The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Ms. Alena Douhan, will undertake an official visit to Zimbabwe from 18 to 28 October 2021 following the invitation from the Government of Zimbabwe. The UN Special Rapporteur’s office is established in terms of the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 34/13 on human rights and unilateral coercive measures. While in Zimbabwe Ms Douhan will seek to gather first-hand information related to the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, conduct her assessment and evaluation of any found impacts and prepare relevant recommendations and guidelines on means to mitigate or eliminate these adverse impacts. This is to be done in the spirit of co-operation and dialogue, to assess whether and to what extent the adoption, maintenance or implementation of unilateral sanctions impedes the full realization of the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments, in particular the right of individuals and peoples to development (cfr. A/HRC/RES/27/21, OP.1). The Special Rapporteur’s conclusions and recommendations in the form of a  report will be submitted to the Human Rights Council in September 2022.

The invitation of the Special Rapporteur comes as Zimbabwe was put under sanctions by the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 by the United States of America PLAW-107publ99.pdf (congress.gov), E:\BILLS\S2779.IS (senate.gov), and the European Union Restrictive Measures, first introduced in 2002, EU Sanctions Map. The ZIDERA and the EU restrictive measures have received mixed opinions and views in equal measure related to their legality and their impacts on the economy and the general populace in Zimbabwe.

According to the UN Resolution  34/13 , “unilateral coercive measures and legislation are contrary to international law, international humanitarian law, the Charter and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States, and highlights that on long-term, these measures may result in social problems and raise humanitarian concerns in the States targeted.”

At the SADC level the call for the removal of sanction was formally pronounced at the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit in 2019 in Dar es Salaam, where the SADC Heads of State and Government present made a decision to give solidarity to Zimbabwe in calling for the removal of sanctions. They noted “the adverse impact on the economy of Zimbabwe and the region at large, of prolonged economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe” and set aside a day to denounce the sanctions at the regional level Communique_of_the_39th_SADC_Summit-English.pdf.

The African Union weighed in and pronounced its solidarity with Zimbabwe on the call for the removal of Sanctions against Zimbabwe, citing, “the negative impact of the persistent economic sanctions on the economy and people of Zimbabwe” African Union Statement in Support of End of Sanctions Against The Republic of Zimbabwe | African Union (au.int). In 2020, the then AU chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa took the matter to the 75^th UN General Assembly on behalf of the AU citing the need “To ensure that no country is left behind, we reiterate our position as the African Union that economic sanctions against Zimbabwe and Sudan should be lifted to allow their governments to respond adequately to the pandemic”

At the national level, the Zimbabwe government has gone at length to raise its concerns about the legality of the sanctions since the Robert Mugabe era, calling them illegal and showcasing their impact on the slow pace of economic recovery and failure to get new credit lines from the international financial institutions. Besides appealing to the regional and continental bloc for solidarity and to the UN, back home a number of initiatives to mobilise citizens have been ongoing. At the US Embassy, there have been in an anti- sanction camping for over a year now calling for the removal of the illegal sanctions.

On 25 October 2019, the Government of Zimbabwe mobilised citizens for a nation anti sanctions march which was alleged to have gobbled close to $4million unbudgeted public funds.

The international community in Zimbabwe, particularly the US Embassy and the EU Resident Representative have continuously indicated that; i. ZIDERA has not had an effect on Zimbabwe, as Zimbabwe disqualified itself from any debt relief package due to accumulation of arrears to the international financial institutions, in particular related to the Directive that; 

(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION.—Until the President makes the certification described in subsection (d), and except as may be required to meet basic human needs or for good governance, the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against— (1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or (2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.

1. From the EU perspective theirs have been targeted restrictive measures and were never meant to be punitive, to that extent the EU has always been reviewing the Measures such that currently on the Zimbabwe Defence Industries is on the list which bans EU companies from doing business with ZDI. This stance is also supported by the UK which pulled out for the EU through the Brexit plan.

Representatives of the international community have in actual fact shown how trade relations have continued despite the sanctions. The American Embassy indicated that it has supported Zimbabwe through aid to the tune of close to US$4 billion since 1980, the UK government in 2020-2021 gave over US$176 million to support the COVID response, rule of law among other pressing issues. The EU boasts of being one of the biggest donors in Zimbabwe having poured in €287 million for the period 2014-2020 targeting various projects to uplift the livelihoods of many Zimbabweans.

Civil society organisations, academia and prominent civic leaders have agreed to disagree on the legality and the impact of sanctions. On one hand some sections of civil society and prominent Pan African Activists such as esteemed, Brian Tamuka Kagoro have been unapologetic in castigating the sanctions calling them illegal and citing that they have perpetuated repression as the government cites sanctions as an excuse for not delivering. At that level, a pan African, regional approach and stronger national opposition position could have served the situation better. On the other hand, those civics operating in Zimbabwe are more sceptical in having the sanctions completely lifted. This is driven by the continuous shrinking civic space for both social and political activists and human rights defenders who operate in a system that is governed by a very powerful state machinery and an equally powerful liberation political party closely related with the military breeding imminent strong state-party conflation practices. The sanctions have to that section of society acted as a stick to some extent to deter outright closing of civic space as Zimbabwe continues to seek courtship with the part of international community that has for close to 2 decades described it as a repressive and pariah system.

While all these discussions have gone on since 2001, creating different narratives and positions at the national, regional and global levels, in 2017 the incoming President made an inaugural elegant speech which was balanced and pointed to the ideals of a prosperous, dignified and just society. He highlighted in that speech that the days of blaming sanctions for the headwinds that had been crashing our beautiful teapot country were over and there was a huge part of our own doing which has  to be addressed for us to have the refreshing new winds blowing in the right direction President Mnangagwa’s inauguration speech in full | The Chronicle. The speech gave a balanced view of our political conundrum, hope to a significant segment of society, glistering sceptics chose to be the doubting Thomases but generally that speech earned him significant goodwill out-turn in different circles.

The dissonant statements and actions that followed since 2018 took Zimbabwe back to the aptly described old dispensation by President E.D Mnangagwa in 2018. Instead of a new policy dispensation to recover the economy and to serve the people, the blame game started whilst those perpetuating corruption, arbitrage continued to consolidate their economic power in collusion with patrimonialism flourishing unfettered. In February, the Daily Maverick published the Zimbabwe: Explosive cartel report uncovers the anatomy… (dailymaverick.co.za), a scintillating report on how the cartel has captured the state in Zimbabwe, operating as a deep state. This was followed by many other reports and articles pointing to how business, government and the state were conniving toward primitive accumulation by siphoning public funds through “tenderprenuership” and turning strategic public entities such as Fidelity Printers and Refiners (the gold buying entity of the Central government) into private hands. The Shadows and Shell Games – The Sentry shares how local Zimbabweans in high places are benefitting from different sectors of the economy and operating in tax havens to stash their loot from the fragile economy. The How a Zimbabwe Tycoon Made a Fortune from a Trafigura Partnership and Spiralling National Debt – OCCRP shows how a few elites are making a fortune while the economic and huge debt burdens are carried and borne by the 49% of the Zimbabwean population living in extreme poverty failing to access basic necessities such as clean water, primary health care and universal primary education.

Zimbabwe Auditor General’s Reports have made an expose of misuse of public funds and maladministration that has costed the national fiscus a fortune. The findings point to irregularities in corporate governance of government institutions, criminal abuse of power by public officials, procurement irregularities among other acts that border on theft of public funds. Only 16% of the audited public institutions in 2019 has unqualified audit opinions the rest had material or significant findings calling for fundamental reforms in the way the government operates. The Auditor General has made 356 recommendations related to these matters and only 92 have been fully implemented. Representing only 23% political will to address the pillaging of public funds and resources by the economic and political elite in public institutions.

The most impacted sectors by this public resource haemorrhage have been the mining sector, agriculture, infrastructure development and the energy sector among other sectors. In the mining sector; Zimbabwe boast of 40 precious minerals but has lost significant potential through Illicit Financial flows and harmful tax incentives to some corporates.  The Minister of Home Affairs, Hon Kazembe, established that Zimbabwe is losing US$100 million dollars each month through gold smuggling[1]. Annually, this figure adds up to US$ 1.2 billion, a figure roughly equal to Zimbabwe`s total gold export earnings.

Zimbabwe is said to have lost approximately US$ 1.5 billion in gold smuggling in 2020 against US$ 800 million official Fidelity exports due to lack of a policy framework that can promote small scale mining and incentive it to contribute directly to the gold earnings. This is further reinforced by the fact that on the 9^th of May 2021, Tashinga Masinire was arrested after traveling from Zimbabwe and on arrival in South Africa at OR Tambo airport with 23 pieces of gold worth US$ 782, 380.37.[2]  Many cases point to plundering of natural resources that could be used to transform the Zimbabwean economy.

In 2016, the then president of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe hinted that about USD15 billion was lost in diamond mining in Marange in the Eastern part of Zimbabwe. The plundering is facilitated by the lack of legal and policy frameworks that can enhance contract transparency and community beneficial schemes that are not based on benevolence. In agriculture, through the Command Agriculture schemes, The Public Accounts Committee established that the agriculture input scheme of US$3billion was flaunted with irregularities and prejudiced Zimbabweans of huge public funds. The energy sector has been marred by white elephant projects, highly inflated projects costing millions of dollars.

Reports of gross, grand corruption and mismanagement of public resources have continued to pour in from the public sector institutions such as the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) National Social Security Authority, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. While scandals are reported and some arrests done, the masses reel in energy poverty, travel on unsafe roads and pensioners earn paltry earnings. Abuse of public offices by senior government officials continues unabated as the remains economy Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA). This is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused serious negative social and economic impacts in Zimbabwe and globally.

The grand and endemic corruption and abuse of public resources point out clearly that Zimbabwe have a deeper statecraft and internal crisis other than external sanctions to deal with. There is a clear pattern of a deep state that is controlling the economic and public affairs in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, that creates a vacuum of ideology, principle and accountability as the agenda of the deep state is always cynical. Clear corruption cases slip through the cracks at various levels of government as the system pillages even the very core essence of institutions. At parliament level, there has been complacency and lack of will power to utilise the oversight power and role that institution has to check on the executive arm of government. Other accountability institutions such as the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC) have lacked capacitation to play their key role of arresting and having cases convicted and corruptly gained public funds or resources recovered. The state presents weak prosecution cases such as the DRAX and the former Minister of Health and Child Care, Obadiah Moyo case involving US$60 million for COVID-19 supplies among many others causing cases to drag and in the end acquitted.

It would appear that the twin epidemics of maladministration and impunity have caused more untold suffering for the majority of Zimbabweans who depend of public services due to lack of employment, with over 64% etching a living in the non-productive informal employment. Instead of harnessing domestic resources to improve the lives of many Zimbabweans and mitigate the impacts of the both the exogenous and endogenous shocks the government allows only a few to enjoy the national wealth.    What this has created is a crisis in and of the state resulting in lack of identity, capacity and capture by a few businessmen, more like an undemocratic predatory state where the rule of law does not apply. The state and government fail to implement an economic model built on respect for human rights in their indivisible nature, accountability and equity standards.

Social spending by Zimbabwe on a five-year trend show miniature resource allocation to social services far below the 4.5% Social Policy for Africa (2008) benchmark. This could easily be addressed by effective prioritisation and plugging the rampant leakages that currently prevail. Th government fails to fulfil its mandate leaving the general populace especially children in the rural areas suffering dire consequences as the state fails to safeguard their right to education and healthcare as enshrined in the Constitution. For instance to show poor public administration ethos that violate section 194 subsection 1 (b), (c) (d), the government is building a US$269.5 million state-of-the-art hospital for the rich yet public hospitals are crippled by acute shortages of medical drugs, equipment and health professionals.

Compiled by ZIMCODD from 2017-2021 Zimbabwe National Budget

A study commissioned by ZIMCODD established that Zimbabwe’s grand political corruption is the major driver of fiscal deficits and the exponential growth of public debt beyond the legal threshold of 70 per cent. The conflation of the state, politics and business is a triangular marriage that has continued to push the monetary, fiscal and economic burdens to the ordinary citizens who are muzzled and disempowered to hold those in the vortex of corruption and abuse of power accountable. Impunity is an embedded culture and no one is willing to be held accountable for economic and financial crimes being committed.

 

Without diving into the debate of whether the ZIDERA or the EU restrictive measures must stay or be removed (which is a conversation we, Zimbabweans must have and give each other guarantees of a social contract as we move forward), the UN Special Rapporteur will have to grapple with the reality of the other set of sanctions imposed by a few Zimbabweans on other Zimbabweans through maladministration and impunity.  If the sanctions she is coming to Zimbabwe to assess are found to have had adverse impacts on ordinary Zimbabweans, the twin epidemics already highlighted must be equally treated as they have exacerbated the protracted crisis and contributed to weak social protection and public service delivery causing humanitarian and human rights crisis in Zimbabwe.

 

Zimbabwe must entrench a new policy dispensation that respects the constitution and fosters transparency, accountability and serving the people of Zimbabwe. There are political and economic reforms that Zimbabwe has to embrace based on the spirit they drafted and adopted their 2013 Constitution. The SADC and AU as counterparts and the UN as a multilateral institution have a role to assist Zimbabwe rise again by ensuring that a framework of national envisioning, internal dialogue and consultations on rebuilding the nation is done in a way that builds trust and confidence. For example, the UN could play a critical role in opening discussions on possibilities of discussing a debt relief package for Zimbabwe and how that can be insulated from abuse and to directly benefit Zimbabweans. The Special Drawing Rights (SDR) monitoring and accountability framework can be a starting point. Zimbabwe got an allocation amounting to US$961million from the IMF from the SDR facility to respond to COVID-19. This SDR can set a good example in complementing the required reforms and not substituting the reforms.

The Special Rapporteur will have to be thorough to assess the accountability systems in place and be a able to assist Zimbabwe create a conducive environment for its people, business and future generations. For the past two decades, leadership has mainly apportioned blame on external forces while they toot their horn as messiahs who brought independence, land reform, indigenisation laws among other many achievements they highlight. While these struggles were noble, they gave political leaders great entitlement and created patronage politics, owing nothing to the citizens. Stagnating without setting a post-liberation narrative where women, youths, communities and other marginalised groups become key decision makers with central government ensuring those decisions are implemented.

Going forward, Zimbabweans must know that to move forward there is need to introspect about what being a nation means, what independence means for all of us and re-imagination of the state and role of leadership and the citizens is important to put in the matrix. Where leadership has been inept in discharge of duty and mandate given by the citizens the same citizens must be able to approach institutions that are independent for redress or recall of such leadership. More importantly where leaders fail to deliver on their obligations to citizens, they must be held accountable through robust systems and independent institutions. Our current crisis is primarily internally authored and driven, rather than a result of external factors. We have an opportunity to write a new script of governance and not keep playing an old horror movie where the many are insecure, suffer structural violence daily while a few sits in the comfort of well-manicured gardens of plenty watered by others tears. We are the people who must fix it. None but ourselves.

 

Janet Zhou is the Executive Director at Zimbabwe Coalition On Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), a socio-economic justice movement. She writes in her own capacity. Twitter handle @JanetZhou_Mago

[1] Mashudu, Netisanda, 07 September 2020, Chronicle, US$100 million of gold smuggled outside Zimbabwe, https://www.chronicle.co.zw/us100-million-gold-smuggled-out-of-zimbabwe

[2] Zim man arrested at SA airport with gold worth US$730k – Zimbabwe Observer