Published by the government of Zimbabwe
31 July 2008
editorial
Harare — AMERICAN and European sanctions against Zimbabwe continue to expose their dubious interest in this country.
Recently, the European Union and the United States released extended sanctions lists that show over 20 Zimbabwean companies now subject to this illegal embargo.
On what basis can anyone claim that the US and the EU have targeted sanctions on individuals within just the ruling party and their close associates when companies are also sanctioned?
Institutions like Agribank, the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Zimre Holdings Limited cannot be divorced from the country's wider economy and the welfare of the ordinary person. There is no way that anyone can divorce the importance of parastatals and State enterprises such as the Industrial Development Corporation from the national economy.
By saying that certain companies cannot do business with American and European firms, the West is simply reaffirming what we have always believed: that the sanctions are meant to induce great economic hardships in Zimbabwe and turn the people against the leadership.
Why the West thinks that this will happen today - especially when the main political parties are at the negotiating table - when these measures have failed for about five years now, really boggles the mind.
In this regard, then, the sanctions are, indeed, targeted at the entire country.
They are not targeted at individuals in the country's leadership as the West so often claims, and they are not smart as some people would like the world to believe.
Zimbabwe's economy has staved off the numerous onslaughts it has been subject to since the illegal regime change agenda started and the US and its allies would like to see it crumble once and for all.
The sanctions cannot be divorced from the regime change strategy and former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell said as much when he told the gullible private media that the country would have totally collapsed by September last year.
That date has since come and gone. Elections have been held, Zanu-PF and the two formations of the opposition MDC are talking and the nation is looking to the future with renewed hope that we are approaching the end of the tunnel.
The West would not like to see Zimbabwe prosper under a Government that believes in empowering its own people first and the extended sanctions are supposed to ensure that the envisaged prosperity does not come.
Secondly, every right-thinking person is asking why the EU and the US are sanctioning particular Zimbabwean companies while leaving firms in which their nationals have an interest.
There are around 400 British-associated and many more American companies operating in Zimbabwe, sending regular dividends to shareholders sitting far away in Europe and North America.
Several members of the British Parliament are openly known to have various interests in the Zimbabwean mining and manufacturing sectors.
Furthermore, some of these companies with Western ties deal directly with institutions of State and so if their argument is that they do not want to do business with companies that supply the State with goods and services, then their own companies should also be sanctioned.
On Tuesday, the Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde George Charamba, noted the West's hypocritical behaviour in the composition of their illegal sanctions.
He asked why companies like Unilever and Caltex, which are American-owned, were allowed to supply their products to State House and the Office of the President if the West was so much against what they call "propping up the regime".
What is evident is that the EU and the US would like to suffocate Zimbabwean business and they would like to blunt our Look East Policy.
Be that as it may, we are confidently moving forward as a nation and our challenge is to rise above this malice from the West and continue working for a better Zimbabwe.
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Question posed by a dim minister and quoted by an equally dim editor of the herald in the above article: On Tuesday, the Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde George Charamba, noted the West's hypocritical behaviour in the composition of their illegal sanctions.
He asked why companies like Unilever and Caltex, which are American-owned, were allowed to supply their products to State House and the Office of the President if the West was so much against what they call "propping up the regime".
Answer from an average bloke: Because they are targetted sanctions bozo!!! mugarbage is NOT allowed to travel… [Read Full Text]
Sanctions can not be removed until the 'talks' have succeeded. People talked on 29 March 2008 and Mugabe rejected their calls for him to step down. Actually, I don't understand what Tsvangirai and Mugabe are talking about. Are they discussing Mugabe's assertion that Tsvangirai will never rule Zimbabwe? Or is Tsvangirai asking Mugabe to listen to Zimbabweans who resoundly called on Mugabe to go on 29 March 2008? Their discussions should reflect the expressed will of Zimbabweans (on 29 March 2008)that Mugabe's time is up and not the sham on 27 June 2008 which even embarrassed and shocked Mugabe himself… [Read Full Text]