Britain can go hang: Mutsvangwa
BRITAIN should stop interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs as the country is not an extension of the United Kingdom, Zanu PF Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa, has said.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Harare yesterday, Cde Mutsvangwa said it should never be lost to the British that Zimbabwe has so far enjoyed 42 years of independent rule.
This comes after the British Parliament recently spent time debating Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
“To debate Zimbabwe in the British Parliament, we are 42 years into Independence. We just celebrated our 42 years of Independence last month. We are now the second generation of free Zimbabweans. One would have thought that just as much as the independence is so now much engraved in Zimbabwean culture, the British public, the British Government, the British establishments will also by this time have forgotten that they used to colonise Zimbabwe,” said Cde Mutsvangwa.
Unfortunately, he said, there is a persistent effort on the part of the British to continue to involve themselves in Zimbabwean politics, as if London is still an imperial master of Harare.
“This we reject with the contempt it deserves. We condemn it as it is against the norms of the United Nations where Britain is a founder and a sovereign member. A founder member notwithstanding, it was an imperial power which was ruling many countries, at that time including Rhodesia, purporting and preaching democracy as the virtues of founding aspirations of the United Nations. But they were still colonial masters to us,” he said.
Britain, Cde Mutsvangwa said, should by now be able to understand that nations are sovereign and equal according to the United Nations Charter.
“We say to the British, much as you guard your imperial hankering to be master of Zimbabwe, we will also jealously guard our Independence,” he said.
The British, through their sponsored opposition and non-governmental organisations, have been desperately trying to block the passage of the Private and Voluntary Organisation Bill, ostensibly because it infringes on constitutional liberties, although it really seeks to end money laundering and rein in foreign funding of local politics.
To this effect, Cde Mutsvangwa said the Private and Voluntary Organisation Bill will be passed in Parliament.
He said those who have imperial designs and who seem to be still clinging to memories of a bygone era should stop interfering in Zimbabwe’s politics.
Cde Mutsvangwa said the Bill would be passed in accordance with the laws of the country and would be able to delineate what is nationalism, patriotism, treachery and treason.
Zimbabwe’s opposition, which has splintered several times in fights over donor funds and control of the party, was formed at the behest of white former commercial farmers, mostly of British heritage who sought to install a puppet government and reverse the land reform programme which redressed land inequities.
Up to this day, Britain maintains economic sanctions on Zimbabwe which have negatively affected the country’s full growth potential.
Although President Mnangagwa has opened doors for engagement and re-engagement in a policy that has been embraced by even former hostile nations in the European Union, the British have played both dumb and blind. Thus despite the political and economic reforms that have been initiated since President Mnangagwa came into office in 2017, the British, in cahoots with their sponsored NGOs and opposition political parties, prefer to look the other way.
Government has dismissed claims by some British members of the House of Lords that Zanu PF was sponsoring the MDC-Alliance.