Psychology Maziwisa, Interim President of the Union for Sustainable Democracy (USD), shared an article with us on the subject of sanctions. He makes a lot of sense, particularly on the point that sanctions should only be lifted once Mugabe and Zanu PF embrace democratic freedoms in this country.

I was quite surprised though at Psychology’s reference to the “attention seeking” women of WOZA. Getting attention is the first step in highlighting abuse, and WOZA does this admirably. For my part I wish there were more attention seeking activist organisations and NGOs at work in Zimbabwe. The office and hotel workshop room have become far too comfortable for most.

I was also intrigued by his reference to their “frivolous” protest. I wonder what made it frivolous because surely the issue of stable and affordable power supply is at the heart of development and investment? And of course, it’s quite nice not to have to heat up a packet soup on a camping stove when ZESA decides to cut power to your home.

But . . . here you go, Psychology Maziwisa on sanctions:

Far from hurting the generality of the people of Zimbabwe, as Mugabe would conveniently and deceitfully want everyone, everywhere to believe, it is becoming increasingly clear that the targeted sanctions are achieving their desired effect: to hurt the authoritarian Robert Mugabe and his self-interested mob. The European Union’s sanctions must and, are likely to, stay put until our President does more than just heed ‘Julius Mugabe’s’ call to denounce violence.

There is nothing more indicative of the stinging and now unbearable effects of the targeted sanctions than the increasing complaints and calls for those sanctions to be removed and removed as soon as yesterday. Any psychologist would surely tell you that what that means is plain and simple: now is precisely the wrong time to relax the sanctions. If anything, now is the opportune time to go a gear up and intensify their effects by adding even more.

The devils have been hit where it matters the most for them- in their pockets. While the travel bans have curtailed the lavish spending of individuals like Grace Mugabe, preventing them from indulging their shopping addictions in places like Paris, London and Rome, the bulk of the mob have been barred from sending their beloved but often very dull children to study at expensive colleges in Australia, the UK and America as the once highly   esteemed University of Zimbabwe lamentably falls into decay.

There is no reason and no way the European Union would unanimously decide to ease the pressure on those who have hurt us for so long and never bothered to do anything to mitigate our suffering except to mouth empty words denouncing violence at an  Independence  ‘celebration’, after having inflicted 30 years of perennial misery. Even the Bible warns against words without action. Accordingly, Mugabe’s message of tolerance on 18 April 2010 must be ignored for what it is: mere talk.

In case these people need reminding, the sanctions are there for a reason and that is that a handful of people have vandalised the country in a way almost too frightening to comprehend. Many hundreds of innocent and law-abiding citizens have been tortured and killed simply for expressing their democratic desire to elect a government of their choice.

Their best opportunity for reform came when Morgan Tsvangirai, who, by all accounts, won the last presidential election, chose to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) with Robert Mugabe. I think it is fair to say that, while Mugabe has somewhat become a better dictator after September 15, 2008, he has not done enough for the people of Zimbabwe to warrant any mitigation of the targeted sanctions.

Political reform is not coming as quickly as it could. For instance, while the country was ‘celebrating’ independence, political activists were being held in the dark, cold and miserable cells of the notorious Harare Central Police Station. Frivolous though their protest was, the attention-seeking ladies of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) should not have been forced to endure an entire ‘ Independence ’ weekend in primitive, uninhabitable cells.

Thanks to the Mugabe government’s mismanagement and corruption, thousands of precious and innocent children have been left to die from otherwise preventable diseases like measles – even as  South Africa  responsibly manages to administer a second round of injections to boost against attacks from measles and polio.

While Mugabe says he regrets low pay for teachers, he customarily takes sixty or so of otherwise unnecessary thugs with him on international trips, to Copenhagen for instance, for an entire week and gives each of them US$5,000 in daily expenses. Hypocrisy of the highest order!

Progress on human rights and related issues will be key to motivating the relaxation of the targeted sanctions. However, despite the setting up of a Media Commission responsible with the licensing of new media houses, not even one has been licensed. Instead, a comical character has been laughably introduced in the form of Attorney General Johannes Tomana to head that process. Everyone knows that that individual is serious about nothing except to see this country degenerate into further political anarchy. He is the very man who, when addressed years back about the inhumanity of our jails, retorted: ‘A jail is not meant to be nice’.

If Mugabe and his henchmen are serious about meriting the lifting of sanctions, they must, in the first instance, genuinely promote human dignity, freedom of speech and the rule of law, end arbitrary arrests, apply Zimbabwean laws to the fullest extent possible without bias, and forthwith bring to justice all perpetrators of politically motivated violence. They must act in conformity with the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement.

The people of  Zimbabwe  have suffered far too long at the hands of a bunch of self-interested individuals who have unconscionably abused their power. Our consolation, however, should be found in the fact that the targeted recipients of the sanctions are clearly being stung and stung hard by them. We applaud this effect and wish it could be intensified until we witness real change- change that has not come in three decades.

Quite evidently, targeted sanctions are an essential lever to ensure progress in our country.

This entry was posted on April 20th, 2010 at 11:35 am by Bev Clark and is filed under Activism, Economy, Governance, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.