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France Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Laurent Delahousse

Speaking at an event to commemorate his country’s national day in Harare on Thursday, France Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Laurent Delahousse announced that his term here expires in the next few weeks.

We cannot wait.

The gentleman that France sent here four years ago as its top diplomat isn’t exactly one. Diplomats are expected to be cordial, respectful and as their jobs imply, diplomatic in their behaviour and interactions with their host governments. Mr Delahousse’s conduct has shown that he is none of the foregoing. He has proved to be utterly disrespectful of our government, confrontational and undiplomatic in his actions and language.  Broadly, in our assessment, his behaviour violates the diplomatic privileges and immunities that persons in his position are expected to enjoy responsibly.

Last week, Home Affairs Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo singled out Mr Delahousse as one of the two ambassadors who were behind the failed protests whose public faces were Pastor Evan Mawarire and Mr Promise Mkwananzi. The minister also mentioned US Ambassador Mr Harry Thomas.

On French National Day on Thursday at his Harare residence, Mr Delahousse publicly confirmed his link to the demonstrations. “I make no excuse for believing in democracy and human rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The freedom to assemble and demonstrate within the framework of the law, and to use social media in a peaceful manner, the protection of the people by the State without unnecessary use of force, even the right to stay at home without having to face the full wrath of the law, those are some of the rights deriving from the liberation struggle of your elders.”

He added:

“I am inspired, on the contrary, by the light that shone yesterday (Thursday) evening (at Harare Magistrate’s Court where Pastor Mawarire was appearing in court), on the other side of this beautiful city, in the hands and hearts of those who called in song and prayer for a new, united and peaceful Zimbabwe. May their appeal be heeded before it is too late.”

He later announced that the Thursday event was his fourth and last French National Day in Zimbabwe before he is deployed elsewhere.

Exactly a year ago from Thursday and at the same occasion and place, Mr Delahousse made a toast to journalist-cum-opposition-activist Itai Dzamara who had been reported missing four months earlier and remains unaccounted for. The Frenchman also paraded Dzamara’s wife and brother. For these provocative and intrusive actions, Mr Delahousse was summoned by the Government.

He should know that by publicly declaring his support for the civil disturbances, he is treading on dangerous ground because any government, including his own back home, takes national security matters very seriously and would not tolerate a foreigner speaking or engaging in activities that support machinations to create disorder.

He should know that by making the toast to Dzamara last year and consorting with opposition activists the way he has been doing with Pastor Mawarire and Mr Mkhwananzi, he is interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs in violation of Article 41 paragraph 1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which states: “Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that state.”

The Government is unhappy with the protests that Pastor Mawarire and Mr Mkwananzi attempted to stage in the past fortnight and its unhappiness deepens when ambassadors openly encourage them.  Zimbabweans are free to express themselves but don’t need foreigners, whether they are ambassadors or ordinary individuals, nudging them on. Zimbabwean disagreements are Zimbabwean disagreements and foreigners have no business fomenting them.

Former US top diplomats in Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell and James David McGee were as abrasive as Mr Delahousse. Sweden’s former Ambassador to Harare, Sten Rylander, also conducted himself in the same way.  It is regrettable that Western diplomats routinely cross the line in Africa, something that African envoys in France, Britain, America and other countries across the world never do. They know what the Vienna Convention expects of them and are always bound by it.

We saw this again on Thursday when Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister, Cde Edgar Mbwembwe, in his speech kept the accepted diplomatic tone, complimenting France’s support for ongoing economic recovery efforts, particularly, Paris’s support for Zimbabwe’s debt management plan that was presented by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting in Lima, Peru last year.

The fact that Cde Mbwembwe took this line doesn’t mean that the Zimbabwe Government and its people do not have negative views over France — its objectionable imperialism in West Africa for example — or specifically, Mr Delahousse’s unbecoming behaviour in recent weeks, but French National Day was not the platform to express them.

“My speech was not full of insults like this,” said Cde Mbwembwe, promising an official government response to Mr Delahousse’s speech.
It is not goodbyes to Mr Delahousse.