USA's latest demands on Zimbabwe a red herring

The submissions by one Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Dr. Todd Moss and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Matthew Harrington before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, last week, finally revealed, to the most perceptive Zimbabweans, what MDC Deputy National Chairperson, Tendai Biti, meant when he once gloated that the opposition was responsible for starving Zimbabwe of the much needed foreign funding and would do it again!

Moss came out guns blazing, dismissing the Zimbabwean Government's reforms – opening up of the political space, a lean cabinet manned by technocrats, anti-corruption drive, change of leadership narrative from focusing on politics to economy, articulation of a National Vision and Economic Road Map for the country and the alignment of Zimbabwe`s Laws to the 2013 Constitution – as shallow, basing on the alleged shameful treatment of Biti, during and after his arrest. Biti is accused of illegally announcing the results of the July 30 presidential ballot and inciting the deadly post-election violence which left six people dead.

In a bid to get sympathy for Biti, Moss went on to make unsubstantiated claims that since the July election, the former has escaped three attempted abductions, and now together with his family face constant harassment and death threats from the security forces, mysterious groups of thugs, and a sham court case. He ended his case by asserting that, "If the regime is this brazen in its actions against a known and respected opposition leader with close ties to the US and other donor governments, it only hints at the persecution and suffering of less visible civil society activists."

Not to be out done, Harrington, pointed out that among the several steps the Government of Zimbabwe should take that would send a strong signal to its own people and the international community that it is serious about taking the country in a new, more positive direction is dropping charges against Biti.

The stampede by the Americans to portray Biti as an innocent victim has led many to question if Biti, even when suspected to have committed a crime, was not supposed to be arrested because of his ties with the US? Like any other Zimbabwean accused of a crime, Biti has been given a chance to prove his innocence. The US simply has to let justice take its course – and if their friend, Biti, is innocent, he will be acquitted.

This incident serves to bring out the insincerity of the American Government, which prides itself as the defender of the rule of law and now asking our Government to disregard same as prerequisite for meaningful engagement. Why not act as they preach and let the law be the winner in this case?

The same incident also brings out how low Trump's Government regards Zimbabweans in general by equating one criminal (until proven otherwise)'s comfort to the welfare of the whole country – release Biti or the sanctions will stay, really?

Biti is one of the proponents of the regime change agenda in Zimbabwe – hence very important to the, architects of the agenda, the Americans. If truth be told, the Americans only care about human rights and the rule of law when advocating for them advances their foreign policy.

The continued stay in power of ZANU PF, which advocates for the control of local resources by indigenous people, threatens the interest of the Americans, which justify why the country is under illegal sanctions. The Americans intent to collapse our economy, so that Zimbabweans would be up in arms with Government, resulting in a puppet administration taking over – giving the former control of the country's resources.

To divert the attention of Zimbabweans from the real issue, Moss claims that the Zimbabwean Government constantly complains that economic difficulties are the result of US sanctions rather than their own mismanagement and corruption – well, there is only one way to find out, remove the sanctions and prove that indeed mismanagement is responsible for the economic down turn bedeviling Zimbabwe.

The long and short of it is that Americans are sending us on a wild goose chase. All these never ending demands are meant to divert our Government's attention from delivering on its promise to better the lives of its people. President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to reform the country, and some reforms have already been done – more reforms are coming, not to please the Americans but to ensure that the country attains a middle income economy status by 2030.