By Farai D Hove | Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo yesterday issued an apparently hollow account of his meeting with the UK’s minister for Africa.
SB Moyo had a meeting with James Duddridge on Monday.
When he finally issued his report however, SB Moyo gave a different account from that of the British minister.
Minister Duddridge narrated using the following words, “Spoke to Foreign Minister SB Moyo today on a range of issues including CV-19 response. I underlined our deep concerns regarding human rights violations & need for proper investigations. Urge Zimbabwe to seek international reengagement through economic & humanitarian reform.”
But SB Moyo spoke the opposite complaining about what he said were a number of aspects which are as a result of misconceptions which are being propagated by certain political formations in this country.
Moyo said
“I think the discussion was very fruitful. It was very positive and it touched on a number of issues and it also clarified quite a number of aspects which are as a result of misconceptions which are being propagated by certain political formations in this country.
“And I think it is critical that the re-branding process of this country should be everyone’s responsibility. If you are a Zimbabwean and you are happy to defame your own country, it means your loyalty and patriotism are questionable,” said Minister Moyo.
He said people should not sacrifice the national interest at the expense of some “few shillings and that is unacceptable”.
SB Continued saying: “We should not depend on external forces in order to run our affairs of this country.
“We should be able to discuss matters.
“So these are some of the issues which we then discussed.
“We discussed issues to take our relations to the next level and particularly in recognition of the fact that we have signed a post-Brexit agreement.
Moyo’s omissions come at a time when the economy is in the pit directly as a result of human rights violations, one example being the 1 August 2018 military crackdown which the Finance Ministry reports saying cost the country USD16 Billion.
In the graphs below revealed by ZimEye.com, it is displayed that for 14 years between 2004 and 2018, investor interest has either risen or declined in a direct consequential correlation with Human Rights.
A UK based axademic, Dr Admore Tshuma from Kent University was asked by SABC: What were you aiming to achieve?, and he answered as follows: “the study is a socio-economic perspective. The study explores how the future in South Africa may unfold if expropriation of land without compensation goes ahead.
“The aim is not to take a side in this argument, but to unpack the perspective, of human rights and economic paradigms. This is the first time that such a question has been examined by social science using an objectively collected data. The main aim is not to diminish claims for redistribution of land, but to highlight the detriment of the expropriation of land without compensation.
“In this study I am very mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of land and I am also aware that there is little consensus of what benefit expropriation of land will produce for South Africa.
“Hence the basic aim is to suggest an alternative and progressive policy on what could constitute an economically sensible cause of action if South Africa is to pursue.
“In this case Zimbabwe remains an empirical case study, for such a social policy a public policy. The primary Focus in this study is to illustrate the interaction between human rights and the economy, also to highlight the model of retributive Justice in response to growing calls for the land question in South Africa as what happened in Zimbabwe.
“And some of my objectives basically are to raise awareness of the potential long term social economic harm that may result in the expropriation of land, it is also to show the interaction, the inter-twinement … the globalisation of the world, how world nation states have become smaller: how the international law has become supreme…part of what I am looking into, and basically the project in the end, it demonstrates the growing recognition that deep-rooted problems of Human Rights violation… are most likely to affect the economy, it is a very broad subject…”