The British government has sent a high powered trade
delegation to Zimbabwe, the first in ten years. The Zanu PF regime has heralded
the move as proof of the British and European Union (EU) ending their insistence
on the Mugabe regime up holding basic human rights including the right to
meaningful elections before they would do business with the regime.
The EU; under pressure from the Belgians, keen
to join in Zimbabwe’s diamond trade; made it clear that the Union would accept whatever
verdict SADC made of Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections. If anybody was likely to
turn a blind-eye to any elections irregularities; SADC was that body and they did
not disappoint on that point.
Mugabe and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July
2013 elections and SADC went on to give the process their thumbs up. The
Americans, Canada and Australia did not even hesitate to condemn the elections
as a fraud. The EU, after an initial hesitation, had no choice but to condemn
the elections; the evidence of vote rigging was overwhelming it would have been
a mockery to say otherwise. And yet ever since the rigged elections the EU has
been pushing hard to justify its re-engagement with the Mugabe regime. This UK
trade delegation to Zimbabwe is but one of the fruits of that hard work.
“Trade and investment is vital for Zimbabwe’s
development. We want to strengthen business links and to show our commitment
and we are sending a Trade Mission to translate interest into investment,” said
Ms Catriona Laing, UK ambassador to Zimbabwe, in a statement.
She said the Zimbabwe government will need to
reassure investors that their assets will be secure by clarifying its
indigenisation policy, which stipulates that 51 percent of all foreign owned
businesses worth over $500,000 must be sold to black Zimbabweans.
The lawless seizures of white owned farms and
businesses have been going on for over a decade; the indigenisation policy is a
belated but sorry attempt by the Mugabe regime to give the seizures a legal
cloak. What the Ambassador is conveniently overlooking here is that it is not
only the indigenisation laws alone that have hindered Zimbabwe’s economic development;
gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are two of the major problems.
The Mugabe regime have failed to end
mismanagement and corruption and the people themselves have been powerless to
remove the regime from government because the country is yet to hold free, fair
and credible elections after 34 years of independence. As long as there are no
free, fair and credible elections then the hope economic recovery will remain
but a pipe dream.
The British and the EU must listen to the voices
of the 300 000 or 80% of children who should be at school but are not because
their parents are too poor to pay their fees; to the 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans
now living in abject poverty; the 90% plus out of work; etc. They are the real
victims of this Zanu PF dictatorship and are at the coal face of the economic
meltdown the country is experiencing now right. These are the voiceless victims
who want is a chance to go to school, to have at least one decent meal a day, to
have their first job in ten years or more for many of the unemployed, etc. The
British and the EU must not put profits from the plundering of Zimbabwe’s
resources and turn a deaf ear to these voiceless victims of the plunder.
Zimbabweans have paid a dearly in economic
hardship and political repression including the over 30 000 murder by this
Mugabe regime to afford us this chance to force the regime to change. This
proposed re-engagement by British and EU will get the regime off the hook and
all the suffering and sacrifices we have made would come to naut. How ironic
that the British and Europeans, who sacrificed millions of human lives in the
WW2 fighting for freedom and the right to vote should be the ones fighting on
the side of the tyrannical regime to deny us the same freedoms and rights!
Two centuries ago many Europeans were fighting against
blacks slaves; whilst the blacks fought for freedom the whites were fighting
for the “right” to own and hold blacks in servitude. Things have not change
much really; today the same white are fighting to for the right to plunder
Africa’s wealth and resources and the blacks fighting for basic human rights including
the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself are getting in the
EU’s way!
We in the Zimbabwe
Social Democrats call upon the British and the EU to listen to the cries for
justice and fair play from the long suffering masses in Zimbabwe and stop this
re-engagement with the oppressive Zanu PF regime. Europe must not put the right
to join in the plunder of Zimbabwe’s wealth and resource above the rights of
black Zimbabweans to life and human dignity.
Free, fair and
credible elections are the basis of good government in Britain, Europe and the
world over; for this is what is at the heart of this struggle. The ordinary people
of Zimbabwe are demanding a meaningful say in the governance of the country, a
right denied them by this Mugabe dictatorship for the past 34 years. Surely,
surely that is not too much to ask; it is a sore thing that the British should
now be playing the leading role in the continued denial and oppression of the
ordinary voiceless masses in Zimbabwe.
Signed:
Wilbert Mukori
Secretary General
Zimbabwe Social
Democrats
Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-18637-All+the+right+noises+as+UK+trade+team+arrives/news.aspx
27 comments:
The British and EU are not going to invest anything all they want to do is to get in on the plunder and looting the Chinese, Israelis, Indians, etc. have been doing.
We started from one-man-one-vote before independence but soon after independence it was changed to one-man-one-vote if it is a vote for Zanu PF, Zanu PF was so favoured that even the dead where voting for it. Now we have one-man-one veto because it is only what Mugabe wants that count.
“Akasvitsa party pairi apa ndiani? Kwandakabva nemaBhunu, majeri, masango ndozonzi nekamwana kadikiwozvako kuti ibva? Aiwa! (Who made this party what it is today? After what I went through against the whites, the prisons, the bush only to be told by a young person that I should go? No!)" said Mugabe.
“When time comes (to step down) I shall tell you, but for now hakuna kwandinoenda (I am going no-where).”
We understand you, Mugabe; you fought to end white oppression but not so that all blacks can be free but so that you can become the new oppressor!
The challenge of our time is how to break this vicious cycle were yesterday's liberator become today's op-pressor and today's liberators become tomorrow's oppressor. What triggers this metaphoric transformation is power and Mugabe had absolute power. We should institute a political dispensation with adequate checks and balances and no one individual can dictate to the nation.
The people have had no say in Mugabe's long stay in power because he was able to rig elections. Mugabe has become a tyrant and dictator; that should not have happened and must never be allowed to happen ever again!
@ Svinurai
The nincompoop has dragged the nation into the gutter where 90% plus are out of work, 300 000 or 80% of the children are out of school, 16% or 2 million people are living in abject poverty and he has murdered over 30 000 innocent people to establish his one party dictatorship. Being the nincompoop that he is he boasts of “Akasvitsa party pairi apa ndiani? (Who made this party what it is today?) as if turning Zanu PF into a corrupt and murderous regime was a great achievement!
What a moron!
@ Malunga
What the idiot is forgetting is that the nation went to war to end the autocracy he has been imposing. We cannot have each generation fighting for freedom and liberty because the one before them, having secured their own freedom and liberty extending it to include denying others their freedom and liberty! We must end this stupid cycle of yesterday's liberator undergoing a metaphoric transformer to become an oppressor the minute they taste power!
@ Chiremba
No they do not. I want to see the Zanu PF dictatorship dismantled and every Zimbabwean to enjoy their basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life. MDC Renewal guys were in the GNU and they had all the chance to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship if they wanted by implementing the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. They failed to get even one reform implemented because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
All the MDC guys want now is to get back on the gravy train; they will never ever bring about the democratic changes the nation is dying for. Never ever; because they are corrupt and breath-takingly incompetent. There are some things that can be changed; there is no cure for being cor-rupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
Sadly the Zimbabwe electorate are a naive and gullible lot (we are in this hell-hole because of it) and hence they easily conned by these MDC village idiots. It is a real challenge to make sure the electorate are not conned again!
@ Chiremba
If no one "would have managed any reforms with this vicious dictatorship" as you say; then why did MDC say they would. They are the movement for democratic change; are they not? So they are a movement for change but never believed they would bring any change. They only said they would to con the voters!
We all want to see the back of Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship but to focus on the dictatorship alone is to miss the point. If you are hunting the hare and you flash it out a few times but fail to kill it then you should think of changing your hunting dog. MDC do not believe they can bring change, saying is one thing believing is another, you have just said so yourself.
The nation is dying for change and it is folly to support a party that will never deliver the change.
I am out of the country but I am passionately interested in seeing an end to the tragic suffering those left behind are facing. I am not interested in being on the gravy train but in seeing it de-railed. And I will not rest until the gravy train is derailed, if that meanings me coming there and doing it myself, I will.
I will never buy the stupid argument that it is only those you are back in Zimbabwe right now who alone must have a say in the future of the country just as I have never bought Mugabe's variation of the same theme that only those who fought in the war of independence must have a say. Every Zimbabwean is a human being and must therefore be entitle to all the human rights, freedoms and liberties as stated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. As far as I am concerned there are no exceptions and I will never accept anyone imposing any on me! Never ever!
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe opened parliament Tuesday with a warning that locals who front for foreign firms trying to dodge indigenisation laws face "decisive action".
There will be no foreign investor who would want to find themselves having to carry one of those Zanu PF a blood sucking ticks because that is what a Zanu PF approved partner is.
The only "decisive action" that matters here is that of the investors and they have already taken it - they are not investing in Zimbabwe! And the consequence of their decisions is already there for all to see - Mount Everest high unemployment rate!
Mugabe is a dictator but like all megalomanias he has no clue where their absolute power ends; after passing his ridiculous indigenisation laws it is not for him to call the next shots but the would-be investors!
FACTIONAL warfare in Libya is pushing the oil producer "very close to the point of no re-turn", the U.N. special envoy to the country said on Tuesday with efforts to bring about a ceasefire and political dialogue showing no result.
Tyrants rule with an iron fist for decades destroying all the country's democratic institution and the indi-vidual trust and when their reign finally come to an end the pressure on the nation to split is great because no one can trust anyone else not to abuse power and thus become the next tyrant. If Libya does reach this point of no return it would be the tyrant Gaddafi's fault!
Tyrants must be tried for treason because their tyrannical regime threaten the country’s economic and political stability; the nation’s very survival.
@ Rovambira
The West did not interfere in Syria and look what is happening there?
If Libya had healthy and functioning judiciary, parliament, media, etc. there is no doubt the chaos we see there would not be happening. It was Gaddafi who destroyed these state institutions and not the West.
@ The Fuhrer
Some people are so confused they do not know what they are talking about. They start the sentence saying one thing but by the time they finish that sentence they have said the exact opposite!
@ Rovambira
What is the point of saving someone from starvation if he is going to be bitten by a snake? Well you save him in the hope that he will be able to fight the snake without your help!
Do not count your chicken before the hen has even laid the first egg. The British have said they wanted the indigenisation law scrapped and Mugabe is a single track-minded idiot and has already said the laws are staying! So any one coming into Zimbabwe; they will coming to join in the looting and not invest!
@ Makusakatara
Yes Ian Smith's racist economy is gone and replace but something worse , much, much worse. Smith's economy was strong and it continued to thrive even the country faced outside sanctions and a civil war. The only problem with it was that wealth was being enjoyed by the whites and not shared equally.
The Mugabe economy is corrupt and a complete disaster; the morons ruling the country do not have the foggiest idea what they are doing. It is not even the ruling elite are benefiting from this chaos for they are being fleeced by the Chinese, Israelis, Lebanese, etc. right, left and centre and they do not know anything!
All these years these idiot have been pretending the economy is doing well but now they are being force to admit that it is not. The economic meltdown which they fostered on the nation is biting them hard too. This Zanu PF factional war is because the economic cake has shrunk there is not enough to feed everyone in the dictatorship which has ballooned over the years. The fighting is “load shedding” Zanu PF style.
In the coming months there will be thousands of Zanu PF chefs who be forced out of Easy Street to join us povo in S***t Alley where those living in abject poverty are found. Did you see the late Nathan Shamuyarira, he lived the last ten years of his life in S****t Alley. He was a Zanu PF party grandee but poverty does not ask for your party card, only the size of Bank balance.
If you do not join us in S****t Alley after this first wave of load shedding, you will in the next. For years morons like you have worried about putting on weight but when you join us in S***t Alley you will finally have something worth worrying about - like what to eat!
@Whichfool
So you are from the Mujuru faction.
Well Mujuru has been accused of illegal dealing in diamonds; is she guilty or innocent? It is a rhetorical question of course because we all know she is guilty; how else can someone that stupid be as rich as she is.
She has been very careful not to answer the question but we all know she is fried.
Zanu PF may be the only game in town; I agree but Mujuru and the rest of you, her supporters are going to be dumped soon. For most of you days in Easy Street are over and it is S***t Alley for you. After years of being blind to corruption and the misery of others you will be seeing things differently from now on!
You are a Mujuru supporter, s****t; you are fcuk for sure!
Some 270 MPs are off to Victoria Falls for a seminar at the plush Elephant Hills Hotel. These are the same MPs who disrupted the debate on the 2013 elections because they already knew Mugabe rigged the elections, they just did not want the details publicly confirmed.
Well comrades, this could well be your last holiday paid for by the Zimbabwe taxpayers. Rigging elections is a very serious crime - it is treason. We all know that the July 2013 elections were rigged and there must be a thorough investigation into last year's elections and all those responsible must be held to account.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is hitting Mugabe where it really hurts - right at the core centre of Zanu PF itself and the party is split right down the middle. When party grandees like the late Enos Nkala and Nathan Shamuyarira are forced to live in abject poverty it really send the message home to all Zanu PF members that the economic hardship povo have been crying about all these years is real and that being a loyalty Zanu PF member counted for nothing if poverty came knocking at your door. The only thing pov-erty respected is the money in one's pocket or bank account.
The economic meltdown has meant the national cake was shrinking and the fight for the little wealth available was bound to intensify especially since these Zanu PF members have developed huge appetite and they are used to having little and sharing that little.
So the fighting in Zanu PF was as inevitable as the economic meltdown itself was inevitable given the rampant corruption. But now that it has started in earnest even Mugabe himself is scared of the fall out that will follow this dumping of the Mujuru faction.
When Margaret Dongo broke away and stood as an independent candidate in the 1995 elections, for example, the fallout was a big embarrassment for Mugabe and Zanu PF. Zanu PF rigged the vote in favour of the party’s candidate but because Ms Dongo had inside information on how the party functioned she successful challenged the result. The Zanu PF candidate lost the rerun. This time the party is dumping a lot more than one individual but hundreds of thousands.
The timing could not have been worse; most of the dumped members will be move from a lifestyle of luxury, worrying about putting on too much weight, to a life of unparalleled poverty where starvation is one’s constant companion and greatest worry. Of course their extreme suffering will inflame anger and bitterness of the dumped members.
Mugabe is right to worry about this dog-eat-dog fight; he knows that this time he may well have planted the seed of the party’s own final destruction.
@ Whichfool
Zimbabweans have had elections on condition that the result of the so said elections does not end with regime change. To be sure that Zanu PF stayed in power the regime has resorted to all manner of dirty tricks including intimidation, beatings, rape, murder and vote rigging. But let me say it again Mugabe is not going to get away with the rigging of the 2013 elections.
The dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF marks the beginning of the collapse of the dictatorship and that will end with its final demise and regime change. The nation will be ready then for a thorough investigation into the regime's past rigged elections. We will establish that you are nothing but liar but more significantly why you have been lying!
Denmark is one of Zimbabwe’s biggest bilateral development partners. With an overall budget of $95 million, the Denmark-Zimbabwe Development Partnership Programme (2013 – 2015) aims to build democratic institutions and promote universal human rights.
One has to take the West’s commitment to democratic institution and good governance with a large pitch of salt. The west has done very well to help the needy in Zimbabwe with food aid and medical supplies – since 2008 it is the donors who have paid for 98% of the country’s medicines and drugs. What the West has concentrate on is the ambulance service at the bottom of the cliff but has done little to strengthen the nation’s democratic institution necessary to stop people being pushed over the cliff by the regime.
Zimbabwe needs a robust independent media to counter balance the country’s well- funded Zanu PF control public media and only allowed electronic media. Radio stations like S W Radio Africa were getting under the Zanu PF’s dictatorship’s skin because it was offering the brainwashed Zimbabwe public a real alternative source of information and giving them a voice.
The extraordinary lengths to which the Mugabe regime has done to pressure all radio station like S W Radio Africa to be shut down is proof the regime was losing the battle to allow Zimbabweans to think for themselves.
The West has given in to the regime’s pressure and reduced funding those activities that empowered the ordinary people to demand for good governance and funded the ambu-lance at the bottom of the cliff services instead. No prices for guessing how much of this $95 million Danish aid will DO anything, anything at all, to change this Zanu PF dictator-ship.
If you give a man fish, you have given him a meal; teach him to fish and you have given him a livelihood.
@ Rafique72
I do not think so. EU have given up hope of helping Zimbabweans achieve meaningful change in Zimba-bwe especially after the country had its best chance ever to do so and MDC fcuked up big time.
What countries like Belgium have been saying since the rigged elections is "These black idiots are a con-fused lot who do not know what is in their own interest. We gave them a chance and they fcuked up. We now want to join China and Israel in the plunder and looting of the country's wealth. Fcuk human rights!"
There is no doubt that Mugabe will never scrap the indigenisation laws and he will never end the crippling corruption. The West will never invest in the country and all they will do is join in the plunder. As for Zimbabwe, Zanu PF will have its wish never to allow regime change and so the country will never ever get out of this hell-hole. Never!
Dr Diva
Yes but what they are also saying is they have given up on the sanctions as a way of pressuring Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections. They are lifting the sanctions so they can join China, Israel, India, etc in the plundering of the nation's wealth!
The Americans, Canadians and Australians are holding firm and would not accept the blatantly rigged July 2013 elections as legitimate. EU's re-engagement with Zanu PF is undermining that position - that is the problem here!
@ Darlington
Well that is being naive. It will not be food Denmark will be importing from Zimbabwe but her minerals. The plunder that has been going on for decades is about to go into overdrive and you cannot even see it!
@ Afroboy
Yeah just as you could not wait for the July 2013 elections; you were confident then that MDC would win the elections. Now you think the death of Mugabe will solve all the country's problems; you wrong.
Holding the elections without the reforms failed to produce any meaningful change. This time it is implementing the reforms that is still important; again nothing will change whether Mugabe died or alive. The EU's re-engagement with Zanu PF will give the later the confidence not to accept implementing any re-forms!
You really need to wake up and smell the coffee my friend!
Tshotha
At the age of 90 years, it is clear he is now running on the fumes, the tank is empty. He holds all those fancy titles, yes, but he is still a mortal being and like all mortals he is going to die! And when that happens millions of Zimbabweans will be very pleased to see the tyrant go and start his eternal life in Hell!
@ James Bond
It is common knowledge that the Belgians, who are the driving force behind this EU re-engagement with Zanu PF, want to join China and Israel in the plundering of Zimbabwe's diamonds. They do not care about Mugabe rigging last year's elections because MDC should have stopped that by implementing the reforms. MDC fcuked up and so the whole nation must pay for it; as far as the EU is concerned!
If the EU is allowed to go through with this re-engagement then we can kiss good bye to Zimbabwe holding free, fair and credible elections for many years to come because the regime will not implement any reforms for a long time – this is the BIG ISSUE here!
The Western countries which include EU, USA, Canada, Australia and a few other countries, imposed sanctions against Mugabe and a number of his cronies is 2002 in protest against the regime's bad human rights record including its failure to hold meaningful free elections. For the last two years the EU has been pushing hard to break rank with the other western partners and re-engage with the Mugabe regime.
The is no doubt that Mugabe blatantly rigged last year's elections, the EU admitted it, although the Union did so reluctantly. What was clear was that the EU still wanted to re-engage with the Zanu PF regime regardless of its failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
The true cost of the EU re-engagement .with Zanu PF is that the later will be off the hook to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections, the key reason the sanctions were imposed in the first place.
The people of Zimbabwe and history will never forget or forgive Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC village idiots for betraying the nation and failing to implement the democratic reforms throughout the GNU years. Their betrayal costed the nation its best chance to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Still there was a real chance of forcing the regime to implement the reforms now if only the EU did not in turn betray us by re-engaging with the regime and thus get it off the hook on the 2002 sanctions demand for the regime to hold free elections.
@Bluntboy
The sanctions were in protest against rigged elections; Mugabe rigged last year's elections so the sanctions should have stayed.
Tsvangirai is a village idiot because he is the one who failed to implement the reforms still the EU should not punished the whole nation because of MDC's breath-taking incompetence! That is a feeble excuse and we will not buy it!
@ Afroboy
Mugabe will have won in that he has stubbornly failed to hold free and fair elections and the EU has given up on that demand. The is no chance of Zimbabwe holding free and fair elections in our lifetime; that is the price Zimbabweans will pay!
Post a Comment