The contentions of the global community are that:-
1. The leadership of Zimbabwe are perpetrating acts of gross human rights violations against their own people.
2. The leadership of Zimbabwe have misappropriated resources funds for their own benefit.
3. The leadership of Zimbabwe have an interest in clinging to power through whatever means to maintain their lucrative positions
Therefore the global community has imposed travel bans on the leadership of Zimbabwe and have frozen their assets and funds outside of Zimbabwe
However...
1. There are other countries where the human rights climate is more despicable than in Zimbabwe; and the leadership of those countries are not censured in any way.
2. These frozen assets and funds if proven to be the fruits of ill-gotten gains, can and must be liquidated and returned to the Zimbabwean National Treasury for the purpose of paying off Zimbabwe's foreign debt.
3. The leadership of Zimbabwe have scheduled open elections for early next year - to be run and monitored by SADC and the AU
The imposition of travel restrictions prevent the leadership of Zimbabwe from attending international trade events, to promote Zimbabwe as an investment destination; in addition it also prevents Zimbabwe from importing goods and services from the countries that they are banned from entering.
The only option that the Zimbabwean people have therefore is to import from SADC, the AU and Asia.
Given that certain countries in Asia (e.g. North Korea) are complicit in the human rights abuse in Matabeleland in the early 1980's (Gukuruhundi as perpetrated by the North Korean trained "5 Brigade") it is obvious as to why Zimbabwe has been deemed to be part of the "Axis of Evil". Further Zimbabwe's gold mines are ready sources for uranium (a by-product of the cyanidation process) which also adds to the discomfort of the global community.
However the fact that Zimbabwe has the 2nd largest deposit of platinum group metals in the world indicates that with strategic investment and an enabling environment; Zimbabwe could be a very rich country.
However, the Zimbabwean mining sector is dwarfed by the Zimbabwean agricultural sector, in terms of human resource allocation; and this bias has impeded the Zimbabwean mining sector from achieving its full potential.
Without foreign investment, Zimbabwe will have to turn to the South African mining giants to maximise the return from their mineral wealth - however our mining giants (e.g. Anglo American etc) have a rather interesting record of aiding and abetting the apartheid regime.
Further it was Cecil John Rhodes who colonised Zimbabwe for Britain in the first place, and his historical involvement with the mining giants will not make them welcome in Zimbabwe.
Finally, the single biggest threat to the American and EU Tobacco lobby is Zimbabwe, because of the new anti-smoking laws that have forced these companies to look to the developing world to sell their nicotine addiction.
If Zimbabwe was able to develop the technology to produce FMCG food and beverages containing nicotine derivates (e.g. nictinamide) they would conquer the world as regulated by the anti-smoking legislation.
For years, South Africa's tobacco giants (British American Tobacco and Richemont) have relied on the raw tobacco leaf product from Zimbabwe... which has always been in competition to the USA's tobacco giants (Riggio, RJ Reynolds etc)
Is it any coincidence that the biggest funders of the Republican Party in the USA are the Tobacco Lobby and the Oil Lobby and the biggest losers to the USA's foreign policy are Oil producing nations and Tobacco producing nations?
Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in the AU. Why is Zimbabwe starving?
Ø Yes monetary and fiscal policy in Zimbabwe needs to be changed - but these bizarre policies came after the 1st world started squeezing Zimbabwe.
Ø Yes a change of leadership is due - but the elections are next year, and President Mugabe is not standing for re-election
By retaining the restrictions on Zimbabwe, you are going to do two things:-
1. Force the outcome of next year’s election to be won by whosoever sells-outs the most to the USA, UK and the EU; and/or
2. Force Zimbabwe to become more reliant on “Asian Investment”
Do you really want another Chinese province in Africa? Look at Darfur-Sudan, and I think the answer’s quite obviously, an EMPHATIC NO!
Drafted by Avishkar Govender for the Young Liberals of Southern Africa youngliberals@bluebottle.com
Avishkar Govender
eThekwini-Durban
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
SADC - AU