Successful Zimbabwe Watch / NIMD workshop during EVS Africa Day

On 29 October Zimbabwe Watch and NIMD organized a successful workshop during the EVS Africa Day. Facilitated by Kees Broere (Africa Correspondent Volkskrant & NOS), Professor Brian Raftopoulos (chair Zimbabwe Institute) and Frans Timmermans (MP PvdA) discussed the democratic transition in Zimbabwe and the role of the international community.

In a full room, including many Zimbabweans, Raftopoulos gave a brief overview of Zimbabwe’s recent history, highlighting the developments since the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Raftopoulos finished his presentation, and started the discussion, by highlighting three key points with regards to the role of the international community;

1) SADC is the key body that has the leverage to deal with Zimbabwe; the EU should continue to support SADC.

2) The EU should reconsider the restrictive measures, in which partial lifting of the measures is related to progress in the context of the GPA.

3) There should be continued support for civic groups.

A lively, but constructive, discussion unfolded looking at the roles of SADC, South Africa and the EU. In responding to Raftopoulos’ presentation Timmermans raised the issue of security sector reform. It was believed that no major reforms could be achieved before an election, but the focus should be on keeping the military and police out of the election process and have the security sector respect the election result. It was believed this should be done through SADC as EU support for this process would be counter productive.

After the speakers acknowledged the more pro-active role of SADC and South Africa, Broere touched upon the role of the EU, with a specific focus on the targeted measures. The different angles became clearly visible, but it was agreed that it was up to SADC to push for this agenda. It was however seen as a two-way movement as explained by Raftopoulos: ‘If SADC calls for the measures to be removed, they must push for movement on the ground as well.’ The audience was impressed by the open and honest comments of Timmermans, which provided an insight in the way European policy making works.

Raftopoulos concluded that ZANU has not delivered on one major item on their liberation agenda: ‘one person, one vote.’ Timmermans conclusion was that ‘he had learned today that we should empower SADC.’ After the final words of facilitator Kees Broere, the discussions continued in the corridors.