Efforts to remove sanctions failed

“Efforts by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Southern African Development Community executive secretary Dr. Stergomena Tax to have sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe lifted have failed to bear fruit after US President Donald Trump extended sanctions imposed on the southern African country by another year,” reported Fin24. 

“Earlier this year, Ramaphosa spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying Zimbabwe faces "serious, serious, economic challenges, and they can be assisted by the world if those sanctions are lifted”.

There is a mountain of evidence on the public domain proving that the two most important causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown in the past and present are:

1. Corruption: in 2016 the then Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, admitted Zimbabwe was “swindled out of $15 billion of diamond revenue”, after decades of denying corruption was a problem. No nation could sustain this level of economic hemorrhage much less prosper; especially a nation like Zimbabwe with a mere $10 billion GPD. 

2. Pariah state: Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. When Mnangagwa and his fellow November 2017 coup plotters seized power from Mugabe they went the extra mile to underline the regime was different from Mugabe’s regime using such terms as “new dispensation” and “second republic”. They even promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. Sadly, it was all empty rhetoric. Last July’s elections were flawed and illegal; 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement, Mnangagwa claims to have won 2.4 million votes which no one could trace and verify, etc. The result was therefore meaningless and void. Mnangagwa did not get the mandate to govern and the regime is per se illegitimate. By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Zanu PF confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. Mnangagwa undermined his own “Zimbabwe is open for business!” drive to attract investors because no investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has reached crisis point; unemployment has reached a nauseating 90% compared to SA’s 27% and 3/4 of the Zimbabwe population now live on US$30 per month which is less than 5% of the US$650 per month poverty datum line, basic service such as supply of clean water and health care, etc. The people of Zimbabwe need to find a solution to end the country’s economic crisis and political paralysis, they cannot afford to waste time on gimmicks and tomfoolery! 

The key to ending Zimbabwe’s political paralysis and economic meltdown is holding free, fair and credible elections and thus end the country’s curse of rigged elections and pariah state. The sanctions imposed by the western is putting the pressure on Zanu PF thugs to accept the need for meaningful democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for free and fair elections, and hence the reason the sanctions must remain.

Those who continue to argue that Zimbabwe can remain a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt and vote riggings thugs and still enjoy economic recovery if the sanctions are lifted live in cloud-cuckoo-land. What every thinking Zimbabwean find insulting is those pretending the Zimbabwe elections were free, fair and credible when the country failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. They want the western sanctions lifted so they can confirm Zimbabwe’s position as a pariah state, a banana republic!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka