The MDC (T) position on this issue has varied from, linking the sanctions question to the full implementation of the GPA, to the more nuanced position of lifting sanctions on those parastatals vital to economic recovery while maintaining the targeted measures against particular Zanu PF individuals,17 to a reported statement by the Prime Minister calling for the removal of sanctions.18 This ambiguous messaging around this issue caused problems even for MDC MP’s who complained about the need for the party to take a clear position on the sanctions question.19 The position of the opposition has not been helped by the lack of agreement, on yet another issue, between the two MDCs, with the MDC (M) calling early on for the removal of sanctions. The discussion around the issue became even more confusing with the intervention of the British Foreign Secretary in January 2010, seemingly linking the position of the British government to advice received from the MDC. David Miliband was reported to have stated in the House of Commons in January 2010: In respect of sanctions, we have made it clear that they can be lifted only in a calibrated way, as progress is made. I do not think it is right to say it is a choice between lifting all sanctions and lifting none at all. We have to calibrate our response to progress on the ground, and, above all, to be guided by what the MDC says to us about the conditions under which it is working and leading the country.20 Zanu PF immediately latched on to this statement as ‘proof” that the MDC-T was working in conjunction with the West to keep the sanctions in place and to hamper the progress of the GPA. In response Zanu PF used the statement to stonewall any further progress in the already problematic GPA declaring that: The Politburo therefore instructs its negotiators on the GPA to desist from making concessions in the negotiations until the sanctions are removed and pirate stations cease to pollute airways.21 The renewal of the sanctions against key individuals in Zanu PF, by both the EU and the US in March 2010, notwithstanding the removal of six individuals and nine companies from the targeted list, reinforced this option as the central Western policy tool against the abuses of the Mugabe regime. In his state visit to the UK in March 2010 the South African President Jacob Zuma made a further call for the removal of sanctions in a bid to keep the GPA alive. He called on the British Government and the EU to lift the sanctions and warned that “if the Zimbabwean issue is not moving forward, some people there could use the sanctions as an excuse for lack of                                                              17  International Crisis Group, Zimbabwe: Political and Security Challenges to the Transition, Africa Briefing No 70,  Harare/Pretoria/Brussels, 3 March 2010, p9.  18  Faith Zaba, “Sanctions: MDC‐T take Tsvangirai to task.”  www.theindependent.co.zw/local/26635=sanctions=mdc‐t‐mps‐take‐tsvangirai‐to‐task Accessed on 05/03/10.  19  Ibid.  20  Reason Wafawavora, “MDC‐T: Arostocray or democracy?” The Herald, 28/01/10.   21  Sydney Kawadza, “No more GPA concessions, says Zanu PF”. The Herald 28/01/10.  9