Hosia Mviringi
The United States Embassy in Zimbabwe yesterday struggled to conceal deep-seated insecurity and fear of the unknown through a spirited campaign to discredit the commemorations as a non-event.
Through a combination of disinformation, misinformation and a string of diversionary tactics, the embassy has for the past week been burning midnight oil in an endeavour to win a public relations war, after realizing that the United Nations is engaging with which citizens to understand the impact of sanctions in the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
The US disinformation Social Media campaign has seen an unprecedented deployment of trolls and ghosts accounts in addition to the official US embassy handle on Twitter, all in the vain hope to discredit the overwhelming consensus against the illegal unilateral sanctions, that has taken root amongst SADC and the wider African Union member States.
The United States embassy in Zimbabwe has been losing the war since last year 2020 when another spirited campaign was launched using such well known yet highly discredited anti-Zimbabwe activists as Hopewell Chin’ono to drive the Corruption counter-narrative.
Then as now, the corruption narrative was sponsored by the US embassy in Harare to try and sway public opinion into abandoning the anti-sanctions sentiments.
The US and EU went into a Tweeting frenzy in defence of their sanctions positions, ahead of the anti-sanctions day, signifying the attention that Zimbabwe has always wanted from the imperialist West.
One would have expected a lukewarm response or a no response at all, if indeed the anti-sanctions day were a non-event as some would want to claim.
The US embassy in Harare has been accused of speaking with a forked tongue when they deny existence of sanctions, while at the same time sustaining the prevailing regime of economic sanctions against the country.
Hopewell Chin’ono, who has become the chief US social media puppet and publicist has been at pains to sanitise his handlers’ hands of the continued suffering and death of innocent citizens of the please loving Southern African nation.
In an attempt to wash their hands clean and to ward off a flurry of criticism from all the 16 SADC member States and the rest of the progressive world, the US embassy sponsored and organised a Twitter Spaces session which was hosted by Chin’ono.
It is such an embarrassment that the US Diplomatic entourage could troop to Twitter Spaces to defend and try to explain themselves to Zimbabweans when official diplomatic communication lines exist.
Such has been the heat generated by the SADC Anti-Sanctions commemorative activities.
Take nothing away from them, Zimbabweans are a whole army of warriors.
On and off the field, Zimbabweans know how to take the ball into enemy territories.
On Twitter Spaces, the Acting US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Thomas R. Hastings struggled to field hard questions from astute Zimbabweans such as one Rutendo Benson Matinyarare.
At the end of the session, the US and EU Diplomats available then left the space with more questions than answers hanging over their heads.
At one point Mr Matinyarare asked the US ambassador why pre-emptive sanctions were placed on individuals and companies without them being accorded an opportunity to be heard, which the ambassador stammered and staggered anxiously without a valid answer.
“It gets to the legal underpinnings of the sanctions, generally, which is a point that I am not very well qualified to answer”.
“I am sure I have colleagues in the Legal Department of State who can explain exactly why there is no contradiction between the existence of our sanctions programme and United Nations Principles and due processes,” said the Acting US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, clearly failing to justify the existence of sanctions on Zimbabwe.
This year’s anti-sanctions event has been the most momentous and most effective in sending a clear message to the US and its allies that Africa and World are wide awake to its machinations and that the victims of sanctions will not take it lying down any longer.
Africa has taken the ball into the American Court. It is their turn to defend. It surely won’t be easy keeping the ball out of the nets with a united African voice rallying together in unison.
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