“The U.S. does not maintain comprehensive sanctions against Zimbabwe. Suggestions that the U.S. intends to harm the Zimbabwean people with sanctions are false and misleading,” explained the US Embassy in twitter.
“2/3 #Truth: U.S. targeted sanctions list: 84 individuals and 56 entities. People of Zimbabwe: 16 million +. Sanctions do not target the people of Zimbabwe. #FACTS"
The Americans have given detailed explanation, the truth and the facts on countless occasions and yet there is still the need them to do so again now, tomorrow, next month, etc. Why?
Well, because Zimbabwe is one of those countries where there is no freedom of expression and no free media. The Zanu PF dictatorship has stifled all meaningful public discourse and the regime’s controlled public media has overwhelmed the nation with half-truths, lies and damned lies. The majority of our people have been thoroughly brainwashed, most are now incapable of soaking up any ideas much less think for themselves.
38 years of Zanu PF brainwashing has deprived most of our people of any intellectual depth it is hard to have any meaningful discussion with them. You can give them all the detailed explanations, the facts and the figures but most of it does not sink in because there is depth. Where there is a thin crust of soil, even a light shower is enough to soak the soil and have a run-off. And yet a few hour latter the plants on the same patch will be wilting.
The need to understand the linkage between the western imposed sanctions and holding of free, fair and credible elections is vital; especially after the Americans’ detailed explanation of what Mnangagwa needed to do for the sanctions to be lifted. Anyone who understand the linkage will have no problem understanding that the sanctions are for the greater good in the push for free, fair and credible elections and good governance. Those who do not understand the linkage are like one trying to understand the genius of William Shakespeare by listening to a audio of his works in a language they do not understand.
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic mess and political paralysis is the country's failure to remove Zanu PF from office even when it was clear as day the party was corrupt and incompetent. Ever since the day Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party got into power in 1980 the regime has worked tirelessly to undermine the country’s multi-party democratic constitution and institutions to create the de facto one-party dictatorship we have to this day. With its dictatorial power the regime has become arrogant, confident the people were powerless to remove the party from office regardless how incompetent, corrupt and oppressive the party happened to be.
38 years of absolute power has allowed Zanu PF mismanagement and corruption to grow and spread to become the cancerous killer they are today. Zimbabwe’s once promising economy has long been destroyed a country once upon a time the breadbasket of the region now is totally dependent on food aid, it commerce and industries have closed sending unemployment soaring into 90%, country’s basic services such as supply of clean running water and health care have all but collapse, etc.
As long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy its dictatorial powers including carte blanche powers to rig elections the country will remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt thugs with no hope of ending the misrule and thus no hope of any meaningful economic recovery. By the late 1990s it was clear to many Zimbabweans that the only way to stop the country’s economic decline was by stopping Zanu PF rigging elections hence the call for democratic change.
The Americans went to a great deal of trouble to explain to Mnangagwa that if he kept his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018 they would lift the sanctions. They even explained to him what they would want him to do; make sure every Zimbabwean entitled to a vote was given a chance to register and to vote, make sure there was a free public media, the election process was transparent, etc.
The link between sanctions and free, fair and credible elections and good governance is as clear as the tree trunk is the link between the roots and the leaves! Those who have struggle to see the linkage, there are many who have, is because they have been throughly brainwashed by Zanu PF propaganda, they do not know their left hand from right and hence are given to promoting Zanu PF’s selfish interest at the expense of their own!
Mnangagwa and his cronies calling for the lifting of the sanctions will go to great lengths not to acknowledge the link between sanctions and the holding of free and fair elections. When put on the spot, they have maintained last year’s elections were indeed free, fair and credible. Of course, they are lying and our task is to remind then that last year’s elections were NOT free, fair and credible and hence the reason the sanctions must remain - to force the regime to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Zimbabwe’s worsen economic meltdown is a product of the two cancers of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions on the one hand and the country’s failure to attract the much need investment on the other hand. Investors have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe for the last two decades, ever since it was clear Zimbabwe was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. By blatantly rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa has confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state contrary to his claim otherwise.
The targeted sanctions and the worsening economic situation are the two forces acting in a pincer movement that will force Mnangagwa and his regime to accept meaningful democratic change and the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
targeted sanction against Zanu PF leaders lifted until there is democratic change. It is a great pity that some many Zimbabweans have been brainwashed by Zanu PF, one has to explain to them the true purpose of the sanctions a thousand times!
By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka
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