People were stunned when Chinamasa lunged at Kate Hoey, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Zimbabwe, at a Foreign Office reception. The blustering bully had to be restrained by Ambassador Machinga, who apologised profusely. ‘Entirely in keeping with what I would expect from Zanu (PF)’, said Hoey.
Despite donors giving $2.6 billion to Zimbabwe in the last four years they are still the enemy, as Chinamasa made clear. He said there was nothing to show for this aid ‘in terms of development at grass roots level except expensive houses for NGO staff and insisted the aid should go direct to the government. Donors would not be allowed to observe the elections as they were not ‘objective’ and there would be no security sector reforms as this would just be a means of ‘effecting regime change’.
The international community must understand that SADC’s role was just to facilitate and not supervise or impose a solution in Zimbabwe and that foreign radio broadcasts must be stopped, he said. Vigil activists gathered at short notice to stage a demo outside the venue. They displayed posters saying: ‘Britain don’t give in to Mugabe’, ‘No money unless rule of law’, ‘International observers for free and fair elections’, ‘EU bought by diamonds’, and ‘Restore rule of law in Zimbabwe’.