Speaker, the answer is precisely in what the hon member said. Targeted sanctions were applied to the Zanu-PF government before the unity government came into being. There was then a process of negotiations which led to the Global Political Agreement. Once the Global Political Agreement was made, it meant that the government in Zimbabwe had changed. On the basis of the agreement, it was no longer a Zanu-PF government and was now a joint government between three parties.
I think that distinction is very important for us to hear. If you apply sanctions to a government of one party and you apply exactly the same sanctions to a government of unity, the situation has to change. We are using an instrument that was aimed at a government of one party.
The net effect of that, as President Mugabe has put it across - and I raised this issue even when I was in the UK - is that you have a government of unity that is expected to implement the agreement. However, half of it is functioning, can do everything and can go everywhere to ensure that it works; and half of it can't function and can't travel.
The targeted sanctions right now are dividing the unity government. That is the point. It therefore creates a problem for that unity to jell, to work together. This is the reason we don't need these sanctions now. Give this unity government a chance. It is not exactly the same as it was before. Why apply the same instrument to a new entity that you applied to a different entity? This is the debate that is being put across.
We need the sanctions to be lifted, so that there is a chance for all of us to help Zimbabweans solve their problems. It must function to its full capacity. At the moment the Zimbabweans say it isn't. That is the debate; that is the difference. [Applause.]