By Nason Mamuse
Harare Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – The anti-sanction gathering being organized by Zanu Pf and billed to be held on Friday October 25, 2019 is not the first one of its kind. On March 2, 2011, the late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe organized an anti-sanction signature collection rally at Zimbabwe Agricultural Show grounds in Harare. This was meant to collect at least 2 million signatures for the anti-sanction petition.
The launch of the petition was held under the theme “Sanctions Do Kill.”
President Mugabe called for citizens to stop buying products of companies based in the countries imposing the sanctions, in particular Britain and the United States.
“Zimbabweans should with immediate effect boycott buying products of foreign-owned companies that operate here – the imposed unjust sanctions on us which are not recognized by United Nations,” he said, adding, “We have to hit back.
https://www.voazimbabwe.com/a/zimbabwe-president-mugabe-launches-anti-sanctions-campaign
The difference between the Mugabe organized anti-sanction and the one being organized by Zanu Pf under Emerson Mnangagwa’s administration is that this time around, Zanu Pf has managed to rope in Southern African Development Countries SADC nations. The agreement was reached at the last SADC Ordinary Summit of Heads of States held in the United Republic of Tanzania( Dar es Salaam) from the 17-18 of August 2019, to set aside the 25th of October as a day to call for the removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe.
But how did these sanctions come about after those ones imposed on Ian Smith from 1965-1979, which were imposed as a result of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence UDI on 11 November 1965? The turn of the new millennium coincided with the birth of a strong and formidable political party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change under the leadership of the late Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. When the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) was enacted into law by America which made some individuals and some companies being black listed, reasons were given for the enactment of that law and what the Zimbabwean authorities were to do for the law to be scrapped.
Different commentators have come up with different interpretations. Some content that ZIDERA was as a result of the land issue, where after the referendum, Zanu Pf forcefully took mostly white –owned farms. The referendum which was held at the beginning of 2000 saw Zanu Pf tasting its first defeat and this did not go down well with Mugabe and his Zanu Pf party.
The next act was the invasion of the white farmers by mostly war veterans and Zanu Pf youths as the farmers were accused of supporting the opposition party-MDC. From that time, things have never been right economically as the Zimbabwean economy is said to be agro-based.
On the other hand, others are of the opinion that it’s prudent to look at the reasons given by the imposers of the sanctions, such reasons as restoration of the breakdown of the rule of law and violation of the human rights by the Zimbabwean government among others. Indeed there has been a consistent call for the removal of the sanctions from the days of Mugabe until now, but the other side as to why these sanctions were imposed in the first instance remains unattended.
In one of the interviews about the sanctions, the former deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said, “There are two types of sanctions, those sanctions you imposed upon yourself. The number two sanctions are those imposed on you by outsiders. He continued. “As Zimbabweans, we must address the sanctions we are imposing upon ourselves like, corruption, rigging elections, poor national governance and murdering our own people. These are sanctions we are imposing on ourselves”. Prof Mutambara quipped, ‘’ why would you want others to remove sanctions on you when you are busy imposing sanctions on yourself? ‘’. He poured his heart out that he never defended the imposition of sanctions by outsiders even when he was Deputy Prime Minister in the inclusive government and neither is he in support of the imposition of sanctions by ourselves.
As the anti-sanctions debate rages on, it must be laid bare that with or without sanctions, the people of Zimbabwe deserve better and those in leadership should strive to do their best even under difficult circumstances to deliver. Others believe that the elephant in the room is corruption which has reared its ugly head for too long. The sad reality is that nothing decisive has been done by the authorities who are supposed to uphold and defend the rule of law. They have actually allowed the wheel of justice to come off. This is so because this cancerous act has been recorded even within the corridors of power. There is a known list of scandals to have rocked our nation at a grand scale- cases like the 1988 Willow gate scandal which was traced to the doorsteps of Zanu Pf, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Santana scandal of 1989, 1994 war victims compensation scandal, 1995 Grain Marketing Board GMB scandal, Very Important People (VIP) Housing Scandal of 1996, The Boka Banking scandal of 1998, National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) scandal of 1999, 2001 Airport road scandal, 2016 Diamond revenue scandal, 2018 Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) scandal, 2019 National Social Security Authority (NSSA) scandal, 2019 Command Agriculture scandal among other that has made Zimbabwe to lose over US 70 billion.
The cumulative scandals all traced at the Zanu Pf doorsteps are an indication that the authorities are aware and involved in the atrocious and hurtful rot that has robbed our nations of the billions of United States dollars. If this money was properly channeled could have had a positive impact on the development agenda of our infrastructure. As if this is not bad enough, no arrests were made and prosecuted to this day. What it also means is, some of them are still in government telling the nation that sanctions are retarding growth and development. Shame on us!
The continuation of human rights abuse, victimization of opposition activists and supporters, abductions torture, killing and closing of any democratic space is the hallmark of the new dispensation under the Emerson Mnangwagwa administration. The killing of innocent people on 1 August 2018 and in January 2019 is a case in point. The fact that the perpetrators of violence are still walking the streets scot-free is on its own an indication that the state is shielding the perpetrators.
Now if Zimbabwe lost such huge sums of money through corruption with no arrests having been made, why should the nation be frog-marched to march to sing the anti- sanctions to an extent of even declaring the day to be a public holiday? How much is spent on hiring a plane to take the President around the nation, in the region and even on international forums that he never wants to miss? How much is going to be used to organize the much- hyped anti-sanction charade slated for the 25th of October? Is that money not enough to equip the hospitals and pay our doctors who have not been reporting for duty?
As SADC helps Zimbabwe to call for the removal of sanctions, they should also urge the Zimbabwean authorities to implement the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission recommendation, which commission was set up by Mnangagwa himself to look into the disturbances on 1 August 2018. Indeed SADC must urge one of their own to respect the rule of law and stop harassing opposition activists who belong to a legal opposition party that has a stake in the running of this nation e.g. it controls 28 out of the 32 local authorities throughout the nation. It’s not a mean feat and clumping down on such a party whose President was voted by over 2 million voters is dividing the nation into two halves.
In fact SADC can do well by initiating a genuine dialogue between the Zanu Pf leader Emerson Mnangwagwa and his counterpart Nelson Chamisa if they are serious about seeing stability and development in Zimbabwe. Arbitrary arrests, harassment of activists and hate speech and even marching against the sanctions will not help unless the Zimbabwean authorities begin to play ball. It’s for the good of everyone that elections are not rigged, if human rights are observed, if the rule of law is respected and if corruption is dealt with head on constitutionally.
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