Chronicle Editor
ZIMBABWE will this week join the rest of the southern African region, and the world in marking the Sadc-declared Anti-Sanctions Day, which is on 25 October each year.
It is a day that was set aside by Sadc to amplify the voices against illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West. It is also a day through which the region uses such commemorations to stir the conscience of those guilty of imposing unjust sanctions against innocent people. Above all, the day is used to mobilise African and world opinion against the unilateral and illegal sanctions, which amount to a challenge and an affront to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.
Writing in his weekly column last week, President Mnangagwa thanked Sadc and the progressive world for their support in calling for the lifting of the sanctions.
“Let me conclude by heartily thanking Sadc, Africa and the progressive world for standing with Zimbabwe in its fight against illegal Western sanctions. In return, Zimbabwe opens herself to you, as her friends and allies, to participate in the rebuilding and growing of a strong, sanctions-insulated economy. Together, we can forge lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships in key areas of our economy: agriculture, mining, industry, tourism and infrastructure development. The time has now come for us to turn our solidarity founded on protests and appeals, into more positive and gainful economic partnerships which help Zimbabwe plug any felt points of vulnerability to external coercion. Indeed, joint investments are now the new way of saying no! to sanctions.”
We also call upon Zimbabweans, regardless of geographical location, to help amplify the voice calling for the lifting of the unjust sanctions that have affected the lives of all Zimbabweans. People can go to social media to air their views, or they can hold peaceful and legal events in their localities to drum up support for the lifting of the sanctions.
However, we note that the Government, led by President Every Zimbabwean must amplify Sadc Anti-Sanctions call, has managed to mobilise local resources to improve the economy and the lives of Zimbabweans, despite the biting illegal sanctions that have limited social and economic spaces for Zimbabwe abroad.
“Since the imposition of those spiteful, illegal sanctions, more than almost two-and-half decades ago, Zimbabwe has since evolved. From indignant political protests which marked the first two decades of those punitive measures, our response as a nation has grown and transformed into the positive action of pulling ourselves by our bootstraps. This new stance which we adopted soon after the advent of the Second Republic plays out alongside the traditional broad-based agitation and resolute campaign against those illegal sanctions, coupled with increased efforts to engage and exert diplomatic pressure on those who designed and unleashed those punitive measures on us. That way, we have been able to organise and mobilise ourselves internally, while still pursuing a dual policy of agitation, engagement and re-engagement. Engagement allows us to win to our side new friends and allies against those heinous sanctions; re-engagement enables us to continue dialoguing with those responsible for those sanctions which were visited on us unilaterally, and outside the norms and authority of the United Nations.
“Our decision to reorganise ourselves internally in order to withstand more effectively those heinous sanctions has restored agency and given us initiative, thus helping us throw off the debilitating badge of victimhood and helplessness. A nation such as ours, with vast natural resources, and with an educated and hardworking, enterprising populace, can never be at the mercy of coercive measures meant to collapse our economy, and to force us to capitulate. Simply, acquiescing to external pressure is against our DNA, and goes against our heroic experience as a people who survived and successfully resisted colonialism for over a century.”
As President Mnangagwa has reiterated; “To win this fight against illegal sanctions, we must fully believe in ourselves and in our capabilities as a people. That vital sense of self-belief, buttressed by national unity and solidarity from friends and allies, makes us invincible.”
Online Reporter