Yes, sanctions are real

THE anti-sanctions march has come and gone and Zimbabwe should not tire in its quest to have the punitive embargo removed unconditionally by those who imposed them.

Some sections of the society deny the existence of such, while others believe the targeted sanctions are a smokescreen to blind the poor from reality and therefore justify the existence of the heinous measures.

Despite the different perception towards the nature and source of the problems bedevilling Zimbabwe, the indisputable consensus is that we are in deep trouble. Life has become so unbearably miserable for use irrespective of one’s colour, status, creed and political affiliation.

Whether you call a bat, a bird or mouse, it still is a bat!

The cost of basic commodities has skyrocketed with no solution in sight. This is despite repeated warnings against such practices by President Mnangagwa.

So dire is the situation that our children are now going to school on empty stomachs because either the bread is too expensive or not available in the shops.

Electricity and fuel have virtually become scarce commodities.

Households are using the former for lighting only, not for cooking, to see them through to the next month as it has become so expensive.

Procurement of diesel and petrol has become so erratic, with the pump price going up nearly every week. This is against the backdrop of long winding queues.

In his keynote address to the nation during anti-sanctions campaign, the President noted that the fuel companies had resorted to demanding cash upfront before deliveries.

He reiterated that Government was working tirelessly around the clock to normalise the situation.

This writer thinks that to say there are no sanctions in Zimbabwe is as foolish as it is unfortunate.

However, to believe that sanctions are the only elephant in the room is an attempt to pass the buck on our mess as a nation.

The intensity given to the anti-sanctions campaign must also been given to the fight against corruption.

Corruption has been institutionalised in both the public and private sectors.

After the mother of all elections in 1980, the first dispensation went into an overdrive celebrative mood which persisted even as they neglected strategic economic areas like building enough water bodies for irrigation and expanding capacity utilisation of our energy sector to match growing household and industrial appetite.

From 1980 up to probably 1991, consumption and corruption were at the peak at the expense of investment.

Remember the case of Paweni and Haruperi whose infamous saga of stealing goods from the National Railways wagons?

This writer was still a young man back then, but recalls very well that it was so fashionable to refer the local dollars and cents as Pawenis and Haruperis.

People used to be so excited about it back then, turning society’s villains into overnight heroes.

In the mid-90s the Government was soon to awaken from its slumber, thanks to the worst drought of 1992 and the infamous Clare Short letter in 1997. The then British Secretary of the State reneged from funding the land reform programme as agreed by the Margaret Thatcher government during the famous Lancaster House Conference. Then literally all hell broke loose.

In 1998 the Mugabe-led Government embarked on a massive land redistribution exercise. It seized land from about 6 000 white farmers who owned 80 percent of the arable soil at the expense of the black majority who lived in abject poverty.

In retaliation, the West embarked on a massive economic siege which saw Zimbabwe being placed under some of the worst sanctions regimes, including the infamous ZIDERA by the United States of America.

Sanctions are an economic albatross which seeks to foment chaos.

Sanctions destabilise a nation to unproductive and ungovernable levels in order to breed poverty thereby bringing the Government and its economy to its knees.

For over two decades Zimbabwe has been reeling under economic terrorism where all strategic companies like National Railways of Zimbabwe, fertiliser manufacturers, mining and health sectors, among others, have been hit hard by these sanctions.

Our minerals like diamonds cannot find their way to prestigious markets. Instead an alternative arrangement has to be made to circumvent the embargo, but ended up fetching inferior prices per unit.

In addition to that all credit facilities from the IMF and the World Bank have been blocked because they are controlled by the USA.

No country can survive without financial injection from these institutions.

While the West has a penchant for accusing other countries for violating human rights and rule of law as pretexts to further their egoistic interests, sanctions on Zimbabwe were imposed precisely as deterrent measures to dissuade other African countries to following her course.

Most African countries are sitting on a “volcano” and Zimbabwe is currently dealing with hers.

Sooner or letter Africa is going to witness an upheaval of unimaginable proportions by natives demanding their land as the “willing-buyer willing-seller” which failed in our case cannot work anywhere.