Dr Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a Zimbabwean lawyer and lecturer of law in the United Kingdom has claimed that Western states discredited Zimbabwe’s founding leader, the late Robert Mugabe for initiating the land reform and not human rights violations as others suggest. Magaisa said:
The story that gave Mugabe worldwide notoriety was not Zimbabwe’s darkest chapter – Gukurahundi, no. Those were Africans killing each other. It could have been stopped didn’t matter to the international community. Indeed, some Western countries gave his government loans to buy military equipment which he used against his own.
No, it wasn’t those human rights violations. It was, instead, the controversial seizure of white-owned farms from 2000 onwards and the political repression that followed. Indeed, Western countries had given him accolades in the 1990s, an honorary Knighthood and honorary degrees from renowned colleges, even with the dark record of Gukurahundi behind him.
Zimbabwe, led by war veterans, embarked on the fast track land reform in 1999 which saw many white farmers losing their farms and properties.
The ruling ZANU PF argued that peaceful land redistribution was not feasible as the UK had refused to unveil the money to compensate white farmers as per the Lancaster House Agreement.
The Agreement provided that the government would take land on a willing seller-willing buyer basis. The government had to get the money from the UK to buy the land.
When UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair refused to provide the funds, that’s when Mugabe told him to “Keep your England” whilst ” He Kept his Zimbabwe”.
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I don’t agree with a sided approach to anything. Whether it was land reform or not human rights abuses, that is semantics. The point is the effect of the sanctions upon our nation. Some will argue that the two are entertwined to produce a destructive impact upon our nation. A play of words is irrelevant when seeking solutions.
The way forward is to identify that Zimbabwe does not need outside interference to empower itself but rather a proper utilisation of its own resources to step out of the quagmire of economic strife. It starts with a will to be broadminded and open to a learning process which has not been sufficiently exhibited hence the present mess. Focusing on semantics on what, where and who said and did what is what stagnates us from moving forward. The facts are arguable on this matter as I first hand attended a political meeting where the topic was “sanctions on Zimbabwe for human rights absuses.”
Zimbabwean leaders and the government will empower themselves and the people by showing compassion in their plight such as those presently experiencing xenophobia in foreign lands. Why does it have to get to the point where this is the reality of even one Zimbabwean? Do we not have a home? When will ever be a day of true jubilation that we are an independent nation? Unoppressed by others and even our own. WHEN? Can there be compassion shown for our? A proud nation of people grovelling in the dust eating grass because of desperation. When does it end?