"Sanctions hurt the poor" argue Shumba - nonsense, they pressure illegitimate ED to go. Bring them on! N Garikai

Tafara Shumba, you are either a Zanu PF apologist or one of those the regime has brainwashed so thoroughly and completely you are now braindead.

“The newly appointed United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Brian Nicholas had an interesting interview with one of the pirate radio stations, Voice of America, wherein he was very economic with the truth regarding the effects of the sanctions which his country unilaterally imposed on Zimbabwe,” you wrote in Bulawayo 24.

“The reporter, Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye solicited the ambassador's comment on the belief held by many people in Zimbabwe that the sanctions hurt the ordinary person on the street, not the ones that are on the target list. The ambassador attempted to dodge the question, giving the old and trite narrative that the sanctions are targeted at 154 individuals and entities.

"Well, Zimbabwe has an opportunity for growth, and the sanctions really do affect specific individuals," responded the ambassador. The people who lost livelihood and relatives through sanctions related circumstances will not take this response lightly.”

To start with America is a sovereign nation and it has every right to decide which nation it will do business with and under terms and conditions. So all this talk of USA “unilaterally” imposing sanction on Zimbabwe is just nonsense. Who else was America supposed to consult on the matter? Robert Gabriel Mugabe!!!

Zimbabwe is a divided nation with the few filthy rich ruling elite, who have enjoyed absolute power and the influence and wealth it bring, on one side and the political emasculated and filthy poor majority on the other. What has made the ruling elite rich is what has made povo poor.

It is no secret that Zimbabwe has become one of the most corruption nation on earth. Look at the ruling elite, the all have farms, business empires, live in mansions, have a fleet of posh cars, etc., etc. And their all have very expensive lifestyles than even Holy Wood movie stars cannot afford. One does not need to have a university degree, just common sense, to know that all the resource and wealth diverted to pay the filthy is being taken away from someone else – the masses!

In 2016 President Mugabe admitted that the nation had lost $15 billions of diamond revenue to swindlers! How many nations in this world can sustain, much less still thrive and prosper, that level of fiscal haemorrhage. Given  Zimbabwe’s GDP is a meagre $10 billion it is no surprise that the country’s economy has been in total meltdown.

On the other hand, if one was to followed up on your argument that it is the sanctions have made the poor, poor; then one must also examine the flip side, that the sanctions have made the rich, rich. There is not a shred of evidence to show sanctions made the rich, rich. There is circumstantial evidence that the sanctions have been an inconvenience to the rich at worst and similarly to the poor.

The real reason Zimbabwe’s ruling elite have been up in arms against the sanctions if that they were being pressured to give up their absolute political power and control. The Americans throw Mnangagwa the gauntlet, you hold free, fair and credible elections and we will lift the sanctions? Even the brainwashed like you, Shumba, cannot deny that the 30 July 2018 elections were rigged.

So the poor are poor not only because the rich are corrupt and have been wasted the nation’s vast wealth and resources feeding their insatiable appetites but, more significantly, because the poor have been powerless to remove the corrupt ruling elite from power. The sanction are a pressure point on the corrupt ruling elite to stop rigging the elections and give the long suffering povo a meaningful say in how the nation is governed and its resources shared out amongst everyone.

Of course the poor and emasculated masses welcome the sanctions! Bring them on! Bring them on!

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged the recent elections to extend the regime’s 38 years in power and counting. Now that the regime is back in power we are in for another five years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. And if the regime is still in office by 2023, we can be 100% certain Zanu PF will rig the elections again and thus start yet another five year cycle of misrule.

The greatest challenge of our generation is to put an end to this curse of rigged elections; after 38 years of this madness and with the nation’s economy in ruins; enough is enough! This Zanu PF regime rigged the elections and is, per se, illegitimate and everything, absolutely everything, must be done to deny the regime the support and pressure it to step down. Zanu PF must not be allowed to stay in office till 2023 because they will rig those elections too! That must not be allowed to happen!