Zim sanctions are a land issue, finish and klaar!
Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa
Admittedly, Zimbabwean opposition and the imposers of sanctions have done well in one aspect in the past few years.
They have managed to convince gullible Zimbabweans that sanctions are targeted and if Zimbabwe improves on human rights sanctions will be removed.
They have gone further, shifting the narrative that sanctions have little or zero effect on Zimbabwe’s economy but it is corruption that has affected the country.
They forget that sanctions were placed specifically because of the land reform programme which Zimbabwe had undertaken.
America and her friends viewed the move as a threat to its foreign interests.
The two quotes below are excerpts from the ZIDERA document of 2001.
The Land issue was key.
*‘RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF LAW.*-The rule of law has been restored in Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property, freedom of speech and association, and an end to the lawlessness, violence, and intimidation sponsored, condoned, or tolerated by the Government of Zimbabwe, the ruling party, and their supporters or entities.’
*‘COMMITMENT TO EQUITABLE, LEGAL, AND TRANSPARENT LAND REFORM.*-The Government of Zimbabwe has demonstrated a commitment to an equitable, legal, and transparent land reform program consistent with agreements reached at the International Donors’ Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998.’
Other things included conditions on pre-election violence, property rights, free and fair elections, ending DRC war, army and police which will respect civilian rule.
Before the watershed 2018 elections which ushered the New Dispensation, ZIDERA act was reviewed.
The law was amended in 2018 to reflect updated demands which include ZEC be independent, that the military play no role in election campaign, equal access to State media for all participating parties, ZEC releases both the provisional and the final voters’ rolls ahead of the poll Zimbabwe invites international observers for the polls, these are all revised demands from the 2001 document.
The new demands added are Government must apologise for Gukurahundi. (New demand) and economic reforms, key being on the currency and changes at central bank. All the above demands as stated in the amended 2018 ZIDERA, are repeatedly stated ad nauseum by the USA Embassy who with their fellow ZIDERA promoters including Nelson Chamisa’s CCC and activists in Zimbabwe whenever a call for the removal of sanctions is made.
They demand that the above conditions, as ridiculous as they are, seeing all are always met, should be met. They deliberately skip one item, CONDITIONS ON LAND
The 2018 revised ZIDERA is premised on enforcement of the rulings of the SADC tribunal on land reform. The US Senators behind the 2018 ZIDERA want the 2007 SADC tribunal on land reform. enforced as a precondition for sanctions removal.
The Summary of SADC tribunal on land reform is as follows: The tribunal ruled that white farmers must be compensated for the land lost. The tribunal also ruled that land reform was “arbitrary, racially discriminatory and contrary to the rule of law”.
Section 295 of our constitution only allowed compensation to “indigenous Zimbabweans” and those under Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs).
White farmers are only “entitled to compensation from the State only for improvements that were on the land when it was acquired”. So the demand by the Senators is contrary to the Constitution, which says compensation must be for improvements only and not the land itself.
The SADC tribunal judgement technically said land reform violated our Constitution, anything which violets constitution is illegal and must be reversed, implying that all evicted farmers must get back their land.
White farmers’ unions estimated their compensation bill at US$30 billion for the land and assets on the land. Meeting tribunal judgement implies that Zimbabwe should pay USD30 billion which is not only impossible but ludicrous!
There is a good reason why USA embassy, activists and CCC rarely mention the land issue in their demands when responding to the sanctions question.
They only talk about democratic reforms; they know the conditions on land issue cannot be met. As long as conditions on land remains, sanctions on Zimbabwe will never be removed, implying even if a new political party is in office.
During GNU, MDC leaders called for the removal of sanctions but non changed.
Tendai Biti, then Minister of Finance in 2012, said in Washington: “your foreign policy as a country, as America, could be better towards Zimbabwe. You do not deal with very difficult, fragile states by disengagement, by isolation. It does not work.”
Not to forget that same Biti told Daily Maverick on August 1 in 2018, “The international community is not going to be fooled by this madness. We will make sure they don’t get a cent.” Asked how he would do this, he added; “I can’t tell you how but I can tell you we have done it before.”
What is Zimbabwe doing about the land issue?
In 2013 through the Constitution, the government allowed compensation to “indigenous Zimbabweans” and those under Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs).
White farmers are only “entitled to compensation from the State only for improvements that were on the land when it was acquired” In 2019, The Global Compensation Agreement, which agreement saw Zimbabwe agree to pay white farmers US$3.5 billion for farm improvements (not land) was signed.
Even before that, by end of 2018, Government had already paid out US$200 million in compensation to farmers, payments which began in 2016. The compensation was mostly for farm assets and land that was under BIPPAs.
In 2018 around 11 million ha, made up of 3100 farms, had been evaluated for compensation. Kuvimba Mining House has part of the shares in it held for compensation of these white farmers. Prof. Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance and Economic Development said in an interview, “Proceeds from Kuvimba will be used to compensate the former white commercial farmers who lost their farms in 2000.”
Our reengagement target has focused beyond USA, these compensations send positive message to other nations which are fussy about property rights.
The compensation is very critical because it is mainly on BIPPAS.
These are farms we shouldn’t have taken in the first place as some were even purchased after independence. They were not part of our Chimurenga struggles
What people must understand is that Zimbabwe Government as stated by President ED Mnangagwa reforms and does the right thing for its people, out of moral obligation not coercion The human rights angle does not really work or sail because it is not an objective standard applied by the USA.
According to the Washington Post of 24 October 2019, 717 Americans had been killed by US police on American soil on 2019.
An inordinately large number of that figure are black men and women. Why would America care about blacks in far off Zimbabwe while not caring about American citizens being killed by American police on American soil?
There is also the tragic irony of the USA pointing fingers at Zimbabwe and Cuba for human rights violations while the US itself held and tortured hundreds of untried political prisoners at Guantanamo.
Worse, there are many other countries where the USA is perfectly happy to turn a blind eye to gross injustices and atrocities, so what is so special about Zimbabwe?
In conclusion, by 2018 Zimbabwe had tried her best to meet all the sanctions conditions, excluding land, there was no violence (violence only happened after elections), Chamisa freely campaigned in rural areas, voters roll was provided, ahead of our election.
On July 25, 2018, the US Congress and Senate passed the amended Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) with new conditions.
No, human rights are not something the US Government can speak against with a straight face. It is never about electoral reforms, human rights abuses and anything else but LAND
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