guest column:Willard Chinhara

It is not surprising that the sanctions issue is also the unfinished business of the September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) between Zanu PF and the MDC formations. Although the parties to the GPA had about five years (2009-2013) to implement the provisions of the ill-fated GPA, whatever their shortcomings, it is safe to argue that the on-going anti-sanctions campaign is untimely because the processes of national dialogue and international engagement are still in their infancy.

This argument is neither for nor against the removal of sanctions, but the main objective is to set forth the logical equilibrium of the whole issue.

In simple terms, sanctions can be defined as punitive measures usually taken by several nations, together and at times one country, designed to put pressure on another country in order to force it to change its policies and actions or as a means to rehabilitate that country.

There are, however, various forms of sanctions, mainly comprehensive and targeted or smart sanctions. Comprehensive sanctions simply refer to wholesale or non-discriminating sanctions and are more austere than targeted or smart sanctions.

Thus, targeted sanctions can lessen the negative humanitarian impacts on innocent civilians associated with comprehensive sanctions. Targeted or smart sanctions are meant to focus their impact on leaders, political elites and segments of society believed responsible for objectionable behaviour, while reducing collateral damage to the general population and third parties. However, the Targeted Sanctions Consortium (TSC) argues that “targeted sanctions have unintended consequences, including increases in corruption and criminality, strengthening of authoritarian rule, burdening neighbouring States, strengthening of political factions, resource diversion and humanitarian impacts.”

There are various types of targeted sanctions. According to the TSC, composed of more than fifty scholars and policy practitioners worldwide, the following are some types of targeted sanctions with varying degrees of discrimination:

Individual/Entity targeted sanctions (for example travel ban, assets freeze; most discriminating)

Diplomatic sanctions (only one sector of government directly affected)

Arms embargoes or proliferation-related goods (largely limited impact on fighting forces or security sector)

Commodity sanctions other than oil (for example diamonds, timber, charcoal; tend to affect some regions disproportionately)

Transportation sanctions for example aviation or shipping ban; can affect much of a population)

Core economic sector sanctions (for example oil and financial sector sanctions; affect the broader population and therefore are the least discriminating of targeted sanctions)
Since the year 2001 to date, Zimbabwe is said to have been under targeted sanctions imposed not by the United Nations (UN), but by the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) who are the major players.

Historical context

In view of the sanctions concept, it is expedient to give an overview of the general history of sanctions as applied during the 20th and 21st centuries. During the 20th century, unilateral and autonomous sanctions were not as prevalent as they appear to be in the 21st century. According to Margaret Doxey, while both the League of Nations Covenant and the UN Charter directed sanctions at the unlawful use of force, in the UN context sanctions have also been linked to the defence of human rights. Prior and during the Cold War, sanctions included those of the League of Nations against Italy from 1935 to 1936 and the UN sanctions against Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1966 to 1979 and an arms embargo against South Africa since 1977 until May 1994 when democratic elections were held. These sanctions were usually comprehensive in nature.

Quoting several authoritative scholars, Daniel W Drezner submits that the origins of smart sanctions lie in the explosion of economic statecraft that started with the end of the Cold War. The UN Security Council (UNSC) voted for economic sanctions twelve times in the 1990s; between 1945 and 1990, the UN had only employed sanctions twice. “According to Hufbauer, Schott, Elliott, and Oegg (2007), there were nearly as many sanctions episodes after end of the Cold War as there were during the first 90 years of the twentieth century.

The most high-profile cases were comprehensive UN sanctions imposed on Iraq, Haiti, and former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It is worth observing that, in the end, all three sanctions episodes generated at least moderate concessions. Obviously, military statecraft was also used in all three cases, but Rogers (1996) argues that economic sanctions played a crucial supporting role in determining the outcomes.”

Analysts observe that measured in terms of cost, sanctions imposed against Iraq were, by far, the most comprehensive in history. It is estimated that Iraq lost between US$175 billion and US$250 billion in possible oil revenues from the sanctions. Further, the price for a family’s food supply for a month increased 250-fold over the first five years of the sanctions regime. It is estimated that the sanctions caused a minimum of 100 000 and up to 227 000 excess deaths among young children from August 1991 to March 1998. In view of these fatalities, Mueller and Mueller concluded that “economic sanctions may well have been a necessary cause of the deaths of more people in Iraq than have been slain by all so-called weapons of mass destruction throughout history.”

However, according to Daniel W Drezner, Madeleine Albright — the US ambassador to the UN at the time — provided the defining sound bite for this culpability in May 1996. In a 60-minute interview, she said that even if the sanctions had killed half a million Iraqi children, ‘‘the price is worth it.’’ Conversely, humanitarian groups ranging from the Red Cross to the Human Rights Watch questioned the ethics of comprehensive trade sanctions. It is in this light that multiple UN agencies started to voice concerns about the UNSC’s implementation of comprehensive sanctions. Daniel W Drezner submits that then UN Secretary-Generals Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan both labelled sanctions a “blunt instrument” and asked whether the suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups was a legitimate means of exerting pressure on political leaders.

In view of criticism of the severity and fatalities of comprehensive trade sanctions, the idea of targeted sanctions emerged. Thus, in moving forward with the anti-sanctions campaign, it is important to avoid confusing comprehensive trade sanctions with targeted sanctions. It is also important to note that the UN has been somewhat antipathic about the idea of sanctions. Hence, we have a proliferation of autonomous and unilateral sanctions by nations and regional groups.

Pan-African solidarity

Daniel W Drezner argues that from a social science perspective, the perceived failure of the Iraq case seemed damning. The Iraq sanctions were an extreme outlier in terms of cost to the target — Iraq’s GDP was cut roughly in half. If sanctions this costly failed to yield concessions, then the entire sanctions enterprise could be called into doubt. Thus, the Pan-African solidarity is not a political misnomer, but there is total absence of sincerity in Africa’s anti-sanctions advocacy. SADC and the AU have all failed to deal with the root causes of Western sanctions.

The GPA of 2008 and the resultant Government of National Unity of 2009-2013 failed to yield a permanent solution to Zimbabwe’s internal and external dilemmas. In these circumstances, it is unfortunate that Africa pretends that there is nothing endogenous about the socio-economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Polarized national psyche

Every country under the sun has a polarised national psyche. However, at the present moment, Zimbabwe’s national psyche is polarised beyond the point of reconciliation due to man-made ethnographic complexities and ideological differences. On the one hand, there is a generation of people who, on the political scale, believes in democracy and federalism. This generation considers sanctions as a valid political tool for a regime change agenda. It should be noted that historically, some form of loose pseudo-federalism existed during the pre-colonial era when Zimbabwe had the “Munhumutapa Empire” and the “Ndebele Kingdom” for example.

On the other hand, there is a generation of the radical power elite made up of mainly the liberation war veterans, the military oligarchy and the comprador-bourgeoisie. This formidable generation, believes in political power monopoly and hold the view that sanctions are a form of illegal foreign intervention in a sovereign state. The majority of the people in the latter generation are nationalist pretenders and a huge national security risk.

The third generation, are fickle-minded plebeians who believe in anything and move with the tide of affairs. They are like a football which can be used by all contesting teams to make scores and they reside in the “Eighteen-Areas” of the less powerful teams’ goals. In the case of such a polarized national psyche, there is need for a holistic program of action designed by parties to the National Dialogue. Such a program should strive to make the dialogue process as transparent as possible to convince and educate polarized political constituencies that something constructive is happening.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is imperative to emphasise that the untimeliness of the anti-sanctions campaign is vindicated by lack of convincing conditions for the removal of sanctions. The Pan-African solidarity against sanctions is necessary, but again Africa is caught up in the usual whirlwind of political rhetoric without adopting a pragmatic approach to resolve Zimbabwe’s domestic and international relations dilemma.

By Stephen Chadenga

LESS-PRIVILLEGED families in Gweru are set to benefit from a US$ 13 000 grant provided by the United States of America for the construction of toilets and a poultry rearing project.

Gweru Residents Forum (GRF) director Charles Mazorodze said 480 women in Mkoba will benefit from the poultry project while a section of Mtapa suburb, which has been facing ablution challenges for years would benefit from the construction of toilets.

“The Unites States awarded the Gweru Residents Forum a $13 782 Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund grant to establish a poultry rearing project for six wards benefiting 480 women and their households (in Mkoba),” he said.

“GRF will also construct toilets in the high-density suburb of Mtapa to improve sanitation. Very soon we will call a meeting to discuss the projects before commencing.”

Mazorodze said the poultry project was aimed at helping women generate income to help eradicate poverty.

He said the building of toilets would improve sanitary conditions in the low income section of Mtapa suburb.

“We will also assist beneficiaries, particularly of the poultry project on how best they can run their businesses as well as marketing strategies,” he said.

GRF’s intervention comes at time there has been growing calls for people living in urban areas to be provided with food aid as starvation wreaks havoc across the country.

Recently, government announced that food aid distribution would be rolled out in both rural and urban areas.

The programme is, however, yet to be launched.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

OPPOSITION party leaders forming President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) platform have been left seething with anger after the Zanu PF leader ignored their proposals regarding steps to be followed before gazetting of the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Mnangagwa last met his Polad team at his farm last month and the 19 parties in attendance allegedly agreed that the proposed constitutional changes be debated at their platform before being gazetted and taken to Parliament.

However, Mnangagwa ignored the suggestions and railroaded the changes through Cabinet and had them gazetted by Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi without Polad members’ consent.

“During the last meeting of Polad, one of the resolutions read out was that the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill should not be gazetted, but instead brought to Polad where it would be discussed and other parties input,” constitutional law expert and National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Lovemore Madhuku fumed yesterday.

“It was agreed that a Bill would then be brought to Parliament with amendments also from other political parties and instead of focusing on the Zanu PF needs, we will have an omnibus Bill, but that was not followed. But they went ahead and gazetted the Bill.”

The NCA leader said he would soon mobilise other parties and use Polad and other avenues to campaign against the passing of the Bill into an Act.

“Obviously we are not happy that our first resolution as Polad was not respected. We are dealing with Zanu PF, which is in the old mode and we expected that,” Madhuku said.

“You must know that Zanu PF is not used to the culture of getting advice. But we are not pulling out of Polad because it’s the only platform that we have, because we don’t have representatives in Parliament.”

But Ziyambi defended his move to gazette the amendment, saying Polad was not part of the law-making process and, therefore, did not deserve to be consulted.

“We are shocked that they want to stop a process which is allowed by the country’s laws. They want us to sit down and consult them. Yes, they are in Polad, but if you check with Bills, we don’t take them to Polad,” he said.

“They are trying to make Polad an arm of government. If they have their views and ideas, they can discuss them there and then they are brought to Cabinet and discussed, then they become policy.

But that we, as government, to go to them to ask them on laws, policies or budgets as they want us to do, that would mean we have lost the mandate that we were given by the people to rule.”

The Justice minister said Zanu PF would use its two-thirds majority in Parliament to change the Constitution.

MDC-T vice-president Obert Gutu described the development as “unfortunate”.

“I would be lying if I said we are happy … There has been a media spin out there painting Polad as a platform for wanting to loot government coffers, wanting cars and allowances. It is very unfortunate that we lost a brilliant opportunity to show that Polad is a serious dialoguing platform. We are not happy,” he said.

“Our question is why not give us an opportunity to ventilate this issue? If Polad is going to be an effective dialoguing platform, those in authority should take it seriously. It would have been progressive to show the right degree of seriousness by giving us an opportunity to discuss the amendments.”

Eighteen fringe opposition parties were represented at the Kwekwe meeting, among them the People’s Rainbow Coalition leader Lucia Matibenga and the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T.

These parties garnered less than 2% of total votes cast in the 2018 elections.

The Nelson Chamisa-led MDC, which has refused to be part of Polad, said the latest development had vindicated their decision to stay out of the platform.

At the weekend, Chamisa said joining Polad would be giving the nation false hope, and instead demanded real talks mediated by a neutral person and guaranteed by Sadc and the African Union.

“We saw Polad 1 when Ian Smith had talks with (the late former Prime Minister Abel) Muzorewa, giving the nation false hope. We saw how Zanu PF acts when there are no guarantees, especially what happened during the GNU [Government of National Unity],” Chamisa said.

“Now I will not join Polad 2 and give the people false hope because if results don’t come, people will lose hope in national processes and we don’t want that to happen.”

BY CHARLES LAITON

VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Mohadi’s estranged wife, Tambudzani, has vowed to attach her former husband’s property to enable her to get an equal share of the couple’s matrimonial property following the dissolution of their marriage in March last year.

This came after Mohadi approached the High Court in November last year seeking an order to nullify the two writs of execution obtained by his ex-wife against his movable and immovable properties.

But Tambudzani has challenged the application on the basis that it is fatally defective, wrong and bad at law.

“This application for review of a writ and draft order is fatally defective. Only a decision or proceedings of the court may be reviewed. A writ of execution is compiled by the register pursuant to a decision of the court and therefore the writ cannot be reviewed. The application as a whole is wrong and bad at law. The application is seeking to review a document, which is neither a decision nor proceedings,” Tambudzani said in her opposing affidavit.

She claimed Mohadi had failed to comply with a consent paper agreement which he signed and was registered as a court order by High Court judge Justice David Mangota on March 1, 2019.

But Mohadi accused Tambudzani of misinterpreting the terms of the consent paper.

He said the two writs of execution issued by the Registrar of the High Court on October 14, 2019 were grossly irregular, misleading and misrepresented the facts of the matter.

However, in her opposing affidavit, Tambudzani dismissed Mohadi’s claims, saying: “The parties have not failed to reach a consensus on how the consent paper should be interpreted and enforced.

The applicant (Mohadi) has failed to adhere to the terms of the consent paper which he willingly signed. The first respondent (Tambudzani) is proceeding to enforce the consent paper via the execution process provided by law. The writs issued are neither misleading nor a misrepresentation, but are in accordance with the consent paper.

“The first respondent conceded to this error and it has subsequently withdrawn the incorrect writ and the first respondent has issued out a new one as per the consent paper.”
The matter is pending.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

ZIMBABWE’s top foreign currency earner, tobacco, has been hit hard by the extremely hot weather conditions, which are likely to significantly reduce yields, especially where there are no irrigation facilities.

The dry spell, which has not spared other crops and livestock, has wilted the non-irrigated tobacco crop amid fears this could scupper this year’s crop sales. Zimbabwe earns an estimated US$1 billion annually from tobacco exports.

“The rainfall pattern has been very variable and most dryland crops have not grown sufficiently to get beyond the vegetative stage. If adequate rainfall is received within the next seven days or so the crops would be able to recover significantly. Irrigated crops are being reaped and cured,” Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive Andrew Matibiri said.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Shadreck Makombe bemoaned the effects of the prevailing heatwave.

“The situation on the ground is bad. It is very dry for both irrigated and dry land crops and there is no water in dams giving rise to high false ripening,” Makombe said.

Latest data from TIMB shows that as of December 20 last year, total hectarage under tobacco marginally grew by 2,8% to 81 977 against 79 708 hectares planted during same period last year.

A paltry 13 083 hectares are under irrigation with the rest relying on rain-fed water. Moreso, the number of farmers who registered to grow tobacco tumbled 15% to 143 568 from 168 735 prior year.

Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union president Paul Zakariya painted a bleak outlook about the state of the tobacco crop.

“The situation is quite stressful. The crop is heat stressed and in urgent need for moisture. Farmers can only hope that the anticipated rains this week will bring relief,” Zakariya said.

Asked if the dry spell will affect overall 2020 crop output Zakariya said: “That’s a very difficult question to answer … The output depends very much on circumstances that are well beyond our control. Rainfall anytime now can be a huge game-changer! No definite statistics can be given at this stage.”

Unlike in previous seasons when farmers made rich pickings due to getting paid in hard currency, the just-ended season saw the central bank paying farmers just 50% of their earnings per sale in foreign currency. The rest was paid in the devaluing local currency.

Consequently, most farmers said they failed to recoup their investments as the local currency eroded their earnings as a result of its loss in value.

To worsen matters, when receiving the local currency component of their earnings, transaction delays occurred.

In the past season, the average price of the golden leaf was deplorably low at $2 per kg, down from $2,92 registered in the prior season, decimating farmers’ earnings. Despite recording poor prices, total output grew to 259 million kg in the 2019 season from 253 million kg the previous year.

By Desmond Chingarande

THE Apex Council yesterday resolved that civil servants would not report for work if the government fails to adjust their salaries when the parties meet on Friday.

Addressing journalists after a meeting in Harare, Apex Council vice-secretary Gibson Mushangu said their strategy would be determined by the outcome of their meeting with government.

“We have resolved that no pay increase, no work. Our members have remained incapacitated and the government is not doing anything in terms of our demands,” he said.

“We had requested a cushion in December for our members to have something on Christmas and New Year holidays, but the government gave us cold shoulders.”

“We cannot pre-empt the strategy we are going to take and the outcome of that Friday meeting will determine the way forward. Prices have been surging everyday, but our salary remained stagnant. We cannot go back to work as most of our members are still on holiday,” the Apex Council member said.

“We have been negotiating with the government for the better part of last year and this is one of the items we are discussing on Friday. We do not need to knock at government’s door every time. We need a solution and that solution is to rate our salaries to the US dollar we used to get against the equivalent rate.”

The government has been pushing forward dates for civil servants’ salary negotiations. Teachers unions have been accusing the Apex Council of going to bed with the government, saying they were not representing civil servants, but serving the interests of the employer.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe spokesperson Takavafira Zhou said they had no faith in Apex’s firefighting methods, saying it “pacifies and dupes” civil servants.

“We have no faith in (its) methods. We are, however, ready to work with progressive affiliates of Apex. We will never accept leadership of an industrial action led by Apex because they are sponsored by the government and we know it’s part of their continuous romance with government,” he said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure concurred with Zhou, saying the Apex Council ceased to represent the suffering workers, but were now representing the government.

“The Apex Council is an illegal entity which was also fraudulently constituted. The grouping has traditionally chosen to go to bed with the employer,” he said.

“We have faith in some individuals at the Council. We hope they will be able to push for progressive resolutions.”

Teachers have already resolved not to report for work on the schools opening day next Tuesday.

BY CHARLES LAITON

BUSINESSMAN, Shingirai Albert Munyeza and his co-director Watenga Wilmer Munyeza, in a company called Ringsilver Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, have lost two Harare properties over US$122 000 in outstanding levies owed to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA).

High Court judge Justice Christopher Dube-Banda issued the order on December 4, 2019 following an application by the ZTA for the lifting and piercing of the corporate veil in respect of Ringsilver Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd.

In his founding affidavit, ZTA’s head of finance William Stima, submitted that the Munyezas and their firm had failed to meet their obligations in terms of submitting levies to the tourism authority.

“This is an application for an order lifting and piercing the corporate veil of the first respondent (Ringsilver Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd) and for a declaratour that any property in the names of or in which the second and third respondents (Shingirai Albert Munyeza, Watenga Wilmer Munyeza) hold shareholding, rights, interest or title be declared executable to the extent of their shareholding or ownership, to meet outstanding debts due and payable to the applicant (ZTA) incurred by the first respondent,” Stima said.

Shingirai, who is an adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, had opposed the application saying he had always remitted levies but, due to viability issues stemming from a challenging operating environment and tough franchise conditions, his firm had failed to continue operating.

However, his submissions did not find favour with Justice Dube-Banda, who ruled against him and his company.

“The application for the lifting and piercing of the corporate veil in respect of Ringsilver Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd be and is hereby granted.

“The second and third respondents be and are hereby held jointly and severally liable to pay the judgment debt and interest in case number HC7708/18 due and payable to the applicant,” Justice Dube-Banda said.

“A certain piece of land situate in the district of Salisbury called stand 12567 Salisbury Township of stand 11227A Salisbury Township measuring 1573 square metres held under deed of transfer 4962/1997 be and hereby declared executable in satisfaction of the court order in HC7708/18 and an undivided 2,982% share being share No 5 in certain piece of land situate in the district of Salisbury measuring 2 379 square metres called stand 1773 Salisbury Township held under deed of transfer 3145/1998 be and hereby declared executable in satisfaction of the court order in HC7708/18.”