US, UK will beg us for dialogue, says Zimbabwe war vets

ZANU-PF and war veterans have threatened to take drastic measures against the United States and its ally Britain that will force the two super- powers to beg for dialogue within a fortnight.

The US, Britain and the European Union imposed sanctions on the ruling party elite, accusing them of gross human rights violations, with the US crafting the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act which was co-authored by the US President-elect Joe Biden.

Talking to a local television station yesterday, the ruling party secretary for war veterans, Douglas Mahiya, said the war liberators and the party had the capacity to sanction the US and Britain, eventually forcing them to the negotiating table.

The threats against America and her allies come after the ruling party and the former freedom fighters had hinted that there was likely no thawing of relations between the two because of the coming in of Biden as the new President, since US foreign policy does not change with change of a president.

Mahiya revealed that in his defence of the party's acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa, who recently labelled the US ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian A Nichols a "thug" after the presenter asked whether the language augured well for governing party Zanu-PF's re-engagement drive with the international world.

"In fact, the acting spokesperson Chinamasa has been professional in producing that statement. If you hear it from the war veterans now, if Chinamasa and the leadership of the party give us permission, we will sanction the Americans and the British," Mahiya said.

"It won't take two years, it won't take them two weeks before they call us to the negotiation table and this I want to assure you. You shouldn't expect Chinamasa to speak like a boy speaking to a headmaster, no! We are a sovereign State. Governing is not giving away a status that is expected and classified by our detractors."

He said Zanu-PF was not expecting the thawing of relations between the US and Zimbabwe because of the coming in of Biden, whom he said could not to do anything different from his predecessor, Donald Trump.

"Americans are Americans. Do you know they are white? They will remain white and so will be their principles. Their way of understanding black people does not change because there is a new president," Mahiya charged.

"We will be surprised to see Biden acting differently from his predecessor Trump. If he does so, we praise God and will then start speaking and producing a statement. We expect better relations, but you know it has not changed. It has happened in Guatemala. Americans are Americans."

When asked why Zanu-PF spoke ill about the US and called its ambassador to Zimbabwe a thug, but grovelled at humanitarian aid from the superpower during Cyclone Idai and COVID-19 disasters, Mahiya said sensible countries should not help only when there was a crisis.

"The contributions that we get for COVID-19 or Chimanimani disaster have nothing to do with economic development," he said.

"The nation must always thrive to be self-sufficient because the moment you cry (for help) to those people, you are enslaving yourselves.

"It is not right for a nation in its normal senses to help a country because there is a disaster. We don't have to cry for disasters to befall us to get help. They should allow Zimbabwe to develop and allow it to be part of the global family, that's if they are democratic.

"What it means is that they are undemocratic because they are not accepting a peaceful guy (President Emmerson Mnangagwa) who is saying let's work together, Zimbabwe is open for business."

Zimbabwe and America's relations have been frosty for over two decades after Harare embarked on a violent land grab at the turn of the millennium, which saw thousands of white commercial farmers losing their farms to resettled black farmers.