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| Political prostitute: Psychology Maziwisa |
FAR from hurting the generality of the people of
Zimbabwe, as President Robert Mugabe would conveniently want everyone to
believe, it is becoming increasingly clear that the targeted sanctions are
achieving their desired effect: to hurt Mugabe and his self-interested mob.
The European Union (EU)’s sanctions must and are likely to
stay put until Mugabe does more than just heed Julius Malema’s call to
denounce violence.
There is nothing more indicative of the stinging and now unbearable effects of
the targeted sanctions than the increasing complaints and calls for those
sanctions to be removed and removed as soon as yesterday. Any psychologist
would surely tell you that what that means is plain and simple: now is precisely
the wrong time to relax the sanctions. If anything, now is the opportune time
to go a gear up and intensify their effects.
The mob has been hit where it matters the most — in their pockets. While the
travel bans have curtailed the lavish spending of individuals, preventing them
from indulging their shopping passions in places like Paris, London and
Rome, the bulk of the mob have been barred from sending their children to study
at expensive colleges in Australia, the UK and America as the once highly esteemed University of Zimbabwe lamentably
falls into decay.
There is no way the European Union would decide to ease the pressure on those
who have hurt us for so long while never bothering to do anything to mitigate
our suffering except to mouth empty words denouncing violence at
an Independence celebration, after having inflicted 30 years of
perennial misery. Even the Bible warns against words without action.
Accordingly, Mugabe’s message of tolerance on April 18 must be ignored for what
it is: mere talk.
In case they need reminding, sanctions are there for a reason and that is that
a handful of people have vandalised the country in a way almost too frightening
to comprehend. Hundreds of innocent and law-abiding citizens have been tortured
and killed simply for expressing their democratic desire to elect a government
of their choice.
Their best opportunity for reform came when Morgan Tsvangirai who won the last
presidential election agreed to form a government of national unity with
Mugabe. It is fair to say that while Mugabe has somewhat become less
of a dictator after the September 15 2008 agreement, he has not done enough for
the people of Zimbabwe to warrant any mitigation of the targeted sanctions.
Political reform is not coming as quickly as it could. For instance, while the
country was “celebrating” Independence, political activists were being held in
the dark, cold and miserable cells of the notorious Harare Central Police
Station. Frivolous though their protest may have been, the attention-seeking
ladies of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) should not have been forced to endure
an entire Independence weekend in primitive, cells.
While Mugabe says he regrets the low pay for teachers, he customarily takes a
delegation of 60 or so people with him on international trips to Copenhagen for
instance, for an entire week, and they are paid scarce foreign currency.
Progress on human rights and related issues is key to the relaxation or removal
of targeted sanctions. However, despite the setting up of a media commission responsible
for the licensing of new media houses, not even one has been licensed. Instead,
the under-fire Attorney General Johannes Tomana is to head that process.
If Mugabe and his henchmen are serious about the lifting of sanctions, they
must genuinely promote human dignity, freedom of speech and the rule of law,
end arbitrary arrests, apply Zimbabwean laws to the full extent without bias,
and bring to justice all perpetrators of politically-motivated violence.
They must also act in conformity with the letter and spirit of the global
political agreement.
The people of Zimbabwe have suffered far too long at the hands of a
bunch of self-interested individuals who have unconscionably abused their
power. Our consolation, however, is that the targets of the sanctions are
clearly stung hard by them. We applaud this and wish the sanctions could be
intensified until we witness real change.
Psychology Maziwisa is interim president of the Union for
Sustainable Democracy and can be contacted at leader@usd.org.zw.
