By Lance Guma
04 May 2011
The Global Zimbabwe Forum (GZF) has hit out at remarks by Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who said that Zimbabweans in the Diaspora will not be allowed to vote until targeted sanctions imposed by the West have been removed.
Mnangwagwa, who is also the ZANU PF Secretary for Legal Affairs, said the two MDC formations in the coalition government “want those in the Diaspora to vote simply because they are able to go out there and address them. We have been barred from visiting those countries and how do they expect us to do the same.
“Sanctions must go first and if they don’t, I don’t think those in the Diaspora can also vote until they return home. For the ground to be level, we are saying the illegal sanctions must go,” Mnangagwa said.
However Daniel Molokele from GZF told SW Radio Africa ‘this is a very embarrassing excuse because the issue of Diaspora participation has nothing to do with sanctions at all. It is more about citizenship and nationality and it should be discussed at a different level all together and I think it belongs to the constitutional making process.”
Molokele said the majority of exiled Zimbabweans were living in Southern African states like South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and these countries did not have any targeted sanctions on members of the Mugabe regime. He said the coalition government had so far ignored the reality that the country could benefit economically from involving the diaspora.
Other commentators believe ZANU PF is fully aware that the Zimbabwean Diaspora is made up of a mixture of economic and political refugees. Most of these people left because they were disillusioned with the destructive policies of the ZANU PF regime and are unlikely to vote for that same party.
A new constitution being drafted by the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) is expected to determine whether the Diaspora will be allowed to vote. Throughout the controversial process, ZANU PF has been voicing its objection to exiles voting, while the two MDC formations have supported the proposal.
Activists like Gabriel Shumba from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum have in the past said the Diaspora voting process does not have to be complicated or expensive. “The government can simply use its embassies around the world as poll centres and allow Zimbabweans with identification to vote,” he said.
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