The Anti-Sanctions Declaration: Disentangling Neo-Colonial Political thought
The burden of history TODAY the pan-African nationalist movement is bestowed with the mandate of tackling the everchanging complexities and complexions of colonialism.
This comes against an undeniable reality of how neo-colonialism has repackaged itself through the narrow Western anchored democracy and human-rights discourse in African politics.
The neo-colonial manufacturing of conflict in post-independent Africa has been another chief instrument of instilling the legitimacy of cover-up humanitarian interventions in African affairs.
Today we find sovereign capitals of the West having deliberate external affairs desks to facilitate an aggressive meddle in African politics. Western sectoral interests continue to aggressively penetrate in the domestic currencies of power in Africa.
On the other hand, politicalthought in Africa suffers dependency on colonial ideas and thus giving prominence to a superficial alternative to the nationalist/liberation movement.
This gamut structural a n d external forces affecting the political present and future of Africa attempt by all means to overshadow the role of history in framing the character of our self-determination. Far beyond these attempts, the psyche of African politics is inclined to be retrospective and the only point of introspection to the present can only be historical.
This is informed by a political culture whose personality is solidified by a shared protracted memory of the anti-imperial fight. The liberation movement is best placed to account for this past and preserving it in the interest of defending the ideological artillery which warped colonialism.
This explains why the subscription of liberation parties is inter-generational. In other words, the liberation party is the cog for inter-generational political concerns of the day. Zanu-PF is one such an institution which is founded on the premise of history in situating the perennial attainment of the aspirations of African dignity.
Historically edging the present The genesis of sanctions on Zimbabwe poses as a threat to the certainty of the entire region’s autonomy from the ugly meddling of neo-colonialism. Consequently, the Sadc Dare se Slaam Summit of 2019 must be extolled for its unwavering castigation of the Zidera and EU Sanctions.
The declaration of 25 October as the day to which African countries of the South should register their displeasure against the imperial iron-fist on Zimbabwe should motivate a crosssectional castigation on sanctions by every patriotic Zimbabwean.
Sadc’s expression of discontentment on the Western world and the continued collective call for the immediate and unconditional removal of illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe symbolises an intense detest towards colonial interference in Africa’s political issues. From the surface, the issue of historical humanrights violation will be raised to erase the real truth about sanctions.
An ahistorical political rationale The hyped propositions to Western
of dependent political thought facilitates the undermine of the credibility of our institutions in the continent. This crisis in African political thinking has been the major reason for the artificial morality of anti-nationalist inspired transitions across the continent.
The prescriptive inclination of this democracy and human-rights ignores the existence of our regional protocols and municipal institutions which are predicated on the preservation of constitutionalism and good governance. We have also seen how sanctions have been deployed as a diplomatic missile to injure our self-confidence and subjecting us to unilateral terms of dictated democracy aimed at impelling regime-change and the consequent obliteration of the Former Liberation Movements.
The stalemate on the Zimbabwean sanctions question is evident of the West’s relentless fight with the ant i - c o l on i a l spirit which advanced the need to realign property rights. The imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe cannot be assessed without high considerations of their origin as vengeance
for the F a s t - Tr a c k L and Reform Programme by the West.
The subtle packaging of sanctions as a measure for redressing bad governance conceals the ego of White monopoly capital’s interests in the sovereign affairs of Zimbabwe. The Land Reform — without which our independence would be incomplete is the major source of our isolation in the global market.
The Government’s unequivocal policy of pronouncing the irreversible position of the land redistribution is the major reason why Zimbabwe will continue to face the punitive diplomatic attack by the West.
Truth be told, the resultant postLand Reform political impasse championed by the anti-establishment forces was designed to create an ahistorical disconnect of the masses from the ruling Zanu-PF. Therefore, the region’s anti-sanctions intervention repositions Zanu-PF to its place in time and in history.
The buttressed position on the country’s one-sided representation of a political crisis expresses the fundamental misgiving on the political reforms which have been ushered through the New Dispensation and the Second Republic — which in itself represents the remodelling of political-culture in Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
There is a decisive effort towards a high upbeat for regime change furthered through the ambit of foreign-backed opposition political parties. Narrowly, this proposition melodramatises a quest and an aspiration for the delivery of good government.
Not that there is any evil about political transitions. However, there is everything wrong when the change sought is influenced by external forces bent on incentivising self-preservation through designing and churning out political chaos. In our case, the sanctions represent the relentless contestation to Government’s affinity to respond to economic decolonisation.
Validating the Zidera and EU instruments of forcing political change disparages the aspirations of our shared struggle and the very spirit of African resistance. Sanctions are a war to the livelihoods of our people.
Those calling for the continued imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe are beneficiaries of the chaotic impulse of the Zidera and the EU trade restrictions on Zimbabwe. Sanctions are an antithesis of the socio-economic and political prosperity envisaged by the policy ambitions of the Second Republic.
The 25 October, 2019 Anti-Sadc proclamation is a symbolic of a broadbased unity of purpose against neocolonialism by the region in sharp pursuit of anti-colonial aspirations. The move is indicative of a shared African position which transcends the Zimbabwean political geometry.
The day, 25 October must pose as a point of recollection and at the same time mark a reclaiming of African states’ dignity in the international system. Zimbabwe as an actor in African political interest must maintain a defiant position in challenging colonial monopoly.
To strengthen this position, Sadc must device counter measures against similar potential threats on memberstates.
All necessary initiatives and processes opposed to neo-colonial penetration including, but not limited to legislative and administrative frameworks must be taken to disfigure the neo-colonialism in its totality.
It is clear that Africa is now speaking together in one corner and thus reigniting the “Injury to one and is Injuring to all” principle.
We are optimistic that the Sadc Anti-Sanctions resolution of setting 25 October, 2019 as the day with which Southern-Africa will express its displeasure on the continued imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe will also become a historical subject of reference to the African Union.
The author, Dr Obert Mpofu is Zanu-PF’s Secretary for Administration. He is also a member of the Politburo.
LOCAL authorities are sitting on top of a gold mine which they have failed to utilise over many years, a move that has seen professional as well as scrupulous contractors taking advantage of that laxity within our local councils.
Their slackness has seen private partners who do not own any piece of land moving in to benefit immensely.
What is a cause for concern is that along the way some people have lost their hard earned savings through dealing with these contractors.
Private contractors have over the past years come up with home ownership schemes whereby people make monthly subscriptions towards owning a house or a piece of land.
This set up has seen the local authorities losing out in terms of revenue generation considering the challenges currently facing most of them.
At the same time this has gone on to compromise standards in Bulawayo as well as other areas across the country through poor or non-existent service delivery by some constructors.
Some residents living in houses built by these bad apples have gone for a number of years without sewer or running water after the laid pipes failed to meet the standard council requirements.
To make matters worse this forces residents to use the nearest bushy area to relieve themselves.
Others have gone on to built septic tanks within the yard posing a serious disease outbreak as seen through so many such cases in Harare where daring residents through indigenous knowledge system relevant in their rural homes have dug wells within their yards.
In addition to that till now some of those areas lack standard roads making them difficult to access for those with personal cars and not to get waste delivery services from the council.
Others are without drainages hence every rainy season they spend sleepless nights trying to block rain water.
If the local authorities can move over and fill this gap as the local custodians of the land who knows; maybe their financial problems could be a thing of the past.
Meanwhile, some sections of Cowdray Park are on the verge of being cut off from the rest of the community after some of the roads which join them with major roads in the area were cut off by rain water.
This has led to cars pushing further into the bush while those on foot walk on the tarmac road littered with potholes.
Such a situation becomes tricky when there are patients or expectant mothers who need the services of an ambulance to come and pick them up at their door steps.
Even though the roads were once done due to omission of other road construction stages they did not survive the torrent rains and running water.