SADC leaders have been left frustrated by President
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration following his decision to block former
South African president Thabo Mbeki (pictured) from mediating in the proposed
dialogue with his fierce rival, opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa,
government and diplomatic sources revealed this week.
Sadc countries — in particular economic powerhouse, South
Africa, and Botswana — are unhappy with Zimbabwe’s ongoing social, economic and
political crisis, bad investment environment, state interference in public
institutions, lack of respect for trade agreements and lack of competition in
business.
Mbeki visited Zimbabwe mid-December last year on a
Sadc-initiated mission to nudge Zanu PF and MDC into negotiations. This was
after regional leaders realised Harare’s problems were caused more by a
political crisis than the so-called Western sanctions.
During his visit, Mbeki — famed for brokering the 2009
Global Political Agreement, which brought together Zanu PF and MDC into a unity
government — also met political leaders who are part of the Political Actors
Dialogue (Polad) and civil society organisations.
The former South African president promised to return to
Harare by December 30, 2019, to continue with the preliminary talks, but has
not done so, amid reports Mnangagwa has been ignoring calls from the respected
African elder.
Before Mbeki’s visit, sources said, regional leaders had
the view that Chamisa did not want dialogue, but they later realised through
discussions with him and other senior MDC party officials that he was just
against the idea of participating in a dialogue being held under the
discredited Polad platform, which many have dismissed as Mnangagwa’s political
fan club.
Sadc leaders publicly supported Mnangagwa’s rise to power
on the back of a military coup against the then president Robert Mugabe in
November 2017, although they privately urged him to hastily undertake political
and economic reforms to legitimise his reign.
Sources told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that Sadc
leaders are frustrated by Mnangagwa’s refusal to allow the Mbeki mediation to
take shape. They are also frustrated by his failure to turn around the
country’s political and economic fortunes, which they are convinced makes
Zimbabwe the albatross on the regional grouping’s neck.
“There is growing frustration in the Sadc region about
Mnangagwa’s failure to give Mbeki the chance to mediate in the political
impasse. They now think that Zimbabwe is not serious about transforming its
economy. There is huge disgruntlement over this issue in the diplomatic circles
and the entire region,” a Sadc diplomat accredited to Harare said.
“Basically, the concerns are coming from the fact that
there are many South African and Botswana companies investing in Zimbabwe and
they are feeling the heat from the economic meltdown as they cannot repatriate
their profits.
“The general economic environment has been very unfriendly.
There was a lot of optimism when Mbeki started the moves, but all that has
dissipated now. Sadc leaders are also disappointed that the political impasse
in Zimbabwe has persisted for far too long.”
Mnangagwa, sources said, was confronted at a bi-national
commission meeting with Botswana in Gaborone early this month. Botswana
officials were frank in closed door discussions where they expressed
disappointment about the investment climate, among other issues.
Botswana officials cited the decision by the Mnangagwa
administration to cancel a deal late last year for the revival of Kwekwe-based
firm Lancashire Steel with Botswana-based investor Whinstone Enterprises
without revealing the reasons, as an example of the toxic investment climate.
Implementation of the deal, signed in July 2018, was
accelerated at last year’s Zimbabwe-Botswana bi-national commission, but
government officials frustrated the investor by dragging their feet despite a
push by the Botswana company to consummate the deal.
“This is just one example of the many cases that have
frustrated investors. So they were saying, in one of the plenary sessions, it
is useless to sign deals with people who are not serious about implementation.
If you closely examine the communique from the Gaborone bi-national commission,
you will realise that there was only one deal signed and the other six were
memoranda of agreement in education, wildlife, cultural exchange and similar
sectors and nothing was concerning the more serious economic sectors like
mining and manufacturing,” a source who travelled to Botswana said.
South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mphakama Mbete,
recently openly criticised government for meddling in business.
“Zimbabwe has presented itself to be open for business,
which we believe is an appropriate approach to developing this country and
economy. However, in order to attract significant flows of direct investment,
it is important that Zimbabwe improves its record concerning the following
issues: security of tenure and investment protection; repatriation of proceeds
by investors; the honouring of bilateral trade and investment agreements; the
need to open up the economy to competition; establishment of new credibilities
and lastly, optimal debt servicing,” he said while addressing a Polad economic
summit in Harare last month.
Many South African companies operating in Zimbabwe have
been frustrated by government’s policy flip-flops and corruption. The most
outstanding example is the termination of the deal to recapitalise and revamp
the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).
The US$400 million deal, won by the Diaspora Infrastructure
Development Group (DIDG) and South African rail, ports and pipeline utility
Transnet, was cancelled in controversial circumstances in October last year at
the behest of Transport minister Joel Biggie Matiza. Zimbabwe Independent
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