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(TALKZIMBABWE) Sanctions against Zimbabwe - a red herring

Sanctions against Zimbabwe - a red herring
By: Sihle Dube
Posted: Thursday, October 28, 2010 9:21 am

A RECENT article I wrote entitled "The true Gamu Nhengu story" published on TalkZimbabwe.com and in The Herald attracted the ire of a number of readers. Although they are in the minority compared to those readers who found the article enlightening, they brought out some very interesting arguments about Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the UK.

In the Gamu Nhengu article, I argued that the 18 year old singer was a victim of disinformation and villification campaign against Zimbabwe, and that she had been conditioned to hate her own country by media organisations like SW Radio and campaign groups like the MDC-T in Britain.

These groups have fought a spirited campaign to tarnish Zimbabwe's image sometimes openly advocating sanctions against Zimbabwe and denying that the sanctions hurt ordinary people. Yet they claim that the situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated in the last decade more than any other decade since independence. Coincidentally, this is also the decade of sanctions and the existence of the MDC party. The coincidence is amazing.

One reader, who runs a UK based Zimbabwean charity, sent me an email and wrote: "I would like to comment that your article about Gamu Nhengu is way biased against asylum seekers in the UK."

She added: "I am sure you are aware that most Zimbabweans are economic asylum seekers (read economic migrants). Instead of you as a lawyer using the media to stand for the plight of those people, you are actually destroying the work of your fellow vigil colleagues and people like Rumbi Bvunzawabaya (an immigration lawyer based in the UK)."

The writer went on: "I thank Gamu Nhengu for highlighting the plight of black African females in the UK. The NHS is very racist towards this group since you are a lawyer you can research the figures of disciplinary cases from NMC."

The NHS is the UK's National Health System and the NMC is the UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council, the regulatory body for nurses and midwives.

I did the research as she had challenged me to and noticed that many of the cases involving Zimbabweans brought by the NMC involved fraud, professional misconduct, sexual assault and clinical negligence. No one had lodged a complaint about racism in the NHS; although I am not disputing its subtle existence.

I was, therefore, concerned why the writer did not want the NMC to investigate such serious cases. Afterall it is a regulatory body.

However, I was more concerned about her ideas on immigration by Zimbabweans into the UK and the asylum system.

She made one interesting observation - that many "asylum seekers" from Zimbabwe are "economic refugees". This means that most of the stories we hear from the media and civil society groups about Zimbabwe are baseless.

If I read her well, she was suggesting that I should support those people who concoct serious fabrications and lie about the situation in Zimbabwe to get asylum in the UK. If this is true, I would have to fight against my conscience and hate my own country and its leadership.

Maybe as a commercial lawyer, I do not have the right kind of appreciation of what immigration lawyers like Ms Bvunzawabaya do, but if they help lie and fabricate stories, then they did not learn anything in law school.

I sincerely hope that Ms Bvunzawabaya and other immigration lawyers, whom I am sure are working tirelessly to help our people, are not complicit in concocting lies and aiding them fabricate stories about violence in Zimbabwe; where they are not justified.

That would not only be professional misconduct, but also could cost them their license to practice as solicitors or barristers.

The Solicitors' Regulation Authority and The Bar Council in the UK are clear on such issues. No lawyers should ever encourage people to lie or help them fabricate stories.

While I am sympathetic to the fact that many people claim asylum on the basis of their economic problems at home, as the lady who wrote to me suggested, I am, however, not sympathetic to those who lie in broad daylight; especially considering that some of these people are openly supportive of sanctions against Zimbabwe; sanctions that are hurting their families back home.

The Zimbabwean lobby in the UK, rather than create false stories about the situation back home, should censure the British government and take it to task over the illegal sanctions issue.

They have a better case that way than to lie about being in danger.

The British government and the EU grouping have diplomatic offices in Zimbabwe and they know the situation on the ground. It is pointless to try and escalate skirmishes that happen during Copac meetings and make it look like there's lawlessness in Zimbabwe.

The British government moved white old age pensioners and white British passport holders in the period 2007-8 from Zimbabwe because it recognised that the sanctions it imposed on Zimbabwe had eroded their life savings, and that they were living in poverty, like the rest of the black population.

At the same time they were, however, blatantly misinforming the world that sanctions are "targeted" on Zanu-PF officials.

How does closing British companies that employed thousands of people in Zimbabwe hurt Zanu-PF officials and not workers in Zimbabwe? Stopping Zanu-PF officials travelling to Europe will not help people in Zimbabwe. How would it do that?

Zimbabwean companies that were employing thousands of people have been sanctioned and are facing viability problems today as they cannot procure spare parts or trade internationally. They have laid of staff in thousands.

The sanctioned companies include the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe, Intermarket Holdings, Oryx Diamonds (or Oryx Natural Resources), Scotfin, ZB Financial Holdings, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco, Ziscosteel), Zimre Holdings, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Zimre Reinsurance Company, among others.

What happened to all the workers who were working in those companies?

The US Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (Zdera) imposes a fine of US$500,000 (half a million dollars) on companies that trade with Zimbabwe; among a raft of other measures.

The US funds, and has significant voting powers in, multilateral lending agencies like the IMF and World Bank.

We should recognise that sanctions do not discriminate on the basis of colour, so the British government should ferry everybody who has been affected by sanctions to the UK not just white pensioners; if they are concerned about people's plight. The right to life and the right to food are human rights too.

The so-called "targeted sanctions" are affecting the common people, many of whom are now "seeking economic asylum" in the UK, as the lady who wrote to me said.

Zimbabweans should realise that they cannot use lies and fabrications anymore to justify living in the UK; especially as the MDC-T membership card and "supporting letter" scams have been exposed.

Instead, they should use the immigration lawyers in the country to highlight to the EU that their sanctions regime are affecting the ordinary people in Zimbabwe like the pensioners and British passport holders they airlifted to the UK and that there's nothing "smart" or "targeted" about them.

If the sanctions are indeed targeted, they are targeted on the Zimbabwean population that is expected to forcibly remove President Mugabe and his government from power. But, if this is so, the British government should accept the backlash if the trick doesn't work.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had a taster of the ire of Zimbabweans in the UK when he asked them to return home, saying the situation had improved. He was heckled and booed, something that he had never experienced in Zimbabwe where people treat him with kid gloves.

He has never returned to Britain since and has abandoned a constituency he once claimed as his own in the Diaspora.

All MDC-T structures in the UK have disappeared in light of the corruption and scandals involving money, MDC-T membership scams, etc.

Zimbabwe will never implode in a manner that the MDC-T and its western friends expect. The skilled and educated people of Zimbabwe, rather than demonstrate and make the country ungovernable, will simply leave for greener pastures presenting a dilemma for the recepient countries, like Britain, South Africa, US (to a lesser extent) and others.

The British government is faced with a policy and ideological dilemma. On one hand it maintains sanctions against Zimbabwe, on the other it lifts a ban on forced removal of Zimbabweans.

They should find a way out of this mess, by first admitting that sanctions, while hurting ordinary Zimbabweans, have also done major harm to their own country as numbers of immigrants have swelled; putting a strain on public resources.

Zimbabweans fled the effects of sanctions. The out-migration of Zimbabweans peaked in the 2002-2008 period – coinciding with the Western imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe.

I do not know how many of the alleged 3,000,000 million Zimbabweans who left Zimbabwe and those who are said to be seeking asylum in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Botswana, etc are victims of "alleged state-sponsored violence".

A government that has the capacity to be violent to so many people surely has the means to improve its economy. Violence is costly -- it needs resources.

Now Britain cannot simply wriggle out of this dilemma by simply admitting that the situation has improved in Zimbabwe and by forcibly deporting Zimbabweans.

Why does it not start by sending back the OAPs and British passport holders who were airlifted from Zimbabwe two years ago as a goodwill measure? Reports suggest that many of them are living in relative poverty in Britain anyway.

Britain should brace itself for thousands of courtroom battles with Zimbabweans who will not return until the economic situation has improved. Unfortunately, that economic improvement will only start in earnest with the lifting of sanctions.

__________________________
Sihle Dube is a lawyer and banker. She writes from the United Kingdom and can be reached via sihledube *** hotmail.co.uk

Labels: SANCTIONS, SIHLE DUBE, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 4:31 PM