The US ambassador to Zimbabwe has joined the UN and the International Monetary Fund in throwing down the gauntlet to President Emmerson Mnangagwa on corruption and human rights.
Brian Nichols said there was no chance of the world heeding Mnangagwa’s plea for the end of sanctions until Zimbabwe cleaned up its act.
Steps that were needed included implementing the recommendations of former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chaired a commission of inquiry into postelection violence in August 2018.
Six people died in the rioting.
The commission recommended compensation for the victims and their dependants.
A report this week by the UN special rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, also deplored the government’s lack of commitment to issues that could lead to the removal of sanctions.
After a 10day visit, Voule said on Friday he had been confronted by deteriorating relations between the government and citizens.
“To foster impunity is to foster distrust among the population, alienating them from the government and quashing their hopes of meaningful change,” his report said.
The IMF has raised the red flag over alleged corruption involving a key Mnangagwa ally, Kuda Tagwirei of Sakunda Holdings.
It said the government had printed money to pay one of Tagwirei’s companies, in the process undermining the country’s fledgling currency.
The international pressure on Mnangagwa mounted as he attempted to convince the UN General Assembly that he had done enough to justify the lifting of sanctions imposed during the rule of Robert Mugabe.
“Those that impose illegal sanctions must heed this call and lift them now … Cooperation is a win-win game. Sanctions are a lose-lose game. Zimbabwe deserves a restart,” he told a poorly attended session in New York.
“It is high time government does a cleanup. What we need is a stable economic environment, so any measures meant to effect that are welcome,”
The Southern African Development Community is planning a day of solidarity against sanctions on Zimbabwe on October 25, before which Mnangagwa will address a ZANU-PF anti-sanctions march.
But Nichols said the country’s wounds were self-inflicted.
“Zimbabwe put itself through corruption, inefficiency and lack of transparency,” he said.
Since coming to power through a military coup in November 2017 and winning a disputed election in July 2018, Mnangagwa had done little more than “scratch the surface”, said Nichols, with promised reforms, and had overseen a series of violent attacks on protesters, disregard for the rule of law and a crackdown on the opposition.
“We need to see practical, effective implementation of the Motlanthe commission recommendations from the August 1 2018 violence. This has not happened,” said Nichols.
“There have been no investigations of a serious nature and the human rights violations of mid-January, after the fuel price increase, remain not investigated.”
Even within Mnangagwa’s 26-member advisory council, some believe the regime has done too little to win back regional and international support.
“The region and the world have given up on us,” council member Shingi Munyeza told a National People’s Convention gathering in Harare on Wednesday.
“The region including those we call our friends have thrown in the towel. So basically this train is cruising in the wrong direction.”
High-powered lobbyists in Washington and London hired by the government, including BTP Advisers, Mercury Public Affairs, Ballard Partners and Avenue Strategies, have failed to improve international perceptions of Zimbabwe, and Nichols said Mnangagwa had no one but himself to blame for allowing corruption to go unchecked.
“It is high time government does a cleanup. What we need is a stable economic environment, so any measures meant to effect that are welcome,” he said.
With strong public institutions, Zimbabwe would not be a beggar, he said, because billions stolen from public coffers could have been used to provide health care and a higher standard of living for all Zimbabweans.
“Just look at a few cases: in the command agriculture programme for general Zimbabweans, there is over US$3bn unaccounted for in that programme.
“You have the National Social Security Authority, where the former minister [Prisca Mupfumira] that oversaw that programme is currently on trial because over US$70m was looted.
“Even in the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration, millions of dollars have been stolen. You have an electricity utility where millions have also been looted, and the list goes on and on.”
The ambassador said investors remained keen on Zimbabwe but were anxious about runaway inflation and disregard for corporate governance.
“If Zimbabwe could resolve these key issues, that will improve the country’s attractiveness to investors. Underpinning all of that is transparency and the rule of law,” he said.
Nichols said Mnangagwa’s claims in his state of the nation address this week that the US had stage-managed a series of recent abductions were “ridiculous, insulting and obviously untrue”. – Timeslive