By Never Kadungure
South African President Jacob Zuma is taking a big gamble in asking the United Kingdom to remove targeted sanctions on members of the Mugabe regime.
Zuma who will be staying with the Queen at Buckingham Palace has argued US and British sanctions are counter-productive and have made it difficult to create a viable coalition in Zimbabwe.
In an interview with the UK Financial Times Zuma said, ‘What have sanctions done to help the situation? Zanu-PF says [it is] in a cabinet of this unity government. But part of the cabinet can go anywhere in the world for their work and part [the Zanu-PF members] can’t go out of the country.’
‘This unity government is being suffocated. It is not being allowed to do its job by the big countries,” he said.
Human rights groups are furious with Zuma’s stance arguing that Zanu PF has to honour the conditions of a power sharing agreement it signed in September 2008.
The net effect of Zuma’s position is to reward Zanu PF for something they have not done yet. ‘It’s like putting the cart before the horse,’ an activist told Nehanda Radio, ‘let them honour the agreement first and respect human rights in Zimbabwe.
Only this week Gertrude Hambira the Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) was back in hiding after police raided the union’s offices on Wednesday.
Hambira fled to safety after five men and one woman, who identified themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, raided the union’s office in Harare apparently looking for her.
More evidence of the lack of reforms came on Sunday during an MDC rally when ZANU PF supporters in a three-vehicle convoy drove at the crowd forcing them to scatter, resulting in a mass brawl that left many injured.
The provocation has been condemned by the MDC who insisted on Tuesday that the violence was sparked by the ZANU PF supporters who tried to disrupt their rally. –Nehanda Radio
