Sanctions undermine Mnangagwa's economic recovery," says Daily News - blackmail and base thuggery W Mukori

The Daily News has waded into the current debate on whether or not Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and Dewa Mavhinga of Human Rights Watch were right to recommend that sanctions against the Zanu PF regime should be retained. Daily News’ staunch anti-sanction position has not only betrayed its commitment to educate and inform the public but left it with that sinking feeling; it has waded into pond believing itself a duck only to discover it is a chicken!

“Their testimonies triggered a public backlash as there were seen as undermining President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government and his own commitment to making sweeping electoral reforms before the 2018 elections are held,” commented the Daily News.

“What infuriated most Zimbabweans was the recommendation to the US government to maintain sanctions against Zimbabwe until Mnangagwa's administration had instituted democratic and electoral reforms as demanded by the opposition and local civic society organisations.”

The people of Zimbabwe have the right to expect their newspapers, at least those pretending to be independent, to inform and educate them and not to be parroting the narrow views of the Zanu PF ruling elite and their paid acolytes in Herald House and Pocket Hill. The three gentlemen were right in saying the departure of Mugabe did not change the Zanu PF; it is still a ruthless dictatorship. A black mamba that has shed its old coat does not seize to be a dead snake black!

If the Daily News believes, the removal of Mugabe and one or two others from Zanu PF has transformed the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs into law-abiding democrats; then it must should say so. It will be asked to provide some damn reasons to backup its position.

Even if the Daily News can provide convincing evidence to prove Zanu PF has indeed under gone the equivalent of the black mamba evolving into some delicious fish; still the three gentlemen are entitled to express their doubts and to call for caution. The call for sanctions to remain until the Mnangagwa administration has proven itself beyond all doubt is still very logical.

The claim that sanctions will “undermine” the regime’s ability to implement its reform agenda is pure nonsense. Unless the paper produces the evidence, the claim must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves!

“The majority of ordinary Zimbabweans is concerned by bread and butter issues and would want to see if Mnangagwa can depart from Mugabe's previous ruinous polices and improve livelihoods,” continued Daily News.

“No well-meaning Zimbabwean would want to hear about sanctions especially at a time there is hope that the departure of Mugabe could lead to a new beginning for the suffering lot. Rights groups and the MDC appear to be driven by self-interests to the detriment of the ordinary citizens considering that they decided to arrive at the conclusion of having the US maintain sanctions without having presented their demands to Mnangagwa's government.”

If this was boxing, the reporter would be disqualified and banned from boxing for life for hitting below the belt.

With unemployment at a nauseating height of 90%, basic services such as clean running water a thing of the past, etc. and with ¾ of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day. Of course, every Zimbabweans is very concerned about the bread and butter issues! The more reason we should deal with these issues honestly and with the seriousness the matter demands. It is therefore irresponsible to suggest sanctions are the cause of the economic meltdown when that is just cheap propaganda.

The root cause of the country’s economic meltdown is the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions. No nation of earth can sustain the loss of $15 billion very two years, by Mugabe’s own admission, for example; much less a country like Zimbabwe with a GDP of $10 billion. The mismanagement and corruption have grown and spread for the last 37 to the killer cancerous tumour they are today because the nation was stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime. Zanu PF has rigged elections to stay and hence the reason the people have watched the country being destroyed and were helpless to do anything to stop it.

Every thinking Zimbabwean has supported the imposing of the sanctions from the word go because it has been one way to pressure the Zanu PF dictatorship to hold free and fair elections. The idea of imposing sanction to pressure the regime is not new or unique. UN sanctions were imposed on Ian Smith’s white racist regime to pressure it to black oppression.

It is ironic that many of blacks who are dead against the imposition of any sanctions on this Zanu PF dictatorship supported the imposition of the sanctions on the Smith regime. They are hypocrites who do not care about the suffering of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans, the victims of the regime’s failed and oppressive rule. The philosophical argument to justify the sanctions has not changed and it is still valid.

Whilst the imposition of the sanctions will cause short-term hardships these must be balanced against the short, medium and long-term hardships brought on by the failure to remove a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging regime. The very fact that the Zanu PF regime has lasted these last 37 years allow corruption to grow and spread to the killer tumour it is today goes to show even tougher UN sanctions should have been imposed.

Zimbabwe cannot afford another rig election and be dragged even deeper into this economic and political mess. The call to lift the sanctions just because the Zanu PF dictatorship has replaced its old figure head for another given the seriousness and urgency of the country’s situation is therefore preposterous. If anything, the sanctions must be stepped up just to be absolutely certain next year’s elections are free, fair and credible.

“And considering that Mnangagwa and his government have been in office for less than a month, the actions of the MDC and the rights group expose lack of serious strategy needed by the opposition to conjure up a new narrative,” Daily News report concluded.

“Where Zimbabwe stands today needs a new thrust by politicians - the MDC included - to chart a new beginning. The sanctions mantra, whether for or against, does not work anymore because the biggest story right now is that of bread and better issues.”

Nonsense. Nothing President Mnangagwa announcing the scrapping the obnoxious Ministry of Information cum Propaganda in his inauguration speech and telling the nation there and then that every Zimbabwean will enjoy their freedom of expression and the country will have a free media, for example!

Talk of a “new narrative, new beginning, a new Zimbabwe and a new Zimbabwean”; what could be better than that very Zimbabwean out there must demand their freedoms and their human rights including the right to free and fair elections are their birth right. The country is in this economic and political mess because we have allowed the Zanu PF thugs short change us and ride roughshod over our dreams, hopes and our very humanity. Enough is enough!

Sanctions were imposed to force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections and therefore they must remain until the regime restore all our individual freedoms and human rights including the right to free elections. There is nothing in the sanction to stop Zanu PF implementing the democratic reforms and all suggestions to the contrary is blackmail; no nation worth its salt will succumb to base thuggery!