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The call by the African Union Peace and Security Council for the immediate and unconditional lifting of the West’s sanctions regime on Zimbabwe is commendable. It is high time the West listened to African voices on Zimbabwe’s case. The AU Peace and Security Council made the call saying the removal of the embargo would help with socio-economic recovery. African groupings such as the AU, the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the African bloc in the African, Caribbean and Pacific grouping, the Non-Aligned Movement and other progressive forces of the world have been calling for the removal of the sanctions for years.
However, their calls have been ignored by the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and their Western allies.
On their part the countries and groupings that have been sympathetic to Zimbabwe’s predicament have not tired in calling for the lifting of the sanctions regime, which was imposed more than a decade ago.
The recent harmonised elections won convincingly by Zanu-PF and President Mugabe have clearly shown that Zimbabweans support the revolutionary party and its leader.
There is no more reason to continue having the sanctions in place because they are not achieving their intended objective of turning the people of Zimbabwe against Zanu-PF and President Mugabe.
The plot to use sanctions against Zanu-PF and its leadership has failed for the past decade despite the fact that the sanctions caused the economy to lose $42 billion in terms of revenue.
Outgoing Finance Minister Tendai Biti says the embargoes compressed the economy by a factor of over 40 percent over the past 13 years.
Jobs and livelihoods were wrecked, with pensions and savings wiped out when the Zimbabwe dollar nosedived due to sanctions-induced hyperinflation in 2008.
Thousands of people died from preventable diseases like cholera as Government’s capacity to provide potable water was curtailed.
More than two million Zimbabweans condemned the sanctions regimes during the National Anti-Sanctions petition campaign held in March 2011.
This should be evidence to the West and the local parties and civil society bodies that they fund that, indeed the economy did “scream”, as they wished but the people of Zimbabwe still maintain their support of Zanu-PF and President Mugabe.
They see value in the revolutionary party and its leader. The reason millions of Zimbabweans continue to vote for Zanu-PF and President Mugabe is partly linked to the history of this country. Zimbabwe was born out of a protracted war of liberation during which thousands of cadres and nationalist leaders were killed by the Ian Smith colonial regime.
People do not forget the sacrifices their sons and daughters and they themselves made to liberate their motherland. Zimbabweans also know that the struggle for liberation was not about political freedom only. It was also about economic emancipation and restoration of our land. Zimbabweans yearn to be owners and drivers of their economy and that resonates with the policies of Zanu-PF. The revolutionary party has empowered hundreds of thousands of people with land, which was forcibly grabbed from their forefathers by the white settlers. The party continues to resettle more people on rich and arable land, which was previously a preserve of a few thousand whites.
Zanu-PF also has an indigenisation and economic empowerment programme that seeks to ensure Zimbabweans are the main actors in the mainstream economy. To imagine that the electorate is ignorant to all these people-centred policies is warped thinking.
The West should just do the reasonable thing and lift their crippling sanctions because Zimbabweans have demonstrated in the just ended elections that their choice is for empowerment and preserving the legacy of their liberation struggle, which gave birth to their independence and sovereignty.
Online Reporter