'Let's develop and not fear of sanctions' - said so for decades still no development

"While indeed we still say to those who imposed sanctions on us, remove them because there is no justification for the embargo, we should not bury our heads in sand because of those sanctions," said President Mnangagwa.  

"We should realise that we have resources in our country. We must therefore focus on harnessing those resources to develop, modernise and industrialise our country and our economy."

Mr President, Zimbabwe is in a very serious economic situation right now and the root cause is that for the last 39 years the country has been ruled by the men and women who have their "heads buried in the sand", as you aptly put it. Consider your statements above:

1)    Zimbabwe economic decline started soon after independence in 1980 and by 1990 Zanu-PF was forced to adopt two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP), in the hope of reviving the economy. The two programmes failed to deliver the economic recovery and by 2001 when the west imposed the sanctions the Zimbabwe's economy was already in the gutter.

2)    Even if one accepted that the sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown. After 20 years of "harnessing our resources, modernising and industrialising our country" without success, the economy has sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss these last 20 years, surely it is high time Zanu-PF admitted it has failed.

The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is not the sanction but the criminal waste of the nation's human and material resources through gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Ordinarily, the nation would have nipped these problems in the bud by holding those ruling and ruining the nation to democratic account and, ultimately, remove them from office. Zanu-PF rigged the elections and so the nation was stuck with the incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical regime.

Zanu-PF blatantly rigged last year's elections to impose itself on a nation dying, literally, for free, fair and credible elections.  

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt and vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown will only get worse. You, Mr President, can falsely blame the sanctions for the country's economic woes and pretend you can rig economic recover; you are burying your head in the sand. The economic meltdown will only get worse.

The only way out is for Zimbabwe to cure itself of the criminal waste of the country's resource by curing itself of the curse of rigged elections. Zanu-PF rigged last year's elections, the regime is illegitimate and must step down. By stepping down, Zanu-PF will create to political time and space for the appointment of an interim administration tasked to implement the democratic reforms and to hold free, fair and credible elections.

"We should not have sanctions impugn our capacity and capability to use our resources to the benefit of our people. We should rise using the resources at our disposal and move forward," said Mnangagwa.

Zanu-PF has been promising to revive the economy for donkey years and year on year things have got progressively worse and worse. The regime is using the same discredited claim to justify hanging on to power. The regime will also use brute force to silence all dissent. Zanu-PF is holding the nation to ransom and we must say no!

If Zanu-PF remains in power until 2023, the party will rig the elections to extend its ruinous rule by another five years.

The greatest challenge before us all today is to make sure that Zimbabwe's 2023 elections are free, fair and credible. After 39 years of rigged elections and paying dearly for our folly it will be insane to let Zanu-PF rig the elections ever again!