"Sanctions against Zimbabwe are a setback to stability in our region. Botswana therefore calls on the international community to end sanctions against Zimbabwe," said President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana addressing 76th session of the UN General Assembly.
This is music to President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies’ ears but it is rubbing hot chillis into eyes of every long suffering Zimbabwean out there.
There a mountain of evidence proving beyond all reasonable doubt that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are 41 years and counting of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and the rank lawlessness that have earned the country the pariah state status.
A report from Zimbabwe’s own Auditor General revealed that US$890 million of donor funds to help with the corona virus has either been looted or otherwise wasted. Zimbabwe is losing a staggering US$1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone.
Ever since the imposition of the sanctions the regime has repeatedly failed to put a definitive figure on the financial loses brought on by the sanctions. The truth is the financial loses are but a tiny fraction to the financial loses caused by corruption and mismanagement.
Indeed, soon after the West imposed sanctions, Mugabe came up with his “Look East” policy which supposedly meant to counter the sanctions. And ever since the regime has boasted of various measure to guarantee national economic prosperity regardless of the sanctions.
The reality on the ground has been one of economic decline before the sanctions were imposed and the decline has continued after the sanctions were imposed. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Zanu PF was forced to abandon some of the party’s disastrous economic policies the economy registered a 12% recovery in 2009 up from minus 6% the previous year although the sanctions remain in place. All proving that sanctions are NOT the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess!
Indeed, Zimbabwe has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 41 years and counting because the party rigged elections. Ever since the late 1990s Zimbabweans have been calling for democratic change, changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
The people have risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the promise the party would deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for all these years. Sadly, MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and incompetent and have failed to bring about even one democratic change.
Still, every Zimbabwean with half a brain knows that to get out of the mess we find ourselves in, the country must implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
It is patronising, to say the least, SADC leaders to be parroting Zanu PF propaganda of blaming sanctions for Zimbabwe’s ills when they know Zanu PF corruption and mismanagement are the real causes.
We, in Zimbabwe welcome all the help we can get in our fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and will accept and respect those nations and individuals who refuse to lift a finger to help. What we will not accept is the insults of those who decide to side with the Zanu PF thugs. We do not accept Zanu PF’s denial of our basic freedoms and rights.
By denying the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections in advance and elections must be condemned in advance. The attempt to link the denial of the diaspora vote to sanctions is an insult because the right to vote is not a privilege or bargaining chip.
It is us, the people of Zimbabwe, the ruling party, the opposition and us the ordinary people, who must share the blame for the country finding itself stuck in this economic and political mess for 41 years. Still there are some outsiders who have helped us land in this mess and that is intolerable especially from those nations who have routines held free, fair and credible elections and therefore have no excuse for giving a thumbs-up to Zanu PF rigged elections!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political instability is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections - the west imposed sanctions are just a feeble excuse and scapegoat.
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In light of this, it remains incumbent upon the entire civil service to continue upholding the unwavering, patriotic, humble hardworking character, high degree of professionalism and sense of duty-consciousness, exhibited by the late national hero, Dr Nzuwah.
My Government remains committed to improving the conditions of service, capacities and skills of our workers, in tandem with the demands of the new normal. Meanwhile, I commend all public servants for their resilience, hard work and perseverance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is interesting to note that in the last 41 years Zimbabwe has generated more national heroes and heroines that many nations with big population have done in ten times the period and, which is the crux of the matter, the nation’s economic, social and political wellbeing has sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss! All these declared national heroes have either done nothing to stop the rot or worse still have played a major role in the creating and sustaining the rot.
In short, most of these heroes are not heroes but villains! Our system for picking heroes is so corrupt every declared hero is suspect!
US charge d'affaires and acting ambassador to Zimbabwe Thomas Hastings said in Bulawayo last Friday: "This is something that we feel very strongly about … we feel democracy is very important. We feel that voter registration is, of course, a key piece to having good elections. That is why we are pleased to see voter registration underway here, and yes, we encourage Zimbabweans to take part in voter registration."
Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Charamba accused the United States of "gross interference in the politics of Zimbabwe."
"On September 21, 2021, two MDC-Chamisa officials, one very high-ranking, another standing for youth wing, approached the public affairs section of the US embassy in Harare with a request for the same to assist with the training and equipping of 50 election agents ahead of 2023 Harmonised Elections," Charamba charged.
The Americans, like EU, British and the rest of the members of the democratic nations, must be at sixes and sevens as what to do. They have all recommended the implementation of democratic reforms to stop the cycle rigged elections. Sadly, they find their recommendations ignore by the MDC and the rest of the opposition camp making it easy for Zanu PF to do the same.
Why indeed, would Zanu PF ever consider implementing even one token reform and reduce its chance of rigging and winning the elections when the party knows that the MDC and company will participate in the elections regardless.
By joining the opposition and calling for the participation in the elections with no reforms; are the Americans not falling in the same trap as the opposition of participating and thus give the flawed process credibility and the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy?
Following Sunday's bloody fights in Harare, Manicaland, Mashonaland West and Midlands provinces, angry party youths on Sunday besieged the Manicaland provincial offices baying for provincial chairperson Mike Madiro's blood.
Over 200 party members, including war veterans, reportedly spent Sunday night at the party headquarters in Mutare demanding that either Madiro or the party acting national political commissar Patrick Chinamasa addresses them.
Madiro was on Sunday whisked away by the police and State security agents assigned to him as the situation got tense.
Yesterday, sources told NewsDay that Madiro met Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa over the disturbances at a hotel in Mutare in a bid to try and contain the volatile situation.
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Associations national political commissar Joel Mureremba, who was part of the protesters, said they would camp at the party headquarters until their issues were addressed by Chinamasa.
The dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF is being fuelled by the country’s worsening economic situation because the economic meltdown has resulted the national cake shrinking and the number of ruling elite, their cronies and hanger-ons has ballooned over the years. It is no surprise that the fighting over the shrinking cake is therefore fierce particularly when the losers will have grime poverty.
If the fight amongst Zanu PF members is this fierce what more against the opposition in which all the state institutions will act as one in punishing the opposition for threatening Zanu PF’s iron grip on power! Like it or not the Police treat the opposition as usurpers seeking regime change who deserve to be punished.
It is a great pity that when the nation got is best chance ever to implement the democratic reforms to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the opportunity was wasted.
Without implementing the democratic reforms designed to free such institutions as the Police, Army, judiciary, etc. from Zanu PF control there will never be free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF has bullied and bamboozled the brainwashed Zimbabwe masses into believing that sanctions are the root cause of all the nation’s economic, political and social problems by the simple act of drowning all contrary points of view by the sheer volume of sanctions narrative.
When the sanction were imposed in 2001 the country’s economic was already in the gutter, the country had already gone through the 1990 to 1995 and then the 1995 to 2000 Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) which were “belt tightening” economic programme where people were to endure short term economic hardship to allow the economy to recovery. The short term hardship became permanent because the expected recovery never happened.
In the Zanu PF sanctions narrative, you will never hear about the sorry state of the Zimbabwe economy before the sanctions were imposed much less that the underlying causes - mismanagement and corruption - were swept under the carpet where they have festered and spread to become the cancers now killing the economy.
The evidence of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption is everywhere; the ruling elite are splashing billions of dollars on sprawling palatial mansions, posh cars, gold watches and holy wood star lifestyles. The evidence of the consequences of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption is everywhere too; basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and million of ordinary Zimbabweans now like in abject poverty.
Our situation is comparable to that of slaves is in one of those trans-Atlantic slaves ships; many slaves have horrific wounds inflicted by the chains and the stench of rotting flesh and death is over powering. The ship’s doctor insists it is malaria, to hide his dehumanising indifference!
It is really frustrating that SADC leaders have all sheepishly fallen under the Zanu PF spell and are parroting the sanctions narrative and ignoring the evidence of corruption and, most significantly, of tyrannical oppression.
In one of its many dare-devil moves, Zanu PF is using sanctions as the excuse for denying Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote! And SADC leaders are too stupid to see it!
Zimbabweans have not been stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship these last 41 years because they vote for the party! The people have lost their meaningful vote, Zanu Pf has been rigging the elections. It is foolish, to say the least, to keep up this pretence that elections are free, fair and credible and if the people decide they wanted a regime change in Zimbabwe in 2023, they will only have to vote for it!
Zanu PF has given up the fight to do the right and to focus instead on doing whatever it takes to get what it wants and damn the consequences. Zanu PF is finicky about the law and fastidious about every clause down to the comma but this is just an act because the party has nothing but contempt for the law and rule of law. The party will make a mountain out of a molehill in other people's conduct whilst treating matters of life and death in its own conduct as trivial matters of no consequences.
Gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are the cancers killing the Zimbabwe economic but to listen to Zanu PF propaganda one would think the sanctions are nothing short of the West carpet bombing Zimbabwe with the deadly corona virus bombs. Mnangagwa has brainwashed his fellow SADC leaders into believing the lifting of the West imposed sanctions will not only see Zimbabwe but the whole Southern African regions prosper beyond all our wildest dreams.
The regime has arranged for the UN rapporteur on sanctions to visit Zimbabwe. For once, the regime will drop the narrative the country is doing well and set to achieve its middle income status projected in Vision 2030, and admit the country's in serious economic decline. The rapporteur will be told the root cause of the economic meltdown is the sanctions imposed by the West!
As the 2023 national elections hots up the anti-sanctions drum beat will grow louder and the notes go up in leads and bounds to fever pitch. The elections will be about the sanctions and nothing else - the party will not allow anything thing else especially the flaws and illegalities in the election process to occupy the national agenda even for one minute. The sanctions drum beat must drown all other matters!
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