EU, US must lift sanctions in toto

Mukachana Hanyani
THE French business delegation that was in the country recently came as a relief to the Zimbabwean people who have been struggling to survive under illegal sanctions that were imposed by both the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) more than a decade ago.

The delegation which met the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, President Mugabe, revealed that their visit to the country was to explore investment opportunities.

As such, both the EU and the USA, which have been stalling investment because of the illegal sanctions they imposed on the country, should now realise the futility of their failed project, and remove them in their totality.

Some of these nations have seen the light and are now engaging Zimbabwe, looking for investment opportunities, which should also act as a wakeup call for the US and a few others that their regime change agenda is not going anywhere, hence the time to bury the hatchet.

In actual fact, Zimbabwe is a good investment destination, a realisation which has motivated quite a number of businesspeople from different parts of the world to visit the country in a move to explore areas of co-operation.

Zimbabwe, slapped by sanctions from Western countries, has been struggling to lure investors as the West made sure that the potential investors were scared away by flimsy claims that the country was not observing the rule of law.

Ironically, the British government, which led an onslaught on Zimbabwe leading to the imposition of sanctions on the country by the EU and the USA, sponsored a business delegation to Zimbabwe in October 2014, which was led by one Mr Alex Lambeth.

The delegation that later met top Government officials in the country was a first in more than two decades and the delegation promised to fund the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

The realisation by the British and the French governments that Zimbabwe has plenty of investment opportunities should send a clear message to the USA government that sanctions that have killed the industrial hub of this country need to be removed immediately.

The USA should realise that Zimbabwe did not infringe on any American interests, as alleged; hence there is no need for her to make the sanctions remain in place.

In actual fact, the USA should follow the footsteps of the EU bloc, which recently lifted some of the sanctions imposed on the country more than a decade ago.

It is prudent for both the EU and the USA to realise that their sanctions have failed to achieve their goals and objectives but only managed to make ordinary people suffer economically in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean people have been suffering for a long time with others pointing to the Zanu-PF Government as the one causing the economic hardships.

As the saying goes “if you can’t beat them, join them,” the USA and the EU should find ways of re-engagement with the Zimbabwean government for the benefit of the majority of Zimbabweans who refused to be swayed by the illegal sanctions.

Zimbabweans are suffering because they got punished by both the EU and the USA because Zimbabwe felt that it was necessary to correct the economic imbalances that were created by the colonial master, Britain.

Zimbabwe was confronted with the wrath of the British and the Americans when the country embarked on the land redistribution programme that was viewed by the Western world as trampling upon the property rights of other people.

For that reason, both the USA and the EU rushed into imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe on the understanding that once the Zimbabwean people got affected by the economic hardships, they would dump Zanu-PF in favour of the MDC-T.

Both failed to foresee that if a country got punished economically through sanctions, people tend to get hardened and start supporting the political party which tends to be on the receiving end from super powers.

Instead of dumping Zanu-PF in favour of MDC-T, the Zimbabwean people showed the Americans and the Europeans that they cannot be forced into dumping Zanu-PF as a way of pleasing the Western countries.

As such on July 13, 2013, the people of Zimbabwe overwhelmingly voted the Zanu-PF party into power again, sending shock-waves to the Western world, resulting in the MDC-T party disintegrating into splinter political parties.

Now that the Western world has seen and appreciated that sanctions have failed to effect the regime change in the country, it is high time that they unequivocally removed all sanctions imposed on the country so that the people of Zimbabwe move forward again, economically.

The Western world should also realise that maintaining sanctions on the Zimbabwean people would not result in the regime change agenda being fulfilled.

Zimbabweans have survived the harsh illegal sanctions by being innovative, and have harnessed their resources like the land into productive entities and that has kept the country going all this while.

With our land, abundant minerals and plenty of human capital, sanctions will not have the same effects like in countries such as  Yugoslavia, where they successfully resulted in regime change.

Zimbabwe is a unique country, through its visionary leadership and resources has failed to bulk under the illegal sanctions and will continue to do so.

Mukachana Hanyani is a Harare based political analyst.