Opinion / Columnist
Pray, President Biden upgraded ZDERA Mark 2 effect change in 20 months, can't afford another 20 years waiting
16 Nov 2020 at 09:46hrs | Views
"Mnangagwa's govt taking initiative to woo Joe Biden, Washington!" reported Daily News.
"From the historical narration, the election of Biden may mean more of the same for Zimbabwe, although we believe that a lot of water has gone under the bridge," commented Zanu-PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa.
"Having said all this, we are urging our minister of Foreign Affairs to immediately engage the incoming US president's administration and bring to his attention the reality that for sanctions to target the country's economic pillars like they are doing is not promoting democracy.
"It is this sanctions law (the USA's Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, ZDERA) that has prevented Zimbabwe from getting support from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank and the African Development Bank."
What Zanu PF must be reminded, in they have conveniently forgotten, is that President-elect Joe Biden was one of the senators who sponsored ZDERA in 2001. He will not need anyone to remind him that the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe is a hell lot worse now than it was in 2001. The revision of ZDERA, to make the targeted sanctions more effective and to produce the desired meaningful democratic changes, is long overdue.
The targeted sanctions must be expanded to include the targeted individuals' family and cronies. Unlike the last 20 years, the sanction must be ruthlessly enforced.
Individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance, have agreed to work for the regime knowing Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and is therefore illegitimate. Zimbabwe's opposition leaders have participated in flawed elections giving the process some measure of credibility and the result some modicum of legitimacy. All these individuals are propping up this Zanu PF dictatorship for selfish reasons and they must now be added to the sanctions list.
Trump called for vote counting to stop but was powerless to do anything beyond tweeting endlessly about it. In 2008, Mnangagwa ordered voting counting to stop and it stopped immediately. It took the next six weeks to cook-up the vote count (six weeks to count 5 million votes) to reduce Morgan Tsvangirai's 73% votes, according to Mugabe's own Freudian slip, to 47%, enough to justify a run-off. Such is the enormity of Zimbabwe's democratic deficit.
America is having a problem getting President Trump to concede electoral defeat and to orderly vacate the White House after he was in office for only four years. How much more difficult would it be to get him to leave if he had been in office for four decades and had corrupted the judiciary, legislature and all the other state institutions; as has happened in Zimbabwe!
Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and political paralysis. Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed, millions are now living in abject poverty, etc. Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential threat, the country is standing on the edge of the abyss.
What the country needs to turn away from the brink is an end to the decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule. We need to implement democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
As long as Zanu PF remains in power there will be no meaningful reforms implemented and so all pressure must be brought to bear to force the regime to step down. The targeted sanctions from the USA, EU and other western nation are an important part of this pressure to force change.
So President Biden replace the outdated 2001 ZDERA with the upgrade and update ZDERA mark 2 designed to deliver the desire democratic changes in Zimbabwe in 20 months not another 20 years. If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office until 2023, the party will go on to rig that year's elections too! It will be bad enough for Zanu PF to remain in power until 2023; it is simply unthinkable that the party should rig the elections and extend its rule by yet another 5 years!
ZDERA mark2 and all the other economic and political measures must end the Zanu PF dictatorship by 2023, at the latest, without failure!
"From the historical narration, the election of Biden may mean more of the same for Zimbabwe, although we believe that a lot of water has gone under the bridge," commented Zanu-PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa.
"Having said all this, we are urging our minister of Foreign Affairs to immediately engage the incoming US president's administration and bring to his attention the reality that for sanctions to target the country's economic pillars like they are doing is not promoting democracy.
"It is this sanctions law (the USA's Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, ZDERA) that has prevented Zimbabwe from getting support from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank and the African Development Bank."
What Zanu PF must be reminded, in they have conveniently forgotten, is that President-elect Joe Biden was one of the senators who sponsored ZDERA in 2001. He will not need anyone to remind him that the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe is a hell lot worse now than it was in 2001. The revision of ZDERA, to make the targeted sanctions more effective and to produce the desired meaningful democratic changes, is long overdue.
The targeted sanctions must be expanded to include the targeted individuals' family and cronies. Unlike the last 20 years, the sanction must be ruthlessly enforced.
Individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance, have agreed to work for the regime knowing Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and is therefore illegitimate. Zimbabwe's opposition leaders have participated in flawed elections giving the process some measure of credibility and the result some modicum of legitimacy. All these individuals are propping up this Zanu PF dictatorship for selfish reasons and they must now be added to the sanctions list.
Trump called for vote counting to stop but was powerless to do anything beyond tweeting endlessly about it. In 2008, Mnangagwa ordered voting counting to stop and it stopped immediately. It took the next six weeks to cook-up the vote count (six weeks to count 5 million votes) to reduce Morgan Tsvangirai's 73% votes, according to Mugabe's own Freudian slip, to 47%, enough to justify a run-off. Such is the enormity of Zimbabwe's democratic deficit.
America is having a problem getting President Trump to concede electoral defeat and to orderly vacate the White House after he was in office for only four years. How much more difficult would it be to get him to leave if he had been in office for four decades and had corrupted the judiciary, legislature and all the other state institutions; as has happened in Zimbabwe!
Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and political paralysis. Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed, millions are now living in abject poverty, etc. Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential threat, the country is standing on the edge of the abyss.
What the country needs to turn away from the brink is an end to the decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule. We need to implement democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
As long as Zanu PF remains in power there will be no meaningful reforms implemented and so all pressure must be brought to bear to force the regime to step down. The targeted sanctions from the USA, EU and other western nation are an important part of this pressure to force change.
So President Biden replace the outdated 2001 ZDERA with the upgrade and update ZDERA mark 2 designed to deliver the desire democratic changes in Zimbabwe in 20 months not another 20 years. If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office until 2023, the party will go on to rig that year's elections too! It will be bad enough for Zanu PF to remain in power until 2023; it is simply unthinkable that the party should rig the elections and extend its rule by yet another 5 years!
ZDERA mark2 and all the other economic and political measures must end the Zanu PF dictatorship by 2023, at the latest, without failure!
Source - Nomusa Garikai
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