IN a recent article posted in one of the state-run media, one self-appointed policy analyst alleges that there are sanctions and scoffs at the MDC-T for calling them restrictive measures. While it would be doing the academic world a disservice to call such statements intellectual dishonesty, I am sure it is some form of dishonesty if not ignorance. In fact, by any standards, the submission lacked both academic eloquence and intellectual logic.

Thinking that shouting at the top of one’s voice will sweep away the existing conditions that necessitated the imposition of the restrictive measures amounts to failure to appreciate the extent of the Zanu PF agenda.

The need to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe was inspired by several factors. It is only a certain level of progress in dealing with these causal factors that will culminate in the relaxation or total removal of these restrictive measures.

It is common knowledge that since 1997 a combination of complex factors such as the large unbudgeted expenditures on war veterans (which resulted in that Black Friday in which the Zimbabwean dollar fell by 72% to the US dollar marked the beginning of a serious down turn in the economy), an unbudgeted for involvement in the DRC war in which it was estimated that the Zimbabwean government was using at least US$1 million dollars a day, differences over the handling of the land question, defaulting in debt servicing, disputed election results, a deteriorating human rights record, and questions over the rule of law, constitutionalism, and mode of governance, provoked some sections of the international community to impose various restrictive measures against Zanu PF.

There is no record of trade sanctions on Zimbabwe anywhere. That is why you see that Australian companies continue to trade with Zimbabwe despite Australia’s position on Zimbabwe. For example, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry continued to import snow peas and cut flowers (mainly roses) from Zimbabwe. Cut-flower imports totalled $33 000 in 2007-2008 while fresh vegetable imports totalled $20 000- $25 000. A spokesperson for Australian Foreign Ministry, Stephen Smith said that “imports from Zimbabwe are not covered” by the restrictive measures.

It is cheap Zanu PF politics to allege that the poor in Zimbabwe are in such a position because of these restrictive measures. The truth is that Zimbabwe under Zanu PF has suffered from crony-state capitalism — an economic system that is terribly hostile to the country’s poor and working people and that empowers and enriches political elites and their clients.
Throughout the days of ESAP, Zanu PF adopted what analysts have termed “party-capitalism” that resented accumulation outside party networks and that authorised looting by political elites and their clients.
Zanu PF elites have continued to pursue this zero-sum extractive form of politics as is evidenced by their involvement in the Chiadzwa diamond fields while the nation remains bankrupt.

The only precondition for the removal of sanctions is implementation of the GPA. The full implementation of the GPA is the most important aspect in this endeavour towards ending Zimbabwe’s decade-long international isolation.



David Mpiyezwe Nyathi
Johannesburg, South Africa.