Sanctions regime unsustainable

IT is increasingly becoming ridiculous for the European Union and the United States to defend their hardline policy on Zimbabwe given the giant strides the country has made to conform to their so called good governance tenets. Little wonder cracks are emerging within the EU itself over the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe with Belgium breaking ranks with its colleagues to successfully lobby for the lifting of the embargo on diamonds from Marange.

On 23 September, sanctions on the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation were removed to allow the selling of Marange diamonds at Antwerp. We can only speculate that the diamond cartels in Antwerp saw themselves losing out on a piece of one of the largest diamond markets in the world and reason prevailed.

There have been noises from the Americans who insist that they will confiscate any diamond money which goes through their system (New York is the world financial centre) but we doubt that they will risk jeopardising their “special” relationship with the EU by seizing funds accrued from the sale of Zimbabwean gems in Antwerp.

In any case, theirs is a classic example of doublespeak because on the other hand, their envoy to Zimbabwe Mr Bruce Wharton has described the country’s elections as free and fair and an expression of the will of the people but Washington maintains its sanctions will remain in place. The arguments advanced for imposing sanctions no longer hold and both the EU and the US could save face by removing them in toto and re-engaging with Zimbabwe.

Of course, the 31 July election outcome was stunning in terms of its sheer magnitude of victory for Zanu-PF but the West is better advised to quickly recover from its shock and work with the Government of Zimbabwe which has a huge and clear mandate from its people.

Briefing Western diplomats in Harare last week, Finance Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa urged them to set aside their political differences with Zimbabwe and take advantage of investment opportunities in the country to promote mutual economic development. He said the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) policy document states that notwithstanding the political differences between the country and the West, Zimbabwe stood ready to allow the economies of Western countries and its own to talk.
“We want economies to talk to each other notwithstanding our political differences which may take time. We, of course, are appealing and we hope the lifting of sanctions will be sooner rather than later. But before the lifting of sanctions, let’s start the groundwork for economies to talk to each other, businesspeople to talk to each other, economic relations to be established,” said Cde Chinamasa.

He also explained that the indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes would be implemented in a flexible manner taking into account peculiarities of different sectors of the economy. Zimbabwe has certainly gone out of its way to be accommodating as far as re-establishing relations with the West is concerned.

While the country has adopted a Look East policy, it still values its relations with the Western world because trade-wise, the world has become a global village. We are also sure the West is also keen to have strong trade ties with Zimbabwe as evidenced by overtures being made by Belgium on behalf of the EU.

Reports from Brussels last week said more members of the EU were contemplating rescinding their position on illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe after the bloc’s failure to sustain their allegations of a rigged July 31 harmonised elections.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Belgium Margaret Muchada said individual EU members were ready to engage with Zimbabwe but were divided over the sanctions and soon it would be left up to individual members to pursue the illegal embargo.

The EU was battling to realign itself with its earlier pronouncements that it would go according to the election observer reports by Sadc and the African Union which said elections were free, fair and reflected the will of Zimbabweans. It appears the bloc has no choice but to lift sanctions when they come up for review in February next year. A scorched earth policy does not benefit either side but a mutually beneficial relationship results in a win-win scenario.