PRESS STATEMENT

On the Occasion of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development

Another world is possible!!!!

Date: Tuesday 27 August 2002

The ongoing World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) offers Zimbabweans an opportunity to reflect on the sustainability of our own
social, political, economic and ecological policies and practices.

We note the urgency for us to deal with our present crises to avoid going into a cul de sac. As Zimcodd, we regret the loss of civil liberties and the
consequent citizens' alienation from contributing and accounting for public policy processes and development in this country due to the domineering
election politics that we are locked in. The level of intolerance that we see is in itself unsustainable and can not lead to equitable development.

As patriots, our message at the WSSD to leaders at home and abroad is an unequivocal push for the following issues:

1. Unconditional cancellation of all illegitimate public debts because these have been repaid several times over;
2. Halting and reversal of all privatization processes especially in health, municipal services, education, water, electricity, etc.
3. In pursuit of the above we also reject the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and International Monetary Fund/World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as these offer nothing new and radical with past neo-liberal policies. In fact, the peer review mechanism in NEPAD has already disappointed us as far as addressing the Zimbabwe crisis is concerned;
4. For equitable and sustainable development, we demand a Freedom of Information Regime to allow us to input into national and global policy processes without fear of being labeled Anti-Establishments;
5. Given the centrality of the land question to sustainable and ecologically balanced development, and as tax payers who are financing the public administration part of the program through the national budget, we demand the Constitution of an All-stakeholder Land Commission to have an Agrarian Reform exercise in Zimbabwe to ensure that there is no future inequality based on land ownership.

In pursuit of the above, Zimcodd, as debt and development network, we have a delegation of thirty-six civil society activists who are part of the WSSD peoples' solidarity movements. These are drawn from various sectors that constitute Zimcodd. The sectors include trade unions, students, women, church, community based-organizations and anti-privatization advocates from Zimcodd chapters in Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare and Chinhoyi. In our delegation we have members from the newly formed Zimbabwe Anti-Privatization Forum (ZAPF) facilitated by Zimcodd. The ZAPF is fighting against the neo-liberal privatization of basic services such as municipal provisions, electricity, education, health, water, etc. and asset stripping in the name of privatization for debt amortization.

All these activists are enthusiastic members of the WSSD civil society events under the Social Movements Indaba and the Global People's Forum.
These provide the center of economic justice and anti-globalization resistance. This follows the tradition of the new social movements that are associated with the Durban, Seattle Genoa teach-ins and demonstrations, linking local to global struggles. As a climax of the concentrated resistance that is building around the Sandton activities, the Zimcodd activists are part of the issue based platforms, discussions, and testimonies on alternatives to globalization, ecological debt, NEPAD. We are working as part of the organizing teams under the banner of Southern Africa People's Solidarity Network, Jubilee South, World Bank Bond Boycott Campaign, Fifty Years is Enough, Landless Movement of South Africa, South Africa Anti-Privatisation Forum, trade justice and corporate-watch organizations. With the culmination of the various teach-ins in the Saturday 31st of August 27 Seattle-type demonstration, we have a team that will reach out to 6 billion citizens of the world who have vowed to bring down uniliteralism in any form with the weapon of people to people solidarity.

We citizens have the power, might and right to be heard; otherwise development will not come without our participation.

We will bring home the experience that we will have shared with other global citizens and continue with our social movement building for debt cancellation, social and economic justice. It is therefore our unequivocal submission that the Zimbabwe government takes heed of this momentum to create a conducive democratic environment to tackle the challenges posed by corporate dominated globalization. This must ensure that the objective of sustainable development in Zimbabwe rests with the primacy of freedom of speech and association, demonstration, picketing, social security and justice in all relationships between public institutions (including
political parties) and citizens. On our part, we are not going to rest until an atmosphere for sustainable development is attained and registered that political, economic and environmental justices are inseparable to the broader WSSD agenda.

The days of unilateralism and politics of humiliation are no longer sustainable!

Jonah K. Gokova or Davie Malungisa
The Chairperson The National Coordinator
Zimcodd
263-4-776830/31