Sanctions targeted at the people of Zimbabwe, Simple!

Sanctions targeted at the people of Zimbabwe, Simple!

 

Hosia Mviringi

 

As Zimbabwe is joined by SADC and the rest of Africa in commemorating the fourth SADC Anti-Sanctions Solidarity Day, it is important for Zimbabwe to keep reminding the world, particularly the patriotic Zimbabwean media, that sanctions were authored and intended to inflict pain on the citizens of Zimbabwe.

 

This was made clear at the First Session of the SADC Anti-Sanctions Solidarity Summit (SASS 2022) which was held at the Golden Conifer Conference Centre in Harare yesterday.

 

Speaking in an address to media practitioners in attendance, Public Service Commission Chairperson, Dr Vincent Hungwe, applauded the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services for putting together the Summit which he said provided the toolkit necessary for the media in Zimbabwe and elsewhere to reconstruct a new, yet true image of Zimbabwe through an elaborate rebranding exercise.

 

“It does not require any fundamental knowledge to identify the origins of sanctions against the country.

 

The constructors and authors of ZIDERA sanctions Bill were very clear right from the onset, that they wanted it to make the Zimbabwean Economy scream, and when it screams the citizens of Zimbabwe would abandon their government. So it is very clear on whom the sanctions were targeted,” said Dr Hungwe.

 

These observations dovetail with what government has always said that economic sanctions impoverish the majority of citizens who have absolutely nothing to do with politics.

 

In any country, a dysfunctional economy effects the poor and socially vulnerable more than they affect the ruling elite. This puts paid to the US claims that sanctions were targeted at individuals within government.

 

“They were targeted at the people of Zimbabwe because the people of Zimbabwe constitute the bedrock upon which the sustainability of our national systems of governance are predicated. And if they abandon those fundamental values and principles, what will eventuate is total lack of state capacity. As a result if you have no state capacity you cannot guarantee freedom, safety, freedom from disease, security, and property rights, and the totality of those things is what constitute sustainable livelihoods.

 

And when the people infer the possibility of perishing, they abandon those institutions they would have given the authority to underwrite those fundamental values, principles, and freedoms,” said Dr Hungwe.

 

As the key architects of Zimbabwe’s suffering, the US, recently admitted that the sanctions imposed on the country some 21 years ago in 2001 may have indeed resulted in unintended consequences as the economy became a victim of the so-called ‘targeted sanctions’.

 

Speaking in a digital press conference from Washington convened by the US Africa Media Hub, in an attempt to pre-empt the ongoing Africa-wide SADC Anti-Sanctions Solidarity Commemorations, US Department of State Sanctions Coordinator, Ambassador James O’Brien claimed that it was not his country’s intention that the sanctions result in complete shutting down of the Zimbabwean economy.

 

However, O’Brien admitted that sanctions on the country have caused massive cost opportunity for the economy in general as many companies have shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe due to heightened sanctions-induced country risk.

 

“We are aware that because of the depth of the problems, and the duration of this (sanctions) program, there are probably a lot of companies that think that doing business in Zimbabwe is just too difficult, and that those cost opportunities for the people of Zimbabwe, whether that is a result of underlying mismanagement and corruption, or that our sanctions are doing it.

That’s something we are willing to talk to business about…,” said O’Brien in tacit recognition of vagaries of sanctions on the economy and the people of Zimbabwe in particular.