“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 country 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 throughly 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.
No freedom loving Zimbabwean would ever want the 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!
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The UK would only support re-admission provided Zimbabwe meets the admission requirements, complying with the values and principles set out in the Commonwealth Charter. Disproportionate use of force by security forces is inconsistent with the Commonwealth Charter.
This Zanu PF dictatorship has done nothing to justify the regime being rewarded by being welcome back to re-join the Commonwealth. I will be a serious mistake to readmit the regime and one the organisation will live to regret!
Professor Mthuli Ncube has promised to attract investors back to Zimbabwe, he has failed to do so. He promised to get IMF, WB, Paris Club and other finance houses to start lending Zimbabwe money, that too has not happened. What he has refused to accept is that Zimbabwe cannot enjoy meaningful economic recovery whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Professor Ncube is denying that Zanu PF rigged last year's elections but he is only fooling himself!
“Economic hardships are impacting livelihoods and the food security situation for poor and other household groups across the country. Foreign currency shortages, the parallel market, multiple-pricing systems and high and speculative pricing will likely continue during the outlook period,” the group said.
According to the United Nations, a total of 5.3 million Zimbabweans will need food aid and it has started efforts to raise funds to bridge the deficit to avert a massive humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has for almost two decades now been struggling with hunger but last year government announced a surplus under a military assisted program known as Command Agriculture. The country’s agricultural sector was wrecked by government’s haphazard land redistribution exercise at the turn of the century resulting in widespread food shortages
This is a nightmare! The country is struggling to cope with all the man-made problems of decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and now add to it all this natural disaster. Lord have mercy!
ZIMBABWE has hired U.S. lobbyists linked to President Donald Trump’s 2016 election race in a bid to have sanctions it says are hindering its economy scrapped.
The southern African nation, where the economy has all but collapsed after a series of disputed elections, took on Ballard Partners Inc — run by Brian Ballard, a fundraiser for Trump’s campaign — according to Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe’s secretary for information. Trump renewed sanctions against a number of Zimbabwean individuals and politically connected companies this week.
So the regime is prepared to spend millions of dollars paying a PR so it can get away with denying its own citizens their basic freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life! How sick is that!
Those who are calling for sanctions to be lifted are like a child crying for something he/she has just seen on TV. It is pointless explaining to the child that what they saw was an image, there is nothing physically there. What is sad here is that we have adults who are failing to see the link between sanctions, free and fair elections and good governance. It is not rocket science but decades of explaining the link has had no effect, they still fail to see the link.
There was nothing, absolutely nothing, in the list of demands by the Americans to suggest they want anything else other than for Zanu PF to keep its promise to hold free, fair and credible elections. If there was anything objectionable or unfair in the list then ZAnu PF should have flagged it.
What Mnangagwa and his cronies are saying is that the sanctions must be lifted because they kept their promise. It is nonsense to claim the elections were free, fair and credible when 3 million were denied the vote, there was no verified voters' roll, etc., etc. This is a regime used to breaking its promises, breaking the law and riding roughshod over the ordinary people and getting away with it. The regime blatantly rig last year's elections and wants to get away with it by pretending the elections were free, fair and credible.
Those Zimbabweans and outsiders who want the sanctions lifted are either failing to see that Zanu PF did indeed rig last year's elections or accept the rigged elections as a fait accompli and want the sanctions lifted to appease Zanu PF in the hope the regime will have mercy on the long suffering people of Zimbabwe. The people are suffering because of 38 years of bad Zanu PF governance no good governance has ever come out of appeasing bad governance. After 38 years of appeasing Zanu PF, we should know that!
The sanctions are a pressure point on Zanu PF to accept meaningful democratic reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections. To lift the sanctions therefore is counter intuitive and NOT in the interest of good governance! The sanctions must stay and we thank the Americans for setting a good example on the matter.
@ Blessing Mugwagwa
“The sanctions are not for free and fair elections , but a threat to US foreign policy. A USA foreign policy is not a Zimbabweans' policy neither do the policy designers appointment is from Zimbabweans,” you say.
What are you saying? Are you saying Zimbabwe had free, fair and credible elections and the Americans know this and are maintaining the sanctions for whatever other reasons?
If that is what you are saying then you are lying, last July’s elections were not free, fair and credible.
Or are you saying, Zanu PF did indeed fail to hold free, fair and credible elections and the American are maintain the sanctions for that reason plus other selfish reasons?
If you admit that Zanu PF rigged the elections then, given Zimbabwe is in this mess because it has been stuck with this corrupt and vote rigging regime for 38 years, all legal actions, including sanctions, are justified in the drive to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
As for the targeted sanctions causing hardship on povo no one will ever dispute that. It is said that the beat of a butterfly’s wing in Japan may be the origin of a hurricane storm in North America. What is disappointing here is you ignoring the more obvious, immediate and overwhelming causes suffering and deaths of ordinary people in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was caused by decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. Zanu PF thugs are the ones behind the corrupt and the brutal oppression.
How ironic that you are foaming round the mouth against American foreign policy over which you have no influence but have said nothing against Zanu PF rigging elections over which you have power to change. You know the cutting down of trees is causing serious climate change resulting in more frequent and severe hurricane storms, do something to stop deforestation and not waste time looking for the butterfly in Japan!
@ Mudamburi
“This writer is so colonised he has to write this hogwash... As far as I know there are countries to the north south east west of this country that are more corrupt than Zimbabwe but are never sanctioned for that.. Even America itself us so corrupt. . Why... If it says we will only give you money when you do this or sponsors opposition saboteurs is that not corruption of the highest order... Mr writer if you still hold to the adage that it's targeted against the leaders then your problem is more complex and you can't really be helped... Everywhere it's been agreed .. Sanctions don't work at all.... It's a euphemism for saying we want to recolonize you,” you say.
There are Zimbabweans out there who have never had a regular job for 20 years or more, 3/4 of our people now live on US$30 per month or less when the poverty datum line is US$650 per month, etc. Do you really think they will find any comfort in you telling them “there are countries to the north south east west of this country that are more corrupt than Zimbabwe”?
The big issue here is were last year’s elections free, fair and credible? The answer is no they were not. The imposition of the sanctions against those who rigged the elections is the right decision.
One minute Mnangagwa says the elections were free, fair and credible and the next he says sanctions are hurting povo. The people know he rigged the elections and many people are waking up to the reality that he is also lying about the sanctions hurting povo. It is corruption that is causing the economic hardships and Zanu PF is the one behind the corruption.
Just as Mnangagwa did not keep his promise to hold free and fair elections he has also failed to keep his promise to end corruption!
@ Mechavio
“We know it all Wilbert.The rogue USA will not listen to anyone but itself, and that has always been the case.We all accept the truth that the USA and her NATO allies only removed "evil Gaddafi" from Libya, and that they did no harm to the Libyan populace.We know by the same token that you are telling us, together with your rogue and evil funder, the USA that the USA sanctions on Zimbabwe are affecting only a "few targeted leaders",not the generality of the Zimbabwean population.Yes Wilbert Mukori.We hear you loud and clear.”
You are accusing the Americans of not listening to the Libyan populace but was Gaddafi listening to his own people? Has Zanu PF ever listened to the ordinary Zimbabweans? Even you cannot deny that last year’s elections were NOT free, fair and credible.
Mnangagwa insist the elections were free, fair and credible but we all know he is lying. How can the elections be free and fair when 3 million Zimbabweans are denied the vote. He say he won with 2.4 million votes and yet has failed to produce a verified voters role so we can see who those voters were!
Mnangagwa is lying that the elections were free and fair just as he is lying that sanctions and not corruption and mismanagement are the true causes behind the country’s worsening economic meltdown.
“We hear you loud and clear!” Nonsense, Zanu PF leaders and their apologists have always ignored everyone else in pursuit of absolute power. The country’s worsening economic meltdown is the one reality the regime has ignored but cannot continue to ignore any more.
As the economic situation gets worse, it is getting a lot worse and the current drought has only made thing even worse, the people will cry even louder demanding change. No amount of brutal repression is going to force the people to suffer and die quietly like sheep in a slaughter house! Their cries will be heard and regime change will come!
@ Mechavio
We know it all Nomusa Garikai.The rogue USA will not listen to anyone but itself, and that has always been the case.We all accept the "truth" that the USA and her NATO allies only removed "evil Gaddafi" from Libya, and that they did no harm to the Libyan populace.We know by the same token that you are telling us, together with your rogue and evil funder, the USA that the USA sanctions on Zimbabwe are affecting only a "few targeted leaders",not the generality of the Zimbabwean population.Yes Nomusa Garikai.We hear you loud and clear.
We know very well too, Nomusa, that USA and her NATO allies only removed Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. They did not at all affect the generality of the Iraq population.
We know too, Nomusa, that we are too very inferior and incapable of knowing the truth, we ca only be told the truth and the facts by USA and you and Wilbert Mukori.
We know very well too, that we are too inferior to feel the pain and suffering of American sanctions, so we have to accept what mighty America (with massive military presence in nearly every country in the world) tell us: that we are not suffering at all from their sweet targeted sanctions.
But we very well know too, that when it comes to paying people to wreck havoc on their own kind, Americans always go for broke, and that is maybe, just maybe, why your type probably enjoy seeing our endless suffering, because it pays, and pays BIG time.
Meanwhile, enjoy your bloody money, while we enjoy your paymasters sanctions….
Well for someone who know so much why is it that you do not know that mismanagement and corruption are the big cancers that are killing the Zimbabwe economy?
Why is it that you do not know that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections? You know 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, you know ZEC failed to release a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement, etc.
You certainly know a lot but like all corrupt and ruthless thugs you have no respect of the truth, facts and reality. You disregard everything that does not advance your selfish agenda and replace facts with lies and damn lies.
The reality is that Zanu PF is a party of corrupt and vote rigging thugs who have completely destroyed the country’s economy and have ridden roughshod over the people’s freedoms, rights and dreams. After 38 years of misrule the regime the consequences of its misrule are now everywhere and the pressure for the regime to go is increasing by the day. Zanu PF’s days in power are numbered!
Zanu PF rigged last year's elections and the regime's first act after that was to use wanton violence to make sure the people who protested the rigged elections were punished and a clear message was send that the regime will not tolerate any dissent.
Zimbabwe's worsening economic situation is a result of the rigged elections because by rigging the elections Zanu PF confirmed that the country was still ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. No investor would want to do business in a pariah state. Zanu PF is once again trying to take the heat off brought on by the worsening economic situation because Zimbabwe is a pariah state by pretending the elections were free and fair and it is the sanctions to blame for the economic hardships.
It is heartening that there are many people who now see the link between rigged elections and worsening economic situation and they are demanding that Zanu PF must step down. Gone are the days when Zanu PF rigged elections and got away with it, the regime must not be allowed to do so this time!
It a great disappointment that instead of focus on demanding that Zanu PF steps down the nation is being confused by MDC Alliance's nonsensical call for b inter-party political dialogue. Zanu PF is illegitimate, how will the inter-party dialogue pan-out and change this political reality especially with Zanu PF playing the pivotal role in the said dialogue. It is disheartening that at the time when the nation need a clear decision Chamisa and company are mudding the waters to Zanu PF's advantage.
Chamisa accepts the ZEC result of the parliamentary race but reject those of the presidential race when the same glaring flaws and illegalities apply to the two races. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters' roll and failed to release some of the V11 forms giving the summary of vote count at ach polling stations although these are legal requirements. So the vote tally of each candidate in both the presidential race and parliamentary race could not be verified and traced. MDC rightly reject the ZEC result of the presidential race but why they accept ZEC's result of the parliamentary races beggars belief!
It should be remember that by participating in last year's flawed and illegal elections, the opposition gave the process some modicum of credibilty. It is had not been for all the international election observers who had condemned the elections as a farce Zanu PF would have got away with the rigged elections.
Whilst the international community would happily support the demand for Zanu PF to step down on the grounds the regime has no democratic mandate because the elections were not free, fair and credible. No one in their right mind will ever support the MDC Alliance's confused position of accepting the parliamentary result as free, fair and credible and reject the ZEC's result declaring Mnangagwa the winner but accept Chamisa's own result making him the winner of the presidential race or be it no one has ever verified or traced his figures!
It is disappointing that the nation is stuck in this confused position for the last eight months already. Nothing is never simple and straight forward when one is dealing with corrupt and incompetent village idiots such as Nelson Chamisa! Nothing!
The Americans went to great length to explain that if Zanu PF held free, fair and credible elections they would lift the sanctions. Anyone who is anybody who observed the last elections has said Zanu PF rigged the elections. Mnangagwa had himself promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and so he failed to keep his promise. So if the elections were not free, fair and credible then the Americans are right not to lift the sanctions.
Zanu PF has said the elections were free, fair and credible but evidence on the ground clearly says the opposite. We should in fact take Zanu PF to task on first of all rigging the elections and then secondly insulting our intelligence by denying that they rigged the elections.
The next question to be settled is are free, fair and credible elections important to the nation? If so, how important are they?
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 38 years and counting. Although the nation has known since the late 1990s that Zanu PF was a corrupt and murderous dictatorship the people have failed to remove the regime from office because Zanu PF rigged the elections. So it was the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections that landed us in this mess and, more significantly, unless we end the curse of rigged elections, we are not getting out of the mess.
The sanctions are one way of piling the pressure on Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections; sanctions are one way of trying to end the curse of rigged elections and getting us out of the economic and political mess we have been stuck in these last 38 years. That surely is a good thing!
Zanu PF and its apologists; the same individuals who are insulting us insisting the rigged elections were free, fair and credible; are telling us that sanctions are hurting the ordinary Zimbabweans and hindering the country's economic recovery. They have failed to say how and to put any monetary figures on any of their claims.
We know decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have been the root causes of the country's economic meltdown. From Mugabe's own admission we know the country lost $15 billion in diamond revenue alone in the period 2010 to 2014. Zimbabwe with a GPD of $10 billion cannot afford such a massive haemorrhage. So if sanctions can force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections and end the corruption and the haemorrhage that has to be a good thing.
Whatever these mythical hardship the sanctions are bringing the benefit in ending corruption, mismanagement and tyrannical rule are worth it!
Human Rights Watch report on the 17 killed during the January 2019 nationwide crackdown by the Zanu PF regime.
In the face of all this evidence of brutal repression it beggars belief that the EU in its infinite wisdom has decided to lift sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF regime. There is no doubt that the EU is now concerned about joining other nations like China, Russia, Israel, India, etc. in the looting of Zimbabwe's resources regardless of how much suffering this Zanu PF regime is bringing to the people.
Shame on the EU!
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared that his country will support Zimbabwe's economic growth and reform efforts and the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by West should be lifted to allow unhindered recovery.
When it comes to lifting the sanctions imposed by the West, President Ramaphosa is powerless to do anything about it. He can bark all he wants the sanctions are they to stay.
As for supporting Zimbabwe’s economic growth and reform efforts, he has been doing so for the last one and half years, if not more, and we are yet to see the recovery! As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
The sanctions are one way of piling the pressure on Mnangagwa to hold free, fair and credible elections. We are not going to waste our time telling President Ramaphosa that last July’s elections in Zimbabwe were rigged, he knows the elections were rigged. We are fighting for free and fair elections and we find his insistence that the elections were free and fair insulting, to say the least.
Thank God, there are other world leaders out there with the common sense to say rigged elections were rigged and to backup their position by imposing sanctions. It is a crying shame that anyone would so stupid as to insist an election in which the relevant authorities failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll was free, fair and credible! The whole of Africa is hanging their heads in shame that this should be happening on our continent worse still that we have leaders stupid enough to turn a blind eye to such foolishness!
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