Commentary: Planning for Zimbabwe after Mugabe
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| Published on Saturday, July 7, 2007 |
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By Sir Ronald Sanders
The political and economic crises in Zimbabwe are rapidly getting worse; the vast majority of the people of Zimbabwe are suffering with many hundreds crossing borders into neighbouring countries seeking refuge.
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Sir Ronald Sanders is a business
executive and former Caribbean
diplomat who publishes widely
on small states in the global
community. Reponses to:
ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com |
It is time for the international community to put plans in place to rescue the country from certain disaster, and to save the people of Zimbabwe from the untold suffering they are enduring.
Once regarded as a bread basket of Southern Africa, Zimbabwe’s economy is in a frightening state of disarray.
The annual inflation rate is the world’s highest. It was reported in May at an unimaginable 4,500 percent. Since then, expert reports have put the rate closer to a staggering 10,000 percent. By comparison the average annual inflation rate in the United States is about 3 percent; and about 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole.
Prices in shops for basic goods are more than doubling every week, and the cost of living for an average urban family is reported to have increased by 66 per cent in May alone.
International agencies put unemployment at a mind boggling 80%, and have dropped life expectancy to 39 years as the health system nears collapse.
These conditions have led to the extraordinary situation in which the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Picus Ncube, has called for Britain to invade Zimbabwe and topple President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Even within the government, there is division and discord. There are two factions in the ruling ZANU PF party, but the one thing they appear united on is to stop an attempt by President Mugabe to stay in office beyond the expiration of his present term in 2008.
It is at President Mugabe’s feet that the catastrophic conditions in Zimbabwe are firmly placed.
His policies of seizing agricultural lands from experienced and seasoned white farmers without a plan to replace them with a functioning system, have devastated the country’s agricultural production.
Land ownership and reform remains a fundamental problem in Zimbabwe. While President Mugabe’s tactics for dealing with land redistribution were high-handed and resulted in the destruction of the country’s agricultural base, central to any long-term solution to Zimbabwe’s problems is redistribution of land so that the black majority has a far greater stake in its ownership.
In the treatment meted out to political opponents and to hundreds of thousands of black Zimbabweans who oppose him, President Mugabe has been dictatorial and merciless. For instance, the homes of over 700,000 people were destroyed in 2005 and they were forced into rural areas to live below the poverty line
Recent violent tactics have seen ordinary people beaten by law enforcement officers and government-sponsored vigilante groups for standing up against draconian laws.
While the international community as a whole has a responsibility to act to stop the alarming deterioration in Zimbabwe, so far the response of the United States and the European Union (EU) has been limited to punishing Mugabe and members of his government by the application of sanctions against them, but no programme of action has been devised to negotiate an orderly change in government and to address the urgent need for economic rehabilitation.
More than any other organization, the Commonwealth – a grouping of Britain and 52 of its former colonies around the world – has an obligation to help the Zimbabwean people.
Zimbabwe’s independence and the empowerment of its black people were achieved with the strong support and commitment of the Commonwealth.
And, even though President Mugabe angrily withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth in 2003 because he feared that the organization would take disciplinary measures against his government for violations of its governing democratic principles, the Commonwealth is still obliged to keep Zimbabwe firmly on its agenda.
The fact that Mugabe withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth is not sufficient reason for the organization to abandon Zimbabwe.
When South Africa left the Commonwealth because of opposition to its Apartheid regime, the Commonwealth kept it on its agenda and worked strenuously to help free Nelson Mandela, legitimize the African National Congress (ANC) and end Apartheid.
The late Oliver Tambo of the ANC had made the telling point that it was the South African government that left the Commonwealth, not the South African people.
As Commonwealth heads of government prepare to meet in Uganda in November, rescuing Zimbabwe and sparing Zimbabweans further pain should be firmly on their agenda.
There is much that the Commonwealth can do.
In immediate terms, its member countries in Southern Africa should be encouraged to take more positive action to effect immediate change in Zimbabwe in areas such as: the restoration of democracy; the rebuilding of political and democratic institutions; promoting political dialogue; the establishment of a government of national unity leading to free and fair general elections; and immediate programmes for economic development particularly agricultural production.
And, in terms of planning for the future, the Commonwealth should also establish a Commission of Eminent Persons, as suggested by the International Crisis Group, to draw on the knowledge and experience of the Zimbabwean people in devising a blueprint for the way forward that would include land reform, economic development, constitutional reform, political stability and institutions of governance.
Commonwealth Caribbean countries are well placed to provide experienced people to serve on such a Commission and to give technical knowledge and support.
But, while the Commonwealth is uniquely positioned politically to engage Zimbabwe for change, it will need the international community – the EU, the US, Japan and China in particular - to provide resources through specially dedicated interconnected, coordinated and sustainable programmes to implement programmes of action.
Failure to act will see Zimbabwean suffer even more and will risk dragging down the entire Southern African region at a high cost to the rest of the world.
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