The Americans continue to exert pressure on SADC leaders to abandon the foolish notion that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is caused by the sanctions.
”Zidera and targeted sanctions are different. Zidera aims at restricting debt relief and voting at international financial institutions and provides a roadmap for engagement," Cloud said.
"It is important to note, however, that the US has never invoked Zidera because Zimbabwe does not qualify for new lending consideration because it failed to do necessary economic and political reforms that would allow financial institutions to consider it for debt relief and new lending."
He also told Tax that Zimbabwe was suffering from corruption, mismanagement and looting of government resources, more than the effects of the sanctions.
"Ambassador Cloud and Dr Tax discussed how failed economic policies and corruption have created the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe, it's not sanctions," said US Embassy statement, following USA Ambassador to Botswana’s meeting with SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax.
Dr Tax, no doubt fearful of her SADC Head of State bosses, was quick to denounce the statement as false.
"This was not part of what was discussed. Might be the position of the embassy, but definitely not Sadc's position," the SADC Secretariat counter blasted.
"Dr Tax reiterated Sadc's call for the immediate removal of sanctions on #Zimbabwe and the need to further engage on reforms that will see a recovery of country's economy.”
At the heart of the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is the repeated failure by Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections, the essence of good governance. It is not that SADC leaders themselves dispute this fundament political reality that Zanu PF has been rigging elections because the regional body rejected the 2008 elections results because of Zanu PF’s blatantly cheating and use of wanton violence.
SADC forced Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement agreeing on the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop the cheating and wanton violence. The 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement the reforms. Sadly, not even one reform was implemented in the five years. Not one!
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed until the reforms are implemented. Dr Ibbo Mandaza, who attended the SADC summit in Maputo in June 2013 confirmed this.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit,” Dr Mandaza explained in an interview with Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!’”
Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not listen to the warning and participated in the 2013 elections with no reforms in place. Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections, as SADC leaders had rightly predicted.
The July 2018 elections were too held with no reforms in place and, again, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA said the July 2018 elections “went well!” Only he can explain what he meant by that pithy and patronising remark when ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!
SADC leaders must not be allowed to get away with the lie that Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible; that is number one.
Number two, they must not be allowed to get away with the suggestion that resolving the issue of sanctions is more important than resolving the issued of rigged elections.
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU the Zimbabwe economy, buoyed by the prospect of the reforms being implemented and thus and end to country’s pariah state curse, register as much as 12% economic growth in 2009, up from - 6% the year before. The recovery occurred regardless of the sanctions which had remained in place throughout the GNU. Proof, if any was required, that restoring good governance will end the country’s economic and political crisis regardless of whether the sanctions are lifted or not.
Instead of holding firm in demanding reforms before elections and the subsequent rigged elections, SADC leaders are now, not only, endorsing illegal elections but aiding and abetting Zanu PF’s propaganda of falsely blaming sanctions for all the country’s ill!
There is overwhelming evidence that the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is a result of four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical rule by this Zanu PF government. The economic and humanitarian consequences of the misrule have been widespread and tragic for the people of Zimbabwe and the whole SADC region.
It is most dishearten that SADC leaders should, by mudding the issue of rigged elections with side issues like sanctions, stopping the search for good governance and stability in Zimbabwe. Shame on you!
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Mbeki visited Zimbabwe towards the end of 2019 and held talks with Mnangagwa, Chamisa and other political players in what sources said was an effort to bring especially Zanu-PF and MDC Alliance to the negotiating table.
"We have even emphasised that it is more urgent now than ever before because the situation in the country is taking a nose dive and things are going south in many ways," said Chamisa.
"As we speak, right now people's salaries are being eroded, we don't have electricity, the situation has gone out of hand with unemployment hitting almost 98 percent, the young people, the most industrious, Zimbabwe and who are hardworking are lacking in everything on issues of survival.”
This is insanity!
In 2008 Mbeki helped MDC and Zanu PF meet and agree to form the GNU, however they failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Chamisa wants the two parties to meet and form another GNU or be it calling a National Transition Authority (NTA). NTA is a watered down version of the 2008 GNU and will not get any meaningful reforms implemented, guaranteed.
After 40 years of rigged elections we are heading for yet another rigged elections, hoping against hope for a different result!
Yes, Zanu PF stole the July 2018 elections. What is more, MDC knew that without the democratic reforms, Zanu PF was going to rig the elections and yet Chamisa and company still participated in those elections. The participated because MDC and the rest in the opposition camp knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait to those who participated in the flawed elections. It is therefore sheer hypocrisy on Chamisa and the MDC's part to now complain of Zanu PF stealing the elections as if they did not know that is exactly what was going to happen!
Let us not forget that MDC failed to implement any meaningful reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Ever since the MDC have participating in the flawed elections giving the process some modicum of credibility!
Like it or not MDC stopped pursuing the common agenda of bring about democratic changes in 2008, assuming they did until then, and acceptance of this political reality is essential if we are ever going to get out of this hell-hole!
THE United States of America (USA) has reiterated that Zimbabwe's problems are man-made and require President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to correct them by implementing all needed reforms and ending executive corruption.
In addition President Donald Trump's administration has also pooh-poohed recurring claims by Harare and some Sadc leaders that Western sanctions are behind Zimbabwe's deepening economic rot.
I say amen to that!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is corruption. ZACC admitted only last week that the country has been losing US$2 billion a year through corruption. In the ongoing divorce case of VP Chiwenga he has admitted that one of six posh cars his wife is demand was bought for him using “command agriculture funds”.
In all the years of Zanu PF moaning about sanctions as the root cause of the country’s economic ills, no one has ever shown how sanctions are cause US$20 million loss, just 1% of that lost through corruption. So why has the country done to town, collared SADC leaders to join, over a 1% leak but completely ignored the 100% leak!
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime. The people have failed to remove it from office because it rigged elections.
Stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections is the key to getting out of this hell-on-earth and sanctions are one of the ways of forcing Zanu PF to accept reforms and ending the curse of rigged elections. Hence the reason the sanctions must not be lifted!
Ambassador Cloud met Dr Tax at the regional body's headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana yesterday and the US embassy in Botswana later tweeted: "Ambassador Cloud and @DrTax also discussed how failed economic policies and corruption have created the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe. #ItsNotSanctions.”
It is, nonetheless the truth and reality on the ground - Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is a result of failed economic policies, corruption and gross mismanagement and NOT sanctions.
ZACC chairperson, the wife of Foreign Affairs Minister, Sibusiso Moyo, admitted only last week that the country was losing US$2 billion a year through corruption. The actual figure is much bigger than that! In the ongoing divorce case of VP Chiwenga, for example, he has admitted that one of six posh cars his wife is demand was bought for him using “command agriculture funds”. Still let us work with the US$2 billion.
In all the years of Zanu PF blaming sanctions for all the nation’s economic ill the regime has failed to show how the country had suffered US$2 million loss due to sanctions. So we have a regime that has made a big song and dance about loss whilst ignoring a loss 1 000 times as big!
The real shame here is that SADC leaders were foolish enough to be sucked into this Zanu PF sanctions propaganda scandal!
The average person needed at least US$1.61 per day in order not to be deemed poor in December while an average family of five would require US$8.06 per day in an income of $4 188.42. The internal poverty line (World Bank) stands at US$1.90 per day while standard for middle income countries is at US$3.20 and US$5.50 for upper middle income countries.
According to Zimstat, The TCPL for an average of five persons stood at $4, 188.42 in December 2019. This represents an increase of 14.5% when compared to the November 2019 figure of $3, 656.48 and is in line with the slow-down in the monthly inflation. It is however estimated that at least 65% of Zimbabwean households have per capita consumption expenditures below the PDL and are vulnerable to multi-dimensional poverty. This comes as households livelihoods have been severely impacted by stagnant wage levels against rising inflation and a general slowdown of economic activity.
I would take any figures produced by Zimstat with a truck load of salt!
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has identified the diaspora vote as a key reform which he wants implemented before any future election.
Chamisa says millions of Zimbabweans abroad should be given a vote.
The diaspora vote is part of a cocktail of reforms the MDC is pushing for in a draft amendment of the Electoral Act, which the party hopes to table for debate soon.
The MDC will also demand a complete reconfiguration of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is accused of being partisan and running elections in an opaque manner.
Chamisa used his ‘Agenda 2020' address to the nation on January 21 to flag the diaspora vote as one of his red line reform items on which they will not compromise.
"We are going to launch our alternative electoral bill detailing the reforms Zimbabweans are demanding. This bill is ready and has already been finalised by our elections department," Chamisa told supporters in Mbare.
MDC was aware of the need for these and many other reforms as agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) to be implemented before elections. Not even one of these reforms saw the light of day.
SADC leaders, as the guarantor of the GPA advised MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. Their advice was ignored!
So one has to ask what has happened since to finally convince Chamisa that the reforms are now necessary?
More significantly, what hope is there that these reforms will be implemented this time around; given the National Transition Authority MDC is calling for is a watered down version of the 2008 GNU and Zanu PF holds all the tramp cards?
MDC leaders love making grand gestures, drawing red line which they will then ignore. The people of Zimbabwe will be very foolish indeed to believe that MDC will get the democratic reforms implemented and finally deliver free, fair and credible elections.
The people must demand that the vote rigging and thus illegitimate Zanu PF regime must step down so that an interim administration is tasked to implement the reforms. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders cannot be appointed into this administration; they were in the 2008 GNU that failed to get even one reform implemented. This is the only sure hope of delivering free, fair and credible elections.
Trump Impeachment.
The tragedy in Zimbabwe is that those in power have eroded the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and eroded the democratic powers and independence of the state institutions such like judiciary, ZEC and the Police.
Impeaching the President in Zimbabwe is a nonsense since those tasked to impeach him, the MPs and senators, are not democratically accountable to the ordinary people since their vote has been usurped. The MPs and senators are accountable to the president who controls the party’s vote rigging machinery.
The only reason the threat to impeach Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup was a viable reality was because by then Mugabe had already lost control of the one state institution that wielded all the power - the Army. The MPs were going to impeach Mugabe because they were told to do it.
The judiciary judged the coup “constitutional, justified and lawful” because Justice George Chiweshe was instructed to do so by the same coup plotters.
When Mugabe was forced to agree to the raft of democratic reforms by SADC following the disputed 2008 elections, the country had its best opportunity ever to implement the reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and create a democratic system of government. Sadly Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends took their eyes off the ball.
Zanu PF will never give up its dictatorial powers and as long as it remains in power will see to it that no reforms are implemented. We must force the party to step down on the grounds that it does not have the mandate to govern since it rigged the last elections.
Zanu PF must step down to allow the political space for the appointment of an independent administration tasked to implement the reforms.
@ Susan Mbombela
WHAT SURPRISE ME MOST,IF NOT ANGERING, IS THAT WE HAVE ZIMBABWEANS WHO STILL SUPPORT THESE ACTIONS OF USA AGAINST THEIR OWN COUNTRY.
THERE ARE REFORMS COMPLAINTS OF COZ BUT BEING SO OBSESSED WITH THEM SOUNDS SO INSANE THAT SOME PEOPLE NOW FORGET THAT THERE IS LIFE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF.....These sanctions will simply affect those whose rights are said to be infringed while the said targeted individuals still enjoy their elite lives......SOME PEOPLE SEEMS TO BE AGENTS OF DESTRUCTION WELL REMUNERATED.
What every thinking Zimbabwean, indeed human being with an iota of common sense, find shocking is that anyone with even half a brain would champion the sanctions issue and ignore corruption and, worst of all, champion sanctions and aid and abet those responsible for rigging elections and perpetuating the pariah state.
If you want to see who is insane, just look in the mirror. You are the one who is insane. Yours is the world of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, are fictional characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's fictional characters in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. The two are village idiots in every sense of the phrase who are incapable of see anything except the trivial, will make a mountain out of a molehill and will fight over nothing at the drop of the hat.
Even if sanctions were the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; why are you infuriated with fellow Zimbabweans who happen to hold a different opinion as if they are the ones who imposed the sanctions. Save your anger for the Americans and EU who imposed the sanctions.
Why should the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans out there be denied their basic freedoms and rights included the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life because Zanu PF leaders have a quarrel with the Americans. You do not beat your wife and children because assaulted you at the shops!
It is bad enough that we should have the great misfortune of having corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs like Mugabe, now Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies as leaders. They got into power in 1980 and ever since they have ridden roughshod over the people’s rights, hopes and dreams to gratify their insatiable greed for power and wealth.
Worse still, we have millions of village idiots like you, Susan Mbombela, who have supported the tyrants because you are too stupid to see beyond the tip of your nose. You are too stupid to see the Zanu PF dictatorship is not in your interest or that of the nation even now with the nation on the edge of the abyss after 40 years of Zanu PF misrule!
The only way Zimbabwe is ever going to get out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us in is by implemented the democratic reforms and dismantle the dictatorship. Nothing of substance can ever be accomplished until we cure ourselves of the vote rigging and pariah state curse. Nothing!
You cannot see the critical importance of reforms because you are a village idiot doomed to only see the trial matters. I can see the importance of reforms as clear as day.
The bandwagon demanding reforms is growing by the day and will soon be unstoppable! Real democratic change is coming and there is nothing Zanu PF and village idiots like you can do to stop that change. WATCH OUT!
@ Susan Mbombela
SANCTIONS THEMSELVES HAVE NO BENEFIT TO PEOPLE'S LIVES - THEY ARE OF BENEFIT TO POLITICIANS IN PURSUING SOME ELECTION REFORMS, WHILE DEVASTATING PEOPLE'S LIVES........REFORMS SHOULD BE PURSUED BY U.N. NOT ANOTHER SOVEREIGN COUNTRY WHOSE INTERESTS ARE KNOWN TO BE HIDDEN ,ECONOMIC, RACIST AND SELFISH.
Who should be pursuing the issue of corruption and rigged elections?
Who should be pursuing those who are corrupt and rig elections and are blaming sanctions for all the nation's ills just to draw attention away from the corruption and rigged elections?
How does the ordinary villager in the rural back water fight for his/her right when he/she has no meaningful vote and not even the right to life?
You have not asked yourself these and many such pertinent questions much less answered them. Such matters are way above your mental capability, you are a village idiot. The only reason you have a vote of because Zimbabwe is a dictatorship and dictator brainwash you and then give you the vote!
Whilst one can understand the frustration of the SADC leaders in 2013 when they realised that MDC had failed to implement any reforms during the GNU and, to add insult to injury, the MDC ignored the advice not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. Still, this is hardly an excuse why the regional leaders flipped and endorsed the Zimbabwe elections, they knew were rigged, as being free, fair and credible!
Of all the foolishness of the SADC leaders, deciding to back Zanu PF's anti-sanctions drive was the most foolish! Anyone with half a brain knew that corruption was Zimbabwe's greatest problem and that Zanu PF was using sanctions as an excuse.
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