ZSD condemn UK and EU for putting plunder profits above human rights

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.