Maravi

Media lies about Zim: British clergyman

Media lies about Zim: British clergyman
Midlands Bureau

A BRITISH clergyman has criticised his country’s media for peddling lies about the situation in Zimbabwe and said London has no right to dictate how Harare should run its affairs. Speaking at a welcome reception organised for 20 visiting members of the Anglican Church who are in Zimbabwe to strengthen ties with their Zimbabwean colleagues and "assess the situation" for themselves, the leader of the group, the Bishop of Croydon, Nicholas Baines, said what they saw was the opposite of what they have been made to believe in their country.

He said people in Britain were worried about their safety when they indicated their plans to visit Zimbabwe. The delegation, which arrived in Zimbabwe on April 11, has visited tourist resorts such as the Victoria Falls.

"We wanted to see things for ourselves instead of listening to what people say. We are actually overwhelmed by the welcome we got, it shows that Zimbabwe is a hospitable country. There was a lot of anxiety when we left UK. Our children, friends and relatives wanted to find out why we wanted to come to Zimbabwe," he said.

Bishop Baines said colonialism was gone forever and Britain had no right to dictate what Zimbabwe should do.

"It’s not possible for people like us to question the price you paid for the liberation of your country. We see a lot of propaganda on our television stations but we cannot see the evidence. We are trying to understand as we go around. We want to see what we can learn from you and vice-versa.

"We have one interest as British Christians — to see Zimbabwe thrive, its economy growing. We want to see the people of this country happy. We want to see the church help build your country," he said.

Bishop Baines, who was accompanied by his Zimbabwean counterpart, Bishop Ishmael Mukuwanda of the Central Region Diocese, said his church was helping in the construction of a hospital at St Patrick’s Mission in Chiwundura.

"We discovered that Zimbabwe was facing a number of economic challenges and decided to help develop it. We have been allocating £8 000 per year in the hospital project for the past five years. We also added an additional £4 000 per year over the same period due to inflation," he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Midlands Governor Cde Cephas Msipa appealed to the touring clergy team to go and tell the Zimbabwean story as it was. He said Zimbabwe was facing a number of economic challenges, most of them borne out of misrepresenting the country as an unsafe and dangerous tourist destination and the illegal sanctions imposed by the British and the European Union. Responding to a question raised by Bishop Baines on why Zimbabwe was not doing so well and why it was placed under sanctions, Cde Msipa said the problems arose from the land reform programme.

"The land issue is the main reason why we fought in the liberation struggle. We were squeezed in native reserves that had poor soils and infested with tsetse flies yet we are the owners of the country. We had to reverse that naturally. The British took offence when we embarked on the land reform.

"Even the Lancaster House Conference almost collapsed because of the land issue. Eventually, the British and Americans agreed on a willing buyer, willing seller arrangement.

"However, for many years nothing happened. The British later said they were not prepared to pay because they were not responsible for the land situation in Zimbabwe thus forcing us to move into the farms," he said.

Cde Msipa said the British government was bent on sustaining its lies that there was no rule of law in Zimbabwe to the extent that they had to impose illegal sanctions together with the EU, crippling the economy.

He said Britain has made the world believe that Zimbabwe was an evil country with no morals or family values. "Who can come and invest in a country that is projected that way? Even your own British companies are suffering as well. Our economy has been on a decline since 2000 because we have lost friends. There is no Government minister who can go and promote any business in UK or anywhere in the European Union because of the sanctions," he said.

Cde Msipa said it was never Zimbabwe’s intention to make enemies with Britain or America adding that it was up to the two powers to normalise relations with Harare. "The sanctions you imposed on us make dialogue difficult yet we do not want to pass on our animosity to future generations. It’s not our policy to be enemies with the rest of the world. We could discuss and find a way to solve our difference if you remove sanctions that make it difficult to travel and meet each other. It should be clear, however, that the land reform is not reversible," he said.

Labels: CLERGY, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 7:53 PM