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Since becoming president of Zimbabwe in November 2017, despite repeatedly voicing calls for democratic reform, Emmerson Mnangagwa has done little to promote the country’s human rights and democratic freedoms. Instead, his government deepened Zimbabwe’s economic struggles, allowed for endemic corruption, nurtured instability, and struck opposition figures, rights activists and journalists to arouse fear in a shrunken population.
That’s why I was shocked and angry when I saw the claim on November 14th Article For Al Jazeera, EU and US sanctions on Zimbabwe are major obstacles to his government’s progressive agenda.
In the article, on the pretext of expressing Zimbabwe’s intention to tackle climate change, Mnangagwa took a spectacular picture of his government’s actions and intentions, saying his government has plans to make Zimbabwe a middle-income country by the end of this decade. He also argued that he had made great strides since his government came to power, and challenged many of the reforms he had called for, including compensation for landowners who had expropriated property in the 2000s and corruption. to do ”.
But there is a big gap between this progressive rhetoric and the reality on earth.
Under Mnangagwa’s leadership, corruption once again emerged as the first obstacle to Zimbabwe’s economic stability and democratic progress. In February, the Daily Maverick published an explosive report allowing the president to capture corruption and the state for economic and political gain. “Among other things, illegal cross-border financial transactions cost Zimbabwe a whopping $ 3 trillion a year and billions of gold and diamonds smuggled out of the country,” the report says. “It is estimated that Zimbabwe could lose half the value of its annual GDP as a result of corrupt economic activity.” The report concluded that politically linked “cartels” are carrying out these illegal activities and that President Mnangagwa, despite his public anti-corruption stance, is “one of the cartel’s patrons whose protections and protections keep the cartels running.”
There is also ample evidence that, despite the constant announcement in favor of Black Indigenous Farmers, the Mnangagwa government is not doing much to protect them. In fact, the state of Zimbabwe continues to take agricultural land owned by black indigenous people with impunity to this day. In March, for example, the government approved the release of more than 13,000 shangaan from the ancestral lands of Chiredzi District to pave the way for long-term grass growth. Citizens ’inconveniences, aided by many local and international human rights organizations, remained deaf.
In general, contrary to the image painted by Mnangagwa in his article for Al Jazeera, the biggest obstacle for Zimbabweans to exercise basic human rights is not foreign sanctions, but the actions of Mnangagwa himself and his government’s ZANU-PF party.
In fact, since taking over the presidency, Mnangagwa has reached the level of many Zimbabweans who disregarded democracy and human rights. he became nostalgic for his predecessor Robert Mugabe, who ruled the country with iron for the first 37 years.
For example, in August 2018, Zimbabwean soldiers and police, deployed according to Mnangagwa’s “oral” orders, killed six unarmed civilians in post-election protests. The government immediately set up an international commission of inquiry, headed by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, to investigate the incident in a bid to show its commitment to human rights and justice.
The commission ended its work in December 2018, seeing that officers used “unjustified and disproportionate” force against the protesters, and recommended discipline to the soldiers and police responsible for the killings. However, to date, not a single young or senior police or army officer has been reported or charged with such killings.
Even worse, the government has rejected many of the noble recommendations of the Motlanthe Commission. Relatives of the deceased and those who suffered physical injuries have not received compensation. Laws on hate speech, cyberspace abuse and incitement to violence, laws used by the government to intimidate and arrest pro-democracy activists like Hopewell Chin’ono, Makomboero Haruzivishe and Job Sikhala, have not been revised. And since the 2018 general election, no changes have been made to the Electoral Act.
Not surprisingly, the state-sanctioned killings did not end after this dark chapter in 2018. Human Rights Watch reports that Zimbabwean security forces killed 17 people and raped 17 women in January 2019 in protests against a 150% rise in fuel prices. at the time, Mnangagwa spokesman George Charamba tried to justify the deaths, and even told the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper that “the answer so far is just a prediction of who will come.”
Unfortunately, Charamba has often proved his reason in the last two years.
In May 2020, two women activists from the opposition MDC party and a lawmaker were abducted, tortured and sexually assaulted by state security agents. This prompted UN human rights expert Harare to “immediately put an end to the pattern of disappearances and torture that appear aimed at suppressing protests and dissent.” The Mnangagwa administration is expected to ignore this request.
In August 2020, state agents kidnapped alleged activists and arrested opposition lawmakers on the eve of protests against government corruption. Twenty-two-year-old student Tawanda Muchehiwa, who was abducted by about 15 men from a blacksmith’s shop wearing street clothes, was tortured for two days and left with life-changing wounds. The government did not take steps to bring those responsible for these kidnappings to justice or to answer questions about the alleged role the state played in these crimes.
So yes, it is commendable that Mnangagwa is committed to “tackling climate change” and “reducing emissions by 40 percent by 2030,” but we must not assume that the country is working for democracy and human rights. value.
Today, Zimbabweans are struggling not only with climate change, but also with the dire consequences of mismanagement, corruption and political repression, as Mnangagwa is concerned. So the president should not be allowed to “green” his government’s harmful actions or blame everything that is still wrong in the country on EU and US sanctions.
Zimbabwe imposed economic and political sanctions in the early 2000s on widespread human rights violations and illegalities allowed by the ZANU-PF government at the time. Unfortunately, today, ZANU-PF is promising a new government, but Zimbabweans continue to suffer similar abuses.
On October 11, an opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, was attacked by a suspected nationalist party. Chamisa was not injured, but nearby protection agents sustained injuries. Although this attack on an opposition politician was uncommon for ZANU-PF and its supporters, it sent a clear message to the world: The future of democracy in Zimbabwe is not yet certain. In fact, it is well feared that he will experience another crackdown organized by the Zimbabwe government ahead of the 2023 elections. And there are every chance that a disputed election will further isolate a nation plagued by extreme unemployment, poverty and economic instability.
Before calling on the international community to lift sanctions, the Mnangagwa government should really start working to clean up its action, implement comprehensive democratic reforms, enable a progressive political environment and a strong culture of human rights.
How can we move forward if our government continues to fall in love with the selfish, violent and backward ways of the past? We can call on the African Union, the South African Development Community, the UN and the international community in general to green Mnangagwa to clean up the crimes of his government and force us to value our lives and respect our economic, democratic and human rights.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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