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Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe has been sanctioned by the West for embarking on the Land Reform Programme which seeks to empower its people and correct colonial land ownership imbalances, a United States academic has said.
In a video circulating on social media, Bikrum Gill, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech in the US, said Zimbabwe was among countries that have been sanctioned by the West for trying to correct colonial legacies that deprived the nations access to their resources.
Zimbabwe has been under the yoke of illegal sanctions for over two decades.
The sanctions were imposed as a direct response to the fast-track land reforms adopted by the Government.
“So, now those States that have particularly been targeted by the sanctions regime are those States that have actually started to implement policies or impose measures that can overcome that deficit that is the result or legacy of colonialism, the deficit of capital, the deficit of access to investible resources with which they can undertake sovereign development,” said Prof Gill.
“And what are the means to this? What are the specific policies? These are the things like nationalisation of resources, things like agrarian land reform that can overturn the colonial property structures that facilitate the trade of surplus, and if you look historically, it is those States at which sanctions are at most, acutely targeted.
“We can talk about Zimbabwe which is an excellent example. When Zimbabwe seeks to overturn the inherited colonial property structure, they are subject to sanctions where the neighbouring South Africa never actually undertakes any form of radical agrarian land reform that overcomes the inherited colonial property structure and South Africa is not subjected to sanctions.”
Prof Gill said it was clear that the sanctions were meant to restore the colonial ownership of resources that benefited the colonial powers.
“So that’s a very clear distinction of what’s at stake in the sanctions regime of trying to re-impose the colonial property structures that facilitate a surplus drain from periphery to core.
“I think we see whether the sanctions are targeted at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or the sanctions are targeted against Cuba, against Zimbabwe, against Iran or against Venezuela, clearly the sanctions are targeted at those States that seek to challenge the Euro-Western capitalist right to commerce in their territories through programmes like nationalisation and land reform and I think that’s a very key point here, and how are they able to impose sanctions on Venezuela, on Cuba and Iran?
“It’s because they continue to enjoy monopoly control over the surplus capital that was generated by the history of capitalism and imperialism,” said Prof Gill.
Sanctions on Zimbabwe were imposed to force the country to reverse the Land Reform Programme and over the years, the embargo has been tightened to make life difficult for the people so they turn against the ruling Zanu PF, in favour of opposition parties.
Western countries have gone on finance the opposition MDC, which has, however, split over the years due to struggles for power.
Professor Alena Douhan, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, has said the US and other Western countries should lift illegal economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe as the unilateral punitive measures are making ordinary people suffer.
Prof Douhan was in Zimbabwe last year to assess the impact of the sanctions, and compiled a report.
African leaders and those from friendly States have taken turns since 2019, to call for the lifting of the illegal sanctions.
This year, African leaders took advantage of various platforms including the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly and recently the US-Africa Summit held in Washington, D.C., to demand the lifting of the sanctions.
On its part, SADC took advantage of its 39th Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Tanzania to declare October 25 as the day of action against sanctions.
Since then, events are held across the region and continent to protest the sanctions.
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