A justified reluctance to help

Global leaders and aid organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are perfectly justified in their persistent reluctance to offer aid to the government of Zimbabwe, despite that country’s recent improvements in its human and political rights records.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai – who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his willingness to work as Prime Minister for the President who has had him beaten to near death on more than one occasion – has been touring global capitals in an attempt to drum up confidence in the new power-sharing government in Zimbabwe, including meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this year.
Despite these meetings, few governments have committed any aid to Zimbabwe.
 
The Zimbabwean economy has completely collapsed, largely because of the abject mismanagement during the 29-year reign of autocratic President Robert Mugabe, and Zimbabwe is in real danger of becoming a failed state.

Zimbabwe is absolutely desperate for foreign aid, and will need foreign investment to get back on the road to recovery. 

Despite President Mugabe’s unprecedented agreement to work with Tsvangirai, his political nemesis, there have still been consistent abuses of human and political rights and the government remains largely corrupt. While these abuses persist, foreign donors should remain wary of sending aid to Zimbabwe. 

Mugabe has harassed important members of the opposition, and has even had prominent members of his own Cabinet that were appointed by Tsvangirai arrested on trumped-up charges of treason (like the Agriculture Minister, Roy Bennett), prompting Tsvangirai’s party to withdraw from meeting with Cabinet members of Mugabe’s party for some time.

Corruption in Zimbabwe has improved under Tsvangirai’s short rule, but it nonetheless remains widespread. Transparency International, an organization which rates countries’ corruption levels, improved their rating of Zimbabwe under Tsvangirai, but the nation still ranks 146th out of 180 nations. 

And late last year, it was reported that the Zimbabwean government had spent $7.3 million in aid money donated to fight AIDS on other things and has refused to return the money or to specify what the money was spent on.

When funds are donated to Zimbabwe, they first have to pass through the hands of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which Mugabe controls.

Senior officials report that the money often is significantly delayed there or never reaches its intended target at all, simply disappearing – likely into the hands of one of Mugabe’s cronies.

It is impossible to trust a government with donated funds when it has consistently stolen donated money. 

In sum, the reluctance of foreign leaders to trust Zimbabwe’s government with donated funds, despite the good intentions of the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and because of the bad intentions of the more powerful President, Robert Mugabe, is perfectly justified.

Foreign leaders and aid organizations should not trust Mugabe to spend their money wisely, and more concrete improvements in Zimbabwe’s corruption and political rights situation must precede the movement of significant funds to Zimbabwe.