Villagers stage demo against US Ambassador to Zimbabwe

United STATES ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Bruce Wharton's tour of Mutema banana project in Chipinge West was yesterday met with demonstrations from villagers demanding the total removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by his country.

Ambassador Wharton's delegation, which arrived around midday was met by placard-waving villagers who spoke against the sanctions saying partial aid to Zimbabwe was not benefiting anyone.

Some of the placards read: "The Real Aid We Need, Remove All Sanctions; Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Stop Seizing Our Export Earnings; American Aid plus Sanctions equals Zero and Thank You Mr Ambassador For The Bid, But Most Important Aid We Need Is Removal Of Sanctions."

A tour of the banana fields was ended abruptly after one of the villagers, Mrs Alice Mutyambizi, fell into a trance and could not allow foreigners on her piece of land.

Mrs Mutyambizi's bone of contention was that the tour guides led by Arex supervisor, Ms Naume Mayakayaka, had hired people who were not part of their block to speak glowingly about the project.

The hired people had the guts to trespass onto her land.

"Who are these foreigners on my land? Get away from here rubbish. How can you get people from other parts of this scheme to come here and pretend that they are the plot holders here?" fumed Mrs Mutyambizi.

One of the hired people, Ms Rose Tsanga was later heard apologising to a fuming Mrs Mutyambizi. She went on to plead with her not to continue raising dust and promised to compensate her for trespassing into her land. Ms Mayakayaka also confirmed that some of the people who were given a chance to address the American delegation were not plot holders in the toured fields.

Other villagers said their demonstration was necessitated by the fact that the US was trying to use divide and rule tactics and avoid the issue of removal of sanctions through trivial donations to projects.

"Yes, they are here assisting us through the Zimbabwe Agricultural Income and Employment Development programme under the USAID's programme, but we are getting just 35 percent of the total sales, with 65 percent going towards loans servicing.

"Our country is reeling under sanctions imposed by America and its allies, but their people led by the ambassador are here to try to paint a glowing picture on good relations between their country and ours. We do not want partial aid, but the total removal of sanctions," said Mr Martin Mtisi.

Another villager, Ms Elise Takaya, said sanctions had reduced most Zimbabweans to beggars. Speaking on the sidelines of the tour, Ambassador Wharton insisted that there were no sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, but restrictive measures imposed on 106 individuals.

"There are no sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, but there are 106 individuals who have travel restrictions. Our focus is on helping the people of Zimbabwe to ensure food security through projects like this banana project.

"My government is interested in making sure that we understand each other on how we should have a sound democratic process in Zimbabwe. We should continue to engage and do that every day," he said.

On the issue of the dirty dozen MPs accused of wining and dining with staff at the US Embassy, Ambassador Wharton said: "Dirty Dozen was a Hollywood movie released 30 years ago and is fiction."