The USA should lift sanctions on Zimbabwe

The admission by the USA government that the sanctions that they imposed in the country more than a decade ago have served the purpose that the USA wanted done, should make the same to lift them as keeping them save to make the Zimbabwean people to continue suffering for no apparent reason. It does not make any sense to make the sanctions remain, as its main objective of them being imposed has failed to materialise.

In Zimbabwe, sanctions had only managed to make ordinary people suffer economically, resulting in sanctions talk being on every person's lips. Since the sanctions have failed to effect the regime change which the Americans were hoping that they would bring in the country, now the best thing the Americans should do is to remove them so that the economic recovery of the country is realised as soon as possible.

 Zimbabwean people have been suffering for a long time with others pointing to ZANU PF as the one causing the economic hardships on them. Now that the USA government has admitted to sanctions have caused suffering on the people, it is high time that the same people get to know that it was not ZANU PF's failure to run the country but sanctions were responsible for the demise of the Zimbabwean economy.

The USA rushed into imposing some 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. America failed to foresee that if a country gets punished economically through sanctions, people there tend to get hardened and start supporting the political party which tends to be on the receiving end from super powers.

History has shown that sanctions have the world over have failed to achieve the desired objectives by the imposer of them. For example, Cuba which has been on the economic embargo from the USA for more than half a century ago has not looked back on its ideologies in order to serve the Americans' interests but she has carried on with her struggle. Right now the Cuban people have been economically sustaining themselves despite the economic embargo imposed by the USA in the 1960s. On the other hand, sanctions on Iran did not deter her from continuing with its civilian nuclear enrichment meant for electricity generation until the west saw it necessary to follow the route of negotiations as a means to stop Iran from its nuclear program.

Such routes taken by countries like Cuba and Iran in a way to fight western hegemony as a way to thwart the effects of sanctions imposed on them and others not mentioned above stood as a case study to the Zimbabweans who for more than a decade were not deterred by the effects of those sanctions. Instead of dumping ZANU PF in favour of MDC-T, the Zimbabwean people showed the Americans and the European Union (EU) people that they cannot be forced to dump ZANU PF as a way of pleasing the western countries. As such on 31 July 2013, the people of Zimbabwe overwhelming voted into power again the ZANU PF party, sending shockwaves to the western world, resulting in the MDC-T party disintegrating into splinter political parties.

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

The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) which was enacted into law by the United States of America (USA) in 2001 seeking to criminalize any American company which was going to do business with Zimbabwean companies need to be denounced and be scrapped from the USA's statutes. That law was enacted in the view that the Zimbabwean economy would shrink and then the people would turn against the government resulting in the regime change agenda being fulfilled in the country. As such there is need for that law to be repelled so that Zimbabwean companies get working closely with American ones as a way of reviving the economy of Zimbabwe.

The western world should also realise that keeping sanctions on the Zimbabwean people would not result on the regime change agenda being fulfilled. People are now concentrating on farming premised on the successful land reform that brought in new farmers. New farmers are busy with production in their farms and with the good rains coming successively, the economic hardships that the country used to experience would vanish away bringing in the economic revival of the country.

Facts on the ground are that the once powerful MDC-T which the west was hoping that one day it would take over from ZANU PF, is no longer in good form as its leaders are vying for each other's throat. It does not make any sense to let the sanctions remain in the country when there is no alternative opposition which might take over in case the people go against the government.

Now that there is disintegration in the MDC-T which the western world was pinning its hopes on, it should be enough evidence to make the west remove the sanctions in their totality. Sanctions which were said to have been targeted to top ZANU PF members and companies linked to them did not make the targeted people suffer but only ordinary people were/are in the receiving end. Sanctions did not stop the top ZANU PF people from enjoying their lives but only the generality in the country were/are hard hit by the effects of them.

Such real facts on the effects of sanctions that the ordinary people are the ones affected by them, should be the main reasons why the western countries should lift the sanctions in their totality so that the economic situation in the country is revived.