

The only way to stop Zimbabwe’s economic decline is for the country to hold free, fair and credible election; end this illegitimate Mugabe regime and replace it with a legitimate one that the nation, donors and investors can work with and trust. Mugabe has refused to accept this solution and holding out on the hope the promised EU re-engagement will mean EU bankrolling his $27 billion ZimAsset plan and thus end the economic meltdown.  

The EU should have maintain the sanction on President Mugabe and all his cronies as Americans, Canadians and Australians have done and not encourage the regime to think its legitimacy can be restore any other way other than by holding free and fair elections.  

The Copac constitution pushed through by the GNU in Harare last year was weak and feeble which is why it failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections. No among of tinkering with it now will transformer it into a democratic constitution much less reverse the reality of the rigged July 2013 elections.

We call upon the Germany government to use its influence to end this sicken EU game of  encouraging President Mugabe to think the EU will help him rig economic recovery. This is only postponing the day the regime goes at the expense of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe to whom everyday this economic meltdown means another day in hell.

There was no basis for EU lifting the sanction against all President Mugabe’s cronies just as there is no basis for re-engaging the Mugabe government. The EU has to realise that the regime equates re-engagement with the EU bankrolling the regime’s $27 billion ZimAsset plan, rightly or wrongly. The EU should at least make its position clear that re-engagement does not mean bankrolling ZimAsset and not hold out until November 2014 only to drop a token amount in the begging bowl! It will be cruel and inhuman to the ordinary Zimbabweans who would have paid dearly throughout.

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com