Mnangagwa determined to forge ahead despite sanctions

Q: There are a lot of reports on the crackdown against the opposition and that is why the US may be reluctant to review the sanctions?

A: There has been no incident where the rule of law has been breached. Not even one incident. We apply the rule of law; those who commit crime, the law must apply. You cannot have double standards where the rule of law (applies); if people funded by the Americans commit crimes, we should not touch them? No! Zimbabwe is a unitary State and our laws apply to every citizen, whether you are in the opposition or you are in Government or don’t belong to any political party at all. If you commit murder, you get arrested; if you commit corruption, you get arrested; any violent act, you get arrested. That is the rule of law which we observe.

I would like you to quote an action where Zimbabwe has acted outside the rule of law, then I would like to hear that.

Q: What are US conditions for lifting of sanctions?

A: Let me give you the background of the basis of sanctions. It was the time when Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of Britain and George Bush (Jnr) was US President. Bush was invading Iraq at the time.

In Zimbabwe, we were having our land reform programme, which the British did not support. So George Bush went to the United Nations to seek the invasion of Iraq and did not succeed. So they went ahead with willing allies. Tony Blair then offered to support US on Iraq, and Bush offered to Blair on Zimbabwe by imposing sanctions against Zimbabwe. That is the background.

Q: What measures are there to stabilise the currency, which has lost its value . . .?

A: As I said, our currency has stabilised in the past two months. When we are in this transition to open up, our currency had to find a level to which it stabilises. Now it has stabilised around between 8 and 10 (to the US) . . . It has been there for a long time now and I think the stabilisation has started.

Q: How do you evaluate former President Mugabe? He has been called a dictator here in Japan.

A: Former President Mugabe was our commander-in-chief for over 15 years when we fought the liberation struggle against Ian Smith. In 1979, we went to Lancaster (UK) where we got our political independence.

Secondly, former President Mugabe is the founding father of our independent Zimbabwe, and the principle grievance that we had during the liberation struggle was for us to get back our land. Our land was owned 70 percent by less than 5 000 whites and eight million blacks owned 30 percent of the land. That was our major grievance. We undertook to regain our land through land reform. That is now beyond us. When we began that programme, the sanctions were imposed on us. But now the land reform is irreversible and we have the land in the hands of Zimbabweans, so we are moving on.

Q: You are trying to issue a new Zimbabwean dollar, is that true?

A: Currently, it is already there . . . we have removed the basket of currencies.

Q: What is the difference between Mugabe . . . and yourself?

A: He is human, he stepped down in November 2017 and I was elected to be President of my party, which is the majority in Parliament, so that is how I became President.

In July last year, I won the elections with over two-thirds majority in Parliament — more than 140 seats against the opposition’s 60. I have the majority party in Parliament. I have now liberalised and opened the space . . . in modern times you must compete for global capital to come into your country. That is why we are doing the liberalisation measures in Parliament, a raft of economic measures, political and social measures.

Q: What do you think of the Asian way of so-called development dictatorship — less liberal in terms of political and strong leadership to economic development — like Singapore? Maybe Mr Kagame of Rwanda is the same way. Do you think this liberal democracy is relevant today?

A: The issue for Zimbabwe is not to interrogate the ideologies of other countries. That is not our business. Our business is what is good for Zimbabwe, what is good for our people and what we should do to have a better life to grow our economy.

To do so, we must modernise. Zimbabwe is an agricultural economy. We must modernise so that each hectare of land must increase in yields. To do so, we must bring in the best practises for agricultural production. We are endowed with vast minerals — over 60 — but we do not have capital to extract those minerals for our people.

So we have to go to countries that have the capital and technology to come and share with us, on a win-win basis.

Q: Including Japan?

A: Yes, including Japan, that is why we are here for the TICAD summit.

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