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Ambassador Aldo Dell’ Ariccia

EU diplomat, Aldo Dell’Arricia is back in Brussels, Belgium, after serving four years as Europe’s head of delegation to Zimbabwe.
He was seconded as EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe soon after the formation of the inclusive government, served three years during its existence and leaves just over a year since that tripartite administration was dissolved following a free and fair election.
Dell’Arricia saw the first 12 months of the Zanu-PF government, a period during which he presided over a thawing of relations between the EU and Zimbabwe. He was here when the EU-Zimbabwe reengagement talks were initiated. Nothing much was achieved though, because while the inclusive government was committed to finding ways to normalise relations, Brussels was openly divisive in its approach and insincere.

Many will remember how Minister Patrick Chinamasa was treated on his trips to Europe for the talks. He needed a special waiver for him to conduct small transactions there and was detained for hours at European airports. MDC ministers were not subjected to similar harassment.

Seeing that their preferred parties had lost elections and the long-term consequences of maintaining an adversarial stance, the EU has shown a bit more commitment to re-engage.  Early this year, the grouping lifted visa bans on most Zanu-PF and government officials, parastatals and companies, but kept their illegal sanctions on President Mugabe and the First Lady. Apart from that, they continued to withhold development assistance to Zimbabwe.  Therefore, illegal EU sanctions are still effective.

As this happened, Dell’Arricia tried over the past 12 months to project a new, more serious conciliatory outlook. His rebuke in mid-June, on local civil society organisations that were reluctant to accept the reality that Zanu-PF won free and fair elections, and is in charge, is a case in point. He criticised them for being anchored in the past, adding that instead of them conducting themselves as non-governmental organisations, they had become anti-government organisations. Two months later, the groups, most of which are funded by the EU, met the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cde Chris Mutsvangwa to declare their preparedness to work with the government.

“I hope we can continue with this positive trend and that indeed the situation will continue improving to the bond that we will be able to completely normalise relations with Zimbabwe,” Dell’Arricia said at his farewell ceremony in Harare on Tuesday.

“Some work still needs to be done and I’m confident that my successor will continue in the same trend and I hope that he will have the same positive response from the government as I, with my team had. Well from the professional point of view it was extremely interesting and very challenging at first. The challenge was to implement the new policy that the EU had adopted towards Zimbabwe, the policy of engagement and together with my team of excellent professionals; I think we have done a good deal in that direction. Thanks also to the positive response of the government and it has been a cooperation and has turned 360 degrees in social sectors, culture trade and even sports and gender.”

This is a positive signal which his replacement needs to sustain. Already there is a pledge that the EU would lift all its illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe in November.

Direct development assistance is expected to resume at the same time.  That would be good because lack of that support has clearly exerted immense pressure on the fiscus.

Under that commitment, $318 million in development assistance would be made available over the next six years targeted for agriculture, health, governance and institutional strengthening programmes.

Such assistance is appreciated, as we have already stated, but Zimbabwe does not want to normalise relations with the EU for that bloc to flaunt its “altruism.” Aid does not grow economies; rather it creates a dependence mindset which is negative in the long run.  We expect, when sanctions are removed in November, that the takeoff thereafter would be sincere, not simply a policy change on paper.

What we want most is unimpeded access to that market for our products. Also, we want European businesspeople to invest here freely without fearing sanctions from their governments.  However, they have to do so with due respect to our laws. We don’t want a paternalistic attitude that prescribes the way we must run our affairs.  We demand mutual respect.

Dell’Arricia laid the foundation, let his successor now build a strong superstructure that everyone would be happy to live in.