Of sanctions and misgovernance

Am writing this piece after 1 year since I wrote on sanctions and with this small piece I think I will manage to clarify the position on sanctions, however, democracy dictates that one is free to agree to my views totally or in part or reject whichever case.

Zimbabwe is under two sets of sanctions grouped as 1 which target certain individuals mostly Zanu Pf and those who support it directly or indirectly these do not have much effect, the second which are the cause of concern to me are those that are imposed on certain companies and zimbabwe at large, some will say Zimbabwe itself is not on sanctions, that's fine I will explain and to those with the objective mind will understand.

Those sanctions against individuals do not have a direct impact on our economy, although the indirect effects can be felt. I remember Mugabe at one point saying AMERICA WE DONT NEED YOU TO REMOVE SANCTIONS SO THAT WE COME TO AMERICA AND TAKE YOUR WOMEN, NO WE WANT TRADE AND BUSINESS(in Mugabe's tone). Therefore these sanctions on individuals are not worth focusing on, but the indirect part that I was trying to bring out is supposed Tagwirei owns ZUVA petroleum and that Zuva is put under sanctions and it collapses totally, yes on paper many may celebrate but how many jobs would be lost??? Fine, let me move to another set of sanctions.

Zimbabwe is under sanctions as a country, now am explaining HOW, those who have been trading forex like me understand that Zimbabweans due to sanctions cannot operate Skrill, Perfect Money, Neteller or Wirex accounts both owned by US, they were blocked for Zimbabweans coz we are under sanctions am one such victim and am not on US sanctions list but am suffering this and as of now I have since stopped trading forex and those who tried to forge ahead had to open accounts using SA addresses, the same goes with Paypal where you can only use it to send money and no receiving, as for me I used all this and am not talking from hearsay then you hear someone saying sanctions only affect Zanu official hmmm HOW and if so why not let me use and enjoy electronic services the same way my colleagues in SA are enjoying but because ZIM is under sanctions I cannot.

There is a clause in Zidera which calls for US representatives to vote against any bill that may support Zimbabwe financially in all platforms that they are represented and in this case, we know who controls the World Bank and IMF for now, I don't need to explain further.

Those who follow Masiyiwa knew he said that after doing good presentations many would-be investors would come to me and say we love doing business with you  BUT WE ARE AFRAID WE DONT WANT TO HAVE PROBLEMS WITH US AUTHORITIES UNDER OFAC(office of foreign assets control), in this case, I don t need to explain further and in these 3 angles that I explained its clear that ZIM is under sanctions as a country.

Then I move to the last group of Sanctions those that were imposed on entities like Olivine Brothers, ZB Bank, Agribank, CBZ (partly) among others, these sanctions exist and you wonder why US ambassador says there are no sanctions maybe he should explain further what he mean by saying these are not sanctions and explain what are they. Banks that are on sanctions find it hard if not possible to use US financial services SWIFT, MASTERCARD, VISA among others that's why you see some banks like ZB and POSB don't have MasterCard and visa services its not like they don't want but they are forbidden then we say there are no sanctions. Then what's the case in in such scenario a holder of a POSB account would be forced to open another account with FBC or Banc ABC if he wishes to use VISA or Mastercard service and it will be surprising for me to see an individual being indirectly forced to open two accounts saying ZIM is not under sanctions hey.

Due to these sanctions were is Olivine, ARDA among others?? those companies failed to stand the shock of sanctions and some like Zisco steel had to cease operations and this resulted in the high unemployment rate which we are complaining about today but still, we are saying sanctions do not have an effect.

However, we have to be clear with ourselves that our failures are not entirely due to sanctions as we have other bad practices like corruption, looting, nepotism, inconsistency in policies which I believe if we sort right would transform our country regardless of these sanctions but let not fool ourselves that sanctions don't exist or that they do not have effect if they had no effect why is the US so foolish to impose and keep sanctions that have no effect and then keep on reviewing them every year??? do you think they are that dumb? NO NO, these sanctions have an effect. Some would say but America is trading with us YES we are trading but at America's pleasure, if they want yes they come to us but we cannot initiate those deals go thru all the deals and you will see it.

These views are my personal views I could have kept on explaining but in short, I wanted to highlight that sanctions exist and do have an effect on our economy but those sanctions are not the sole cause of our economic decay but whichever case they need to be removed.

Article by Kumbirai Stein Chivhuna
steinkumbi@gmail.com