IN what seemed like the final frantic moments of the European Union (EU)’s regime change agenda in Zimbabwe, the Western bloc gave hint to the effect that they were re-engaging Harare, but recent utterances by its Ambassador, Phillipe Van Damme that there was nothing wrong with youths embracing homosexuality highlighted the latest drive by the bloc to effect regime change through cultural erosion. Everyone expected the EU to cause Zimbabwe many problems, but few knew it would be in the form of stern calls for homosexuality to be a precondition for aid. His remarks must never be underestimated and taken lightly. This is because EU has in the past employed a number of strategies to try and topple President Robert Mugabe and his Government and the call for the promotion of homosexuality underlines the determination by the West to erode the values that glue the people of Zimbabwe together. Drug abuse, it emerged this week, was another strategy that the EU intends to unleash in their regime change agenda endeavours. Britain used it to maximum effect in Australia when they freely dished out potent liquor to Aborigines to extinguish the group. The strategy as laid bare in 2013 by United States President Barack Obama at the University of Cape Town involves, but is not limited to using non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to indoctrinate youths to cast away traditional conflict resolution mechanisms and the tragedies wrought on Africa by colonialism. Young people are also dissuaded from visiting their history and to view their culture as alien to modern ways of living which are enshrined in the ‘democracy’ mantra the West preaches vociferously about in Africa. In November 2012, the US Embassy Public Affairs Section held a presentation where a collection of articles authored by former American Ambassador to Harare Charles Ray were translated to Shona. Titled ‘Kwaunoenda Ndiko Kwakanyanya Kukosha Kudarika Kwaunobva’ the collection was aimed at rubbishing the country war of liberation among other issues. Speaking at a sexual and reproductive health workshop hosted by the Southern Africa HIV and Aids Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) on Tuesday last week, Van Damme shamelessly said there was need to accept homosexuality, claiming that culture was dynamic. “We should actually conscientise people to accept these homosexuals and let them know that people have different sexualities,” said Van Damme. This is not the first time that an EU Ambassador has come out to openly support gays in the country. In August 2012, the EU pledged and gave legal support to the vilified Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) which the country’s police had charged with illegally operating. Detectives at the Law and Order Section at the Harare Central Police Station said GALZ, was running an unregistered organisation in contravention of Section 6 (iii) of the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Act.
“As a matter of fact we are giving legal support to the affected members of this organisation. The EU condemns in strongest terms the harassment and intimidation of all human rights defenders who are engaging in social or political rights,” Aldo Dell’Ariccia the then EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe told Radio VOP in Harare.
Over the past few years, Britain and America have been vocal about their support for gays with aid being used to sway African countries to accept the practice. In 2011, Britain and America hinted they would withdraw aid from countries which did not respect gay rights. On the first leg of his African tour in Senegal in June 2013, Obama made debasing comments after meeting Senegalese President, Macky Sall that African governments must give gay people what he said were ‘equal rights by decriminalising homosexuality’. Heartening is the fact that 38 African countries have laws against the practice of homosexuality. Here in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has made his views on homosexuality clear by describing them as ‘worse than pigs and dogs’. In Uganda, an anti-gay legislation is currently waiting to be passed once that country’s scientists, together with those from America have finished their studies on whether homosexuality is inborn or not. The US threatened Uganda’s anti-gay legislation would ‘complicate’ relations with USA which gives it more than US$400 million in aid annually. Uganda dismissed the threat as blackmail. “I therefore encourage the US government to help us by working with our scientists to study whether, indeed, there are people who are born homosexual,” Museveni wrote. “When that is proved, we can review this legislation.” However, he emphasised: “Africans do not seek to impose their views on anybody. “We do not want anybody to impose their views on us. “This very debate was provoked by Western groups who come to our schools and try to recruit children into homosexuality.” Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under the colonial-era penal code. On October 9 2014, Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh signed a bill into law that calls for life imprisonment for homosexual acts. In 2008 he instructed gay and lesbian people to ‘leave the country or risk decapitation’. With Ambassador Van Damme in action Zimbabwe is certainly in for a season of many naughty stunts.