The Democratic Alliance (DA) firmly believes that any call by the South African government and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to grant unconditional assistance to Zimbabwe must be rejected, given President Robert Mugabe's continual violation of the recently-signed unity agreement and his violation of fundamental democratic principles. Any proposed aid package must be subject to the implementation of verifiable economic and democratic reforms to ensure that it will be utilized for its intended purpose - to help rebuild the economy of Zimbabwe and ease the desperate plight of the Zimbabwean people, and not simply enrich the ZANU-PF aligned elite  

Never before has the need for a carrot and stick approach to the Zimbabwe situation been more needed than it is now. We need to send a clear message to Robert Mugabe that any backtracking on the provisions of the power-sharing deal will be punished. Already there are signs that he is reneging on some of the key provisions of the deal, evidenced in his unilateral appointment of senior civil servants, the arrest of MDC nominee for deputy minister of Agriculture Roy Bennett, and his recent declaration that illegal land repossessions are set to continue.

It is therefore reckless for senior South African government leaders such as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to argue that ‘conditions are unnecessary' at this stage. Unconditional loans will effectively give Mugabe a blank cheque to abuse the aid to enrich himself while ordinary Zimbabweans continue to suffer.

The DA proposes that as a minimum SADC must attach the following stringent conditions to the proposed aid package to Zimbabwe :

• The release of all political detainees;
• The establishment of a monitoring authority comprising South Africa, the SADC, the African Development Bank and the African Union to regularly monitor the use of the aid;
• A defined commitment to the independence of the Reserve Bank and the judiciary.
• Removing draconian laws which have prevented the free flow of foreign investment and aid finance to non-governmental organizations.
• An immediate end to violations of the rule of law, unlawful land grabs and unilateral declarations for nationalization.
• The introduction of a proper legislative framework to restore and protect the private property rights of citizens and investors.
• The introduction of strict public finance management legislation to halt the abuse of state resources for partisan purposes

South Africa and the rest of the SADC community must not become complicit in blindly dispatching financial assistance to the Zimbabwe government without ways to ensure that the aid will be used to restore that country's battered political and economic system.

Statement issued by Tony Leon MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on foreign affairs, March 2 2009

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