Wilbert Mukori | “Outgoing Swiss envoy to Zimbabwe and Malawi Ms Ruth Huber is confident of enhanced investment ties between her nation and Zimbabwe building on the crucial engagements held between the two countries’ leaders at the Davos meeting last month,” reported Zimeye.
“Swiss investors are ready to invest in Zimbabwe, was the massage from outgoing Swiss Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Malawi after she bade farewell to President Emmerson Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa offices in Harare today.”
Swiss investors may be ready to invest in Zimbabwe but that does not mean Zimbabwe is ready for foreign investors. Whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs; foreign and local investors will continue to shy away.
President Mnangagwa has travelled far and wide ever since he assumed the presidency following the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe from office. “Zimbabwe is ready to do business!” he was shouted at every opportunity he had. Sadly, without doing something concrete to end the country’s reputation as a corrupt and lawless nation ruled by thugs, the country will not be ready for local or foreign investors.
Switzerland must wait to see if Zimbabwe has changed and will hold free, fair and credible elections as President Mnangagwa has promised. One does not need to remind the Swiss that President Mnangagwa has said a lot about free and fair elections and yet has done nothing on the ground to make this happen. We have been asking the regime to implement the reforms Zanu PF signed up to in 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA).
The 2008 GPA was drawn with the help of SADC leaders following Zimbabwe’s 2008 rigged elections. Not even SADC and the AU, known for approving some dodgy elections in Africa, would endorse the Zanu PF victory as a free and fair electoral process. It was agreed that Zimbabwe’s GNU must implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of 2008. As a senior Zanu PF minister in Mugabe’s government before, during and after the GNU, President Mnangagwa knows only too well that not even one reform was implemented during or after the GNU.
President Mnangagwa knows that all talk of free, fair and credible election in Zimbabwe without first implementing the reforms is just that – talk! If he was serious about holding free and fair elections he would have hit the ground running on implementing the reforms. He has done nothing!
Indeed, President Mnangagwa has contemptuously dismissed those calling for the reforms as nothing more that barking dogs.
“Zanu PF ichatonga igotonga! Imi muchigohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (demanding reforms) bark! And bark!) Was Mnangagwa’s first words of assurance to his fellow Zanu PF hardliners on his return from SA following the November 2017 coup.
The Zanu PF hardliners, led by none other than Mnangagwa and Mugabe, have rigged elections and used violence including mass murder to ensure there is no regime-change in Zimbabwe. They nicknamed the November 2017 coup, Operation Restore Legacy; the no-regime-change mantra is at the very heart of that legacy!
Many Zimbabweans are determined to see the country hold its first free, fair and credible elections. They not only see free and fair elections as an inalienable right; they also know this is the basis for good, democratic and accountable government. The country is in a serious political and economic mess following four decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule by this de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship; holding free, fair and credible elections is the nation’s ticket out of this hell.
One hopes that the people of Switzerland, with their own well-known tradition of good and democratic governance going back generations, will understand why the people of Zimbabwe are yarning for democratic change. And, more significantly, the Swiss will help pressure this Zanu PF regime to honour its promise hold free, fair and credible elections.
Switzerland must hold back all economic re-engagements and investments in Zimbabwe until the Zanu PF regime implemented all the democratic reforms and the country is finally put on a firm footing to hold free, fair and credible elections this year and from henceforth.