Sanctions were never Zimbabwe's real problem: Their removal will finally expose the regime's failures

My father always taught me that lies have very short legs - they can only run so far before being exposed.

The decision by the United States Congress to repeal the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (ZIDERA) and to remove targeted restrictive measures against a handful of Zimbabwean individuals and entities was long overdue. 

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I have frequently asserted that, for far too long, these sanctions have served as a convenient smokescreen for the ruling ZANU-PF regime to conceal its own catastrophic failures.

While presented as a blow to the government, in reality, the restrictive measures became a political lifeline for those in power, allowing them to deflect blame for the country's economic collapse and governance crisis onto an external force thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C.

The ordinary Zimbabwean never derived any benefit from the existence of sanctions. 

On the contrary, they worsened our plight - not in the way the regime tirelessly preached, but because they enabled ZANU-PF to escape accountability. 

From the moment sanctions were imposed, every crisis facing Zimbabweans was conveniently attributed to them. 

A shortage of medication in hospitals? Sanctions. 

No textbooks in schools? Sanctions. 

Empty supermarket shelves during the early 2000s? Sanctions. 

The collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar, soaring unemployment, and poverty? 

All supposedly the work of these measures.

What was always striking was the refusal by those peddling this narrative to explain the logical link between restrictive measures imposed on a small group of political elites and entities, and a whole nation brought to its knees. 

The sanctions consisted primarily of travel restrictions and financial transaction bans on specific individuals accused of corruption, human rights abuses, and electoral fraud. 

They did not in any way prevent Zimbabwe as a country from trading with the world or from accessing the goods and services it needed. 

Have we not been exporting our gold, lithium, black granite, and other resources without any obstacles?

Even the clause in ZIDERA that required the U.S. government to oppose new lines of credit to Zimbabwe from multilateral institutions was more symbolic than real. 

Zimbabwe had long since cut itself off from credit facilities - not because of sanctions, but because of its own chronic failure to service debts.

By the late 1990s, Zimbabwe was already defaulting on billions of dollars owed to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Paris Club creditors, and other international lenders. 

It was this track record of default and lack of fiscal discipline that shut the country out of financial markets, not the existence of U.S. laws. 

Indeed, the current government under President Emmerson Mnangagwa has openly admitted as much by establishing the Arrears Clearance, Debt Relief, and Restructuring (ACDRR) strategy to address its staggering $21 billion external debt. 

This initiative, championed by the African Development Bank and supported by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, underscores the reality that Zimbabwe's economic isolation was a product of its own making. 

The administration has even been making token quarterly payments to the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Paris Club creditors since 2021 to signal commitment to debt resolution. 

That symbolic gesture alone makes it clear that sanctions were never the real barrier to accessing international credit.

This exposes the central lie: if sanctions did not actually prevent Zimbabwe from borrowing or trading, then how could they possibly be responsible for the collapse of our economy, our industries, and our livelihoods? 

The truth is much starker. 

Sanctions became a convenient cover for the rampant corruption, gross mismanagement, and chaotic policy-making that have defined Zimbabwe's governance for decades.

It is estimated that Zimbabwe loses over $4 billion every year to corruption - money siphoned away through inflated contracts, shady mining deals, smuggling, and outright theft. 

This is money that should have been building hospitals, equipping schools, maintaining roads, and creating jobs. 

Instead, it vanishes into the pockets of political elites and their cronies. 

The result is a country with dysfunctional public services, crumbling infrastructure, and citizens trapped in deep poverty. 

Over 80 percent of Zimbabweans now live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. 

That reality has nothing to do with sanctions and everything to do with governance failure.

Equally destructive have been the erratic and schizophrenic economic policies pursued by successive ZANU-PF administrations. 

The repeated collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar, the chaotic land reform program that decimated agricultural productivity, the hostile treatment of investors, and the constant policy flip-flopping have created an environment of uncertainty in which businesses cannot survive. 

Many companies have closed or relocated, leading to mass unemployment and the destruction of livelihoods. 

Again, none of this can be blamed on sanctions. 

These are entirely homegrown failures.

Yet the propaganda machine went into overdrive to convince Zimbabweans otherwise. 

At one point, it was even claimed that Chester Crocker, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, had once declared: "We will make the economy scream, and it will be used as a tool to bring about political change in Zimbabwe." 

No record exists of Crocker ever making such a statement. 

It was a fabrication designed to give legitimacy to the false narrative that external powers were deliberately destroying Zimbabwe's economy. 

This is the level of deception that Zimbabweans were subjected to, and tragically, many believed it.

If anything, ZANU-PF benefitted from sanctions more than anyone else, treating them as a political lifeline. 

In fact, ZANU-PF needed sanctions to remain in power.

This is why I have consistently argued that sanctions had to go. 

Their existence, no matter how limited, provided ZANU-PF with the perfect excuse to mask its failures. 

As long as sanctions remained in place, the ruling elite could always point fingers outward, finding sympathizers who were all too eager to shift the blame from Harare to Washington. 

The suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans was weaponized into a political shield for the very people responsible for that suffering.

Meanwhile, the hypocrisy was glaring. 

If Zimbabwe was truly crippled by sanctions, where did it find the billions of dollars it has squandered on questionable tenders and inflated contracts, such as those awarded to dubious characters like Wicknell Chivayo? 

If sanctions made it impossible to import medical equipment, how are the ruling elite and their cronies able to so easily import fleets of luxury vehicles from Europe? 

The answers to these questions expose the hollowness of the regime's claims.

With the U.S. now moving to lift these measures, ZANU-PF will be stripped of its most useful political alibi. 

There will be no more sanctions to blame when hospitals remain in ruins, when schools are underfunded, when unemployment continues to soar, and when poverty deepens. 

The failures will be seen for what they are: the direct result of corruption, mismanagement, and a lack of political will to put the interests of the people above those of a greedy elite.

For Zimbabweans, this moment should be embraced as an opportunity to hold our leaders to account. 

With the sanctions narrative dismantled, there is nowhere left for the regime to hide. 

The excuses have been removed. 

The spotlight is now firmly where it should have always been - on those who govern us. 

If Zimbabwe remains in crisis, we can no longer be distracted by tales of foreign plots. 

We will know, without doubt, that the fault lies in Harare, not Washington.

In that sense, the removal of sanctions is not just overdue - it is liberating. 

It frees Zimbabweans from the fog of propaganda and forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth that our destiny lies in our own hands. 

If we are to rebuild our country, it will not be through scapegoating or conspiracy theories, but through demanding accountability, transparency, and genuine reform from those who hold power. 

For the first time in a long while, ZANU-PF will have no one else to blame. 

And that may just be the beginning of real change.

© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/