November 3 2010
IT’S said one day, a bear and a rabbit were walking trough the woods when they came across a genie in the form of a golden frog.
The frog said ‘‘I don’t see many people here, but when I do I grant them three wishes’’.
The bear looked at the rabbit and said, “That means three each”. The bear then said, ‘‘I wish all the bears in this forest were female.’’ The rabbit, in turn, wished for a motorbike.
The bear looked at the rabbit again, and said, ‘‘in fact, I wish all the bears in the next forest were female, too.’’ The rabbit wished for a crash helmet.
The bear (getting a bit carried away), said ‘‘I wish all the bears in the world were female!’’ Then, the rabbit put on the helmet, revved the bike and said, ‘‘I wish that bear right there was gay’’ before roaring away.
The moral; be careful what you wish for, it may just come back to haunt you.
Well, sometime this week, MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai — who seems to have discovered the art of letter writing of late — is reported to have written to GPA facilitator, South African president Jacob Zuma complaining about what he called ‘‘unilateral’’ appointments (of provincial governors, judges and ambassadors) by President Mugabe saying he wanted to sue the President over the ‘‘illegal’’ appointments.
In so doing, Tsvangirai behaved like the proverbial bear above that got carried away forgetting to be careful what it wished for.
In believing he can sue President Mugabe for ‘‘violating’’ the GPA, Tsvangirai forgets that he is also bound by provisions of the same GPA and can similarly be sued for failing to meet his part of the bargain.
Before getting to that, let me unpack the so-called ‘‘illegal’’ appointments since Tsvangirai seems impervious to developments and advice which has even come from unlikely sources like ‘‘the only white man from Buhera’’, John Makumbe.
On ambassadors, Tsvangirai has since been snubbed by the same South Africa to whose president he addressed his ill-advised letter, the United Nations and his handlers in the EU, who had long accredited and have since indicated they accept the ambassadors deployed by President Mugabe.
More so, it has been pointed out to Tsvangirai that the ambassadors were not appointed but were simply redeployed since they are career diplomats, and that communication between countries is conducted through the ministry of foreign affairs not party leaders.
On provincial governors, Tsvangirai is not being truthful because in the letter that was drafted by MDC leader Prof Arthur Mutambara and co-signed by the three principals earlier this year, Tsvangirai agreed that the issue of the appointment of provincial governors would be dealt with after the lifting of the illegal economic sanctions. This letter was part of the report that President Zuma presented to the Troika, in Tsvangirai’s presence, at the 30th Sadc Summit in Windhoek, Namibia in August.
Then on judges, we all know President Mugabe acts on the recommendations of the Judicial Services Commission, and the judicial appointments in question were done above board.
In a bid to bolster his case, Tsvangirai even claims he should have been consulted on appointments made in August 2008, when he was in self-imposed exile in Botswana, as he played shy bride to joining government.
Now back to Tsvangirai’s intention to sue.
The MDC-T leader should know that he and his party also have obligations under the GPA. That agreement is not all about getting concessions from Zanu-PF.
In fact, the raison de’tre of the GPA is fostering an environment of political and socio-economic stability in readiness for elections. That environment can only prevail in the absence of the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime.
It’s no secret that Tsvangirai grovelled for the sanctions.
There is evidence galore that he not only called for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe, but that his party’s legal department helped draft the ruinous US sanctions law, the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Ac that cut our lines of credit to multilateral lending institutions and foisted us with an artificial investment risk tag.
The sanctions brought untold suffering to millions of innocent people, many of whom died of otherwise preventable diseases like cholera and the opportunistic infections stemming from HIV and Aids simply because the Government’s capacity to fund the social services had been curtailed. Thousands of workers lost their jobs due to capital flight as companies closed and others downsized. Pensioners lost their savings to hyperinflation, a development that saw the British government airlift its pensioners resident in Zimbabwe to safety after their pensions and savings were rendered worthless by sanctions-induced hyperinflation.
We use foreign currencies today, for the simple reason that the sanctions claimed the Zim-dollar.
Surely Tsvangirai’s role in inviting economic war on the people in collusion with outsiders is a more serious crime than the alleged ‘illegal’’ appointments that even his own allies grudgingly acknowledge were above board.
As such Zimbabweans have a genuine case against Tsvangirai and his handlers for the losses, both material and human, suffered due to the illegal sanctions regime. Surely if Tsvangirai can sue over appointments, then President Mugabe and Zanu-PF can sue him for reneging on his GPA obligation to lobby for the lifting of sanctions and his continued dalliance with pirate radio stations condemned by the GPA.
While it may be difficult to sue Tsvangirai as an individual over the sanctions and while some may say the buck stops with westerners, it’s possible — once the locus standi has been established — to sue his handlers for imposing the sanctions with him and his party as first and second respondents, alternatively the suit can be against the MDC with Tsvangirai as respondent.
Trinity Engineering boss, Senator Aguy Clement Georgias has shown the way by suing the British government. Senator Georgias was, in 2005, barred by British immigration authorities from transiting through London to New York where he was to receive an international award on behalf of his company, Trinity Engineering.
The case, which opened at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London on March 14 2008, has since been referred to the European Court of First Instance with Senator Georgias vowing to pursue it to its logical conclusion.
The case against the sanctions is bolstered by the fact that they were imposed outside the purview of the UN and in violation of multilateral pacts like the Cotonou Agreement; and as such they are a violation of international law?
Legal experts say the other option would be for Zimbabweans to come together in a class action against Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.
They can sue MDC-T and Tsvangirai for: Firstly, “specific performance” since the party and its leader called for the sanctions, they need to act specifically by calling for the removal of the sanctions. This is what the MDC-T has stubbornly refused to do despite being signatories to the GPA that bids them to condemn the sanctions.
Secondly, people can sue for damages but this would require quantifying the damage wrought by the sanctions and the specific losses suffered by the litigants.
This is where, in my opinion, the anti-sanctions lobby has been faltering.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why the government has not engaged economists and accountants to do a quantitative analysis of the effects of the sanctions over the past decade, which analysis can be compiled into a dossier to be used by our own ministerial team when it engages the EU and the US, and by our brothers in Sadc when they take the fight to western capitals?
The dossier can be used to expose the lies peddled by westerners and their lackeys about the sanctions.
I throw this challenge to Zanu-PF. Be scientific in your approach to the anti-sanctions drive. Present documentary evidence of the ruin the sanctions have caused. Such a dossier will also prove invaluable at election time.
Tsvangirai be careful, very careful what you wish for.
