EU re-engage, "untouchable" Zanu PF to demand reform - rubbish, didn't rig elections out of ignorance P Guramatunhu

It is bad enough to find oneself a victim of bullying what makes the situation unbearable is the realisation that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. One does not easily forget, the sinking feeling of reporting a school bully to the school authorities and all he/she ever get is a slap on the wrist because he/she is the Head Master’s relative or some such untouchable! 

The EU’s kid-glove treatment of Zanu PF for the region’s repeated blatant violation of ordinary Zimbabweans’ basic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life has left me bitter and angry. I never ever expected the EU to behave like the discredited school authority scared stiff of the untouchable school bully!

It is an established historic fact that Zanu PF brazenly rigged last year’s elections; the EU and every other democratic nation and organisation that observed the elections agree. Whilst the Americans and others refused to lift the sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF regime for failing to honour its obligation to hold free and fair elections; the EU has “rewarded” Mnangagwa and company for rigging the elections by lifting the sanctions! 

The EU and Zanu PF have been meeting with the view of restoring normal relationships with Harare including giving the country financial assistance and increased investment the country needs desperately to revive its comatose economy. 

"The EU noted the economic and political reforms agenda, including fighting corruption. The two sides agreed on the importance of reforms and their benefit to Zimbabwean people," reads the Zanu PF and EU re-engagement joint statement.

Zanu PF did not brazenly rig last year’s elections because they did not know what the political reforms necessary for free and fair elections! Of course, they know what they were doing. Indeed, after 39 years of rigging elections, the regime has raised its art of vote rigging to something of a master piece!

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s political paralysis and economic meltdown is country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The nation has been stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime for 39 years and counting, precisely because Zanu PF rigged elections, with the devastating economic and political consequences we see all around.

Mnangagwa and company do not need EU officials to tell them that ending corruption will benefit the ordinary Zimbabweans; they know that. They are stupid to have allowed corrupt to destroy the nation’s economy but not that stupid not to see the consequences. Of course, Mnangagwa et al can see the tragic human suffering and deaths brought about by the economic meltdown, they have eyes to see. 

Zanu PF leaders have knowingly denied the people their basic rights and freedoms, they can see the tragic human suffering and deaths and have ploughed on without a care in the world because they have their own selfish agenda! 

"The Zimbabwean side underlined the call by His Excellency the President for all political parties to join the Political Actors' Dialogue as unity of purpose among Zimbabweans and political parties was central to developing a mutual vision for Zimbabwe's path into the future,” the joint statement continue, underlining the point the point that Zanu PF does not give a damn about reforms, etc.  

The EU has its own reasons for refusing to hold Zanu PF to account for blatantly denying the ordinary Zimbabweans their basic human human rights and freedoms. Belgium has campaigned long and hard for the EU economic sanctions to be lifted so that it can join China, India, Israel, Russia, etc. profiting from the wholesale looting of Zimbabwe’s diamond, for example. Zanu PF leaders know this and are exploiting these weaknesses to make themselves the untouchable bully!

What makes every thinking Zimbabwean out there, angry is the EU’s patronising hypocrisy - calling on Zanu PF to implement reforms, to end corruption, etc. as if the EU cares about the suffering and deaths of ordinary Zimbabweans when they don’t. 

There has been genuine out pouring of public sympathy for all the #metoo victims not only because of the seriousness of crimes but, worst still, because the perpetrators in most cases were, until now at least, untouchables! 

The consequences of Zanu PF’s 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule are there for all to see; the economic collapse that has forced unemployment to soar to nauseating height of 90%, public health care has all but completely collapsed, etc. In engaging with Zanu PF regardless of the regime’s corrupt and tyrannical track record, the EU is serving its own selfish interests and those of Zanu PF. The EU should spare us the insults and patronising hypocrisy of pretending to care about the long suffering and deaths of the ordinary Zimbabweans.