“Finance minister Mthuli Ncube is expected to travel to Washington next month and engage with US lawmakers to lift the sanctions imposed since 2001. But his trip is likely to be overshadowed by the concerns that the US has raised over the human rights situation in the country,” reported Zimeye.
“Ncube estimated that Zimbabwe has lost 80 lines of credit as a result of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act and the US-imposed sanctions.”
The Americans should ask Minister Ncube whether he believes last July’s elections were free, fair and credible. Ever since he joined Zanu PF in September last year Ncube has wanted to cast himself as an academic appointed to do a job and will do it. He is not a politician and therefore does not want to concern himself with political matters. This is a very foolish and myopic position because it is undeniable that Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess because of decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption which the economists and the people at large have failed to stop because the politicians would not allow change.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs and investors have shied away from the country because they know it is impossible to run a successful business operation in such a country. Minister Ncube said he would attract investors but has so far failed to do so. So the political environment is important for economic recovery.
The Americans has made their position very clear, they believe Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections, it is naïve for Minister Ncube to pretend otherwise. Frankly Minister Ncube is just wasting taxpayer’s money with all this globe-trotting when he cannot even admit the obvious – Zimbabwe is a pariah state!
Come to think of it; the Americans should just add Professor Ncube on the sanctions list. Why not he is doing more to prop up the Zanu PF dictatorship than Mnangagwa and ten other Zanu PF big wigs on the sanctions list combine!
Whilst still on the sanctions list, the West must slap other Zimbabweans like Minister Kirsty Coventry, the 24 individuals on Mnangagwa’s President Advisory Council, etc. They too know Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and yet continue to work with the illegitimate regime as if it did nothing wrong.
Members of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties must also be included on the sanctions list. By participating in the flawed and illegal election process they are giving the process some modicum of credibility.
All pressure must be brought to bear on the Zanu PF regime if it is going to be forced to step down to allow meaningful reforms to be implemented. The prospect of Zanu PF remaining in power till 2023 is unthinkable because there will be nothing to stop the regime rigging those elections too!
Plan A: Pile the pressure on Zanu PF, by maintaining the sanctions and economic isolation on party leaders and those propping the regime, to step down long before 2023 elections so we can appoint an interim administration to implement the reforms and guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
Plan B: To compliment plan A and if it should fail; add opposition members to the sanction list to stop them participating in flawed and illegal elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.
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MDC deputy national chairman Tendai Biti has likened the recent brutalisation of civilians by the security forces to the Rwanda genocide of 1994 which claimed 800,000 lives.
Even if the nation was save of another Gukurahundi genocide it has not been spared the tragic suffering and deaths we can see all round today. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown with employment soaring to 90%, basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapse, etc. has taken a heavy toll in human misery and deaths!
Zimbabweans must never ever forget that Zimbabwe’s tragic situation is a man-made one. It all started with Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs denying the people their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a free vote and even the right to life for selfish political gain. The country would have been save further suffering and deaths if Tendai Biti and his MDC friends had implemented the necessary reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
How ironic that Biti should now make a career of pontificating about the threat the Zanu PF dictatorship is posing to the nation when he was the one who wasted five years of the last GNU singing the praises of Mugabe and Zanu PF instead of dismantling the dictatorship.
“Mugabe is the unflappable father of the nation. Fountain of wisdom!” said Biti in 2012.
Today he is telling a different story. "We have a country but no nation; and the level of toxicity is equal to Rwanda in January 1994. I say January because in April there was genocide and we are likely moving in that direction.
”As a constitutional lawyer my opinion is that we gave too much power to executive president in Section 5 of the Constitutional amendment.”
The greatest favour people like Biti, Chamisa and the rest of the corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders can do for Zimbabwe is for them to just shut up! They are all fighting to be involved in the new GNU for the gravy train benefits, they will never implement the reforms to get Zimbabwe out of the mess! Never!
I do not think the Americans will ever ask Minister Mthuli Ncube, Minister Kirsty Coventry or any of all the other men and women sell-outs propping up the Zanu PF dictatorship if the last elections were free, fair and credible. It would be interesting to hear what they would say.
They will all to the last man and woman have to say the elections were free, fair and credible; after all they are working for the regime and accepted the appointment freely. From that blatant lie alone the Americans will have good reason to impose the sanctions.
Of course, individuals like Professor Ncube know that Zanu PF rigged the last elections and that the regime appointed them to help prop up the regime.
Professor Ncube, the self-righteous and pompous man that he is, will maintain he is doing the nation a great favour. What, even he cannot deny, is that Zanu PF's corrupt and tyrannical rule has not been a great favour to the nation. He cannot not deny that Zanu PF has denied the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country in the past, if not now too. He will have to agree that it was not right then.
He would also have to agree that even with his great talent and ability it is still possible that the country would not accomplish the economic recovery he expecting. Surely, the nation should have the right to reject him and Zanu PF. This is not possible given Zanu PF's total control of the public media, for example.
Of course, Professor Ncube took up the post of Minister of Finance to message his ego above all else. It is a great pity that some people have turned a blind eye to the suffering and even deaths of others in pursuit of their selfish interests.
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