COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON AID AND THE KIMBERLEY PROCESS:
BY THE CHAIRMAN: JULIUS MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

The assertion by President Robert Mugabe that Zimbabwe does not need aid http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6752&cat=1 is unfortunate because again it is rhetoric rather than reality. His aspirations of a country that will not be modelled on a perennial need to depend on others for its own survival are the same aspirations we hold yet unfortunately given the current situation in Zimbabwe, of a total failure to fully capacitate by almost every sector of the economy actually mean that Zimbabwe definitely cries for aid at least for the meantime.

President Mugabe must be honest when reaching out to the nation as his assertions, although aimed at his own ZANU PF audience, are coming from a Head of State and the fact that they lack any form of empirical origins fly in the face of our collective efforts to bring the situation in Zimbabwe to normalcy. This has been the ZANU PF ethos throughout the 28 years of its singular governance. They have continued to serve the nation a bitter cocktail of empty promises which when they fail to deliver, the failures are blamed on others without looking at the party’s own contributory effects to Zimbabwe’s failure. In fact there has never been an attempt by ZANU PF to take Zimbabwe to self-sufficiency. Yardsticks that had been set in the country for generations such as our own ability to weave our cotton into cloth, a legacy we had acquired from 12th century Zimbabweans who were led by Chibatamatosi, all disappeared under ZANU PF rule. It is a fact that President Mugabe’s rule took away the expertise to make hoes, weave cloth etc that we always had and today all the cotton produced by our hardworking farmers in Hurungwe, Gokwe and other areas is not woven in Zimbabwe but outside the country. The President’s assumption remains as such, an assumption devoid of alternatives and this is not good for a young school leaver who would want to contribute to his own country but who finds himself having to work in other countries as there are no jobs in Zimbabwe.

What President Mugabe failed to say was the chance that the country has had in the 20 years from 1980 to 2000. He has failed to state that these were missed chances to construct a truly home grown industry that captured the aspirations and contributions of everyone in a single effort to make the economy less dependent on donor aid. What he has failed to say is why a country with such an abundant resource base and an educated workforce has failed to develop itself. He has failed to say why the LupGas, that project which aimed at tapping the abundant methane resources in Matableland North, has failed to take off. Had that happened, who knows we could ended up liquefying the gas to produce petroleum and ease our fuel problems in the country. He has totally failed to say why the Chitungwiza Rail Porject, forever present in ZANU PF’s development fantasies has failed to take off not even an inch of rail has ever been constructed in Chitungwiza. Zimbabweans and Zimbabwe have not failed, its sports have not failed, its mines have not failed, its religions have not failed, its music has not failed, its land and agriculture have not failed. Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans have been failed by an inept leadership that has no clue about the challenges of developing the nation. This is the truth, the country lacks the one to steer it to the development it deserves and President Mugabe is the leader of that team of failures.

Coming to the Kimberley Process, the issues being thrown at us are not being thrown by foreigners only. Our own son Maguwu has also said so. The response of President Mugabe’s government has been to arrest him which is again a total failure at apprehending issues. Maguwu is a Zimbabwean, he has the right to be heard. The Government has shown that it is incapable of seizing an opportunity and has again left foreigners to dictate the pace at which things happen. As Zimbabweans we want to see the prosperity of our country and the role the Marange diamonds could play is immense. But I don’t want the money to come at the expense of people’s lives.

Instead of pursuing this line of denials without any evidence President Mugabe’s Government must take the initiative to bring the matter to a final closure. Contrary to what the President is saying the Kimberley Process does not exist to punish Zimbabwe only. It has been there before and it will be there well after the Zimbabwe saga. We need not confront the process but we must take the initiative to prove that the Marange diamonds are clean. There is a clear alternative to this confrontation which is the instituting of an international inquiry by Zimbabwe which will investigate what Maguwu and others have been saying. This independent international inquiry will bring about a verdict on the Marange diamonds that is more credible and which is likely to be accepted by the KP process. Throughout its history the unmaking of Zimbabwe has been caused by our inability to open up, the concept of sovereignty has a troubling definition in our minds that is linked to a fixation on not wanting an independent verdict. By taking the initiative Zimbabwe will also be able to choose the functional, personal and structural component of the international commission. This is what we challenge the Government to do with regard to the Marange saga and the Kimberley Process.
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www.communitiespoint.com or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or Julius.mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 00447529705413