European partnership for democracy, EPD

If we would have wanted a revolution, we should not have started negotiating

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai starts a three weeks tour visiting Western capitals to inform governments about the progress of his Inclusive Government in order to persuade international donors to re-engage with Zimbabwe.  At his first stop in The Netherlands, the European Partnership for Democracy and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy met with Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Minister of Economic Planning Elton Mangoma.

Picture : EPD Patron Bernard Bot, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, EPD Senior Programme Coordinator Marieke van Doorn

Having signed a Political Agreement in September 2008, becoming an inclusive, the tri-partite government became a promise, to which all formerly antagonizing parties have to adhere. "The day we reached a political agreement and entered the government, there were over 10.000 people on the street supporting our decision. These people are anxious to see their lives improve because of this decision and the international community is equally impatient", Prime Minister Tsvangirai said during his meeting with EPD.

For many Zimbabweans and members of the international community it is hard to understand this decision. How is it possible to govern with someone who has been your enemy for such a long time? And how can it be made credible that it is in the best interest for the people of Zimbabwe? This is what the international tour is for. To explain that the seemingly political dilemma has already led to progress for the Zimbabwean people and democratic change. 

"Eastern Europeans might have a better understanding of our problems than other westerners. Our position resembles that of the Polish democratic forces 20 years ago, they had to co-operate with the communists in a transition government. We should learn from history more, for transitions like this have been done before. A big difference with our situation is that the Polish democrats had a strong godfather: the US. That is why it is so important for us to make sure that the EU-Zimbabwe dialogue will take root. We work hard to link the political relationship between EU and Zimbabwe to a re-engagement of development cooperation under the European Development Fund (art. 8, 10^th EDF). When we return to Europe and go to Brussels in a few weeks, coming back from the US, the EU-Zimbabwe dialogue framework should be ready for launching."

 "The transition in Zimbabwe is a very complex process, and an extraordinary experience for me personally" Prime Minister Tsvangirai said. "Working with ZANU-PF requires a change of attitude and patience. If we would have wanted a revolution, we should not have started negotiating. This is an evolutionary process. Confrontational as we have been in the past, we have to invest in good relations with our colleague ZANU-PF Ministers and the President now, and build confidence to jointly work towards economic recovery and constitutional reform in our country."

 "We call on the international community to re-engage with Zimbabwe. In spite of everything, the government is consolidated, which doesn't mean everything is rosy. Although some people would have liked us to have achieved more in the past three months, we are proud of our accomplishments thus far; we've introduced a proper financial regime, resulting in the inflation figure dropping from 500,000% in December to 3% now, which opened the door for 2 million dollars of foreign investments already. Schools are open again, there is food on the shelves, the cholera outburst has been stopped. All civil servants, teachers and ministers alike receive an allowance of 100 US dollars monthly, but we hope that by the end of June, after a first assessment of our Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, we can start paying salaries again. On the other hand, there is very limited cash available amongst the people and we have to get our skilled people back. We are frustrated with two deadlocked situations in particular regarding the appointments of the Governor of the Central Reserve Bank and the Attorney General. We've asked the SADC to step in to help us resolve the deadlocks."

The EPD and the Zimbabwe Europe Network organize a meeting with civil society representatives in Brussels on 11 June, please find more information here.