Opinion / Columnist
New UK sanction confirm 'Zanu PF has lost international goodwill' - must be smarter sanctions
11 Feb 2021 at 09:58hrs | Views
There is a growing international consensus that the West, starting with the UK, has lost patience with the Zanu PF's contemptuous arrogance and disregard for human rights and common decency and is turning on the screw on the regime to force change.
In a majority foreign policy statement, flexing its muscle to mark the country's break away from the EU, the British govern imposed sanctions on four Zanu PF leaders.
"These sanctions are coming as a signal that Zimbabwe no longer has friends in the West because when Mnangagwa came to power they [British] wanted to see if they could re-engage Zimbabwe," said Daglous Makumbe, in New Zimbabwe. He is a lecturer in the department of political studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
"These sanctions are a manifestation of what has happened since 2017 - that Mnangagwa has not fulfilled his promises."
For the record, the British did bend over backward to help Zimbabwe re-engage with the West following the November 2017 military coup and even after Mnangagwa had failed to keep his promise to hold free and fair elections in July 2018. It was Professor Stephen Chan who advised the British to attend his inauguration; the only Western nation to send a Minister to grace the occasion.
Thank God the penny has finally dropped and the British have woken up to the reality that Zanu PF thugs are determined to continue to ride roughshod over the ordinary people denying them their freedoms and rights just to hang on to power! Mnangagwa's promises of free, fair and credible elections, a new democratic dispensation, etc. were just hot air to string the naive and gullible and gain himself a bit of political slack.
What the British have done by imposing the sanction on the Zanu PF leaders is remind Mnangagwa that they hate being taken for fools.
The American sanctions on Zanu PF leaders will be due for their annual renewal in the next few weeks. West must do now is fine tune the sanctions and make them bite. There is no doubt that President Biden will not only renew the sanction but also review them, to make them bite!
The West must also think of addition new faces on the sanctions list. Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance, must be added to the list for working for the regime knowing fully well Zanu PF rigged the elections and the regime is, per se, illegitimate.
MDC leaders must also be added to the sanctions list for selling out on implementing the democratic reforms and participating in elections they knew are flawed and illegal and thus giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
"It is indeed a bad sign that the Zimbabwe administration is fast losing not only the goodwill which it had following the November 2017 military action, but also the very few friends which it had made since then," said Tawanda Zinyama, a University of Zimbabwe academic.
Zanu PF has been under these targeted Western sanctions for over 20 years now and they have clearly failed to force the regime to implement democratic reforms and change its ways. They renewed sanctions must be smarter and focus to achieve the desired results!
In a majority foreign policy statement, flexing its muscle to mark the country's break away from the EU, the British govern imposed sanctions on four Zanu PF leaders.
"These sanctions are coming as a signal that Zimbabwe no longer has friends in the West because when Mnangagwa came to power they [British] wanted to see if they could re-engage Zimbabwe," said Daglous Makumbe, in New Zimbabwe. He is a lecturer in the department of political studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
"These sanctions are a manifestation of what has happened since 2017 - that Mnangagwa has not fulfilled his promises."
For the record, the British did bend over backward to help Zimbabwe re-engage with the West following the November 2017 military coup and even after Mnangagwa had failed to keep his promise to hold free and fair elections in July 2018. It was Professor Stephen Chan who advised the British to attend his inauguration; the only Western nation to send a Minister to grace the occasion.
Thank God the penny has finally dropped and the British have woken up to the reality that Zanu PF thugs are determined to continue to ride roughshod over the ordinary people denying them their freedoms and rights just to hang on to power! Mnangagwa's promises of free, fair and credible elections, a new democratic dispensation, etc. were just hot air to string the naive and gullible and gain himself a bit of political slack.
What the British have done by imposing the sanction on the Zanu PF leaders is remind Mnangagwa that they hate being taken for fools.
The American sanctions on Zanu PF leaders will be due for their annual renewal in the next few weeks. West must do now is fine tune the sanctions and make them bite. There is no doubt that President Biden will not only renew the sanction but also review them, to make them bite!
The West must also think of addition new faces on the sanctions list. Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance, must be added to the list for working for the regime knowing fully well Zanu PF rigged the elections and the regime is, per se, illegitimate.
MDC leaders must also be added to the sanctions list for selling out on implementing the democratic reforms and participating in elections they knew are flawed and illegal and thus giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
"It is indeed a bad sign that the Zimbabwe administration is fast losing not only the goodwill which it had following the November 2017 military action, but also the very few friends which it had made since then," said Tawanda Zinyama, a University of Zimbabwe academic.
Zanu PF has been under these targeted Western sanctions for over 20 years now and they have clearly failed to force the regime to implement democratic reforms and change its ways. They renewed sanctions must be smarter and focus to achieve the desired results!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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