Mugabe accuses the British and Americans of harassment by refusing
to lift the targeted sanctions against him and his inner circle.
"We have not done anything to their companies here, the British
have several companies in this country, and we have not imposed any controls,
any sanctions against them, but time will come when we will say well,
tit-for-tat, you hit me I hit you," said Mugabe.
Whatever imagined inconveniences Mugabe and his cronies are
suffering it is nothing compared to the misery 33 years of gross mismanagement,
rampant corruption and an all-out looting spree by Mugabe and his cronies have
brought upon the people of Zimbabwe. Unemployment, to give but one example of
the consequences of the mismanagement, etc., has soared to nauseating heights
of 80% plus by 2005. It has stubbornly remained there ever since.
In a normal democracy mismanagement, corruption and looting are never
allowed to run riot as happened in Zimbabwe because a health democratic process
will keep these in check and a failed regime is removed from power come
elections. Zimbabwe is NOT a normal and health democracy.
Ever since Mugabe got into power in 1980, he has stifled all
democratic debate to create a de facto one-party dictatorship. He is yet to
hold free, fair and democratic elections. It was for this reason that the West
imposed targeted sanctions against him and his inner circle.
There is overwhelming evidence that he, once again, rigged the 31
July 2013 elections. The rigging was so blatant that even though one million
voters were denied the right to vote out of three million total cast votes,
i.e. 25% of total, still 27 constituencies had 70% voter turnout. Indeed one of
them, Chipinge East, even had 141% voter turnout. An impossible outcome; unless
some people voted two or three times; which is exactly what happened.
Pictures of voters being bussed in to vote were beamed on the TV
news for the whole world to see. Some bussed in voters were abandoned after
they had voted and lived at the Bus Stop for a week in Masvingo showing they were
not resident there. There were no Police investigations in any of these cases.
The Police arrested and detained MDC Official, Komichi, for
handing over a valid ballot paper someone had found thrown away in which the
voter had voted for Tsvangirai.
The political bias and arrogance of the Police is insufferable!
The West was disappointed by MDC’s failure to get the democratic reforms
implemented and were therefore willing to give up all hope Zimbabwe would be
anything other than a muddle blundering along. Still they did not expect Mugabe
to rig the elections so blatantly. The West could not turn a blind eye to that,
not without shame. The West had no choice but to maintain the targeted
sanctions against Mugabe!
Mugabe can hit back by taking over the few British and American
owned companies; he was threatening to do so already anyway with his black
ownership policies. The consequences of this new wave of looting will sink the
country’s economy deeper into trouble. No doubt he will blame the West for all additional
hardships the people will face!
The truth is 90% of the suffering the people have faced these last
decade is because the economic incompetence and corruption of the Mugabe regime.
The targeted sanctions have made a tiny contribution to that suffering, if any
at all. And the only hope of ever ending this suffering is by implementing the
democratic reforms called for in the GPA! There is no other way out!
The West must seat down and laser focus the targeted sanctions so
that they included all those propping up Mugabe and that the sanctions hit
their targets and hurt!
Mugabe’s continued presence is hurting the good people of Zimbabwe
and is destabilizing the whole SADC region! Enough is enough!
1 comment:
@ Mhofeti
Ask yourself; who telling the people sanctions will hurt
them more than they will hurt Mugabe and his cronies? Mugabe and his cronies!
The same sewer rat who rigged the elections and denied them this basic and critical right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. And the tyrant and his acolytes are now flatly denying they rigged the elections.
The people KNOW Mugabe is lying about not rigging the elections; they know he will be lying too about the sanctions hurting them.
The people have been bombarded with Zanu PF propaganda for decades that the West's sanctions are the root cause of the country's economic melt-down. But they can also see with their own eyes how the regime has taken over the productive farms and turn them into wastelands.
They know this is the root cause of the dramatic fall in the country’s fortunes from a net exporter of food to the now yearly chronic food shortages.
They have also seen with their own eyes how Zanu PF has been spending money throughout these elections as if there is no tomorrow, money looted from Marange diamonds fields, whilst the schools and hospitals are barely functioning due to poor funding.
They know the regime is lying to them about the cause of the economic meltdown and similarly lying about the sanctions hurting them.
Zanu PF’s argument that the sanction must be removed because they hurt the people is very hollow. Since when has the Zanu PF dictatorship ever cared about the wellbeing of the ordinary people? If it did then the nation would not be in this mess!
Clearly the people do not understand the intricate details of democratic reforms but they do understand the gist of the reforms, and will do so even better if someone had bothered to explain it.
The people also understand that without the reforms every little will ever be accomplished. The essence of the targeted sanctions is to pressure Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept meaningful democratic changes! The imposition of the sanction by the West therefore can only be for their benefit and nothing else.
The only pressure now on Mugabe to accept meaningful reforms is from the imposed sanctions and it is imperative that the people should accept the sanctions if the nation if ever going to get out of this mess!
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