WE are now getting sick and tired of hearing the US pontificating about democracy and human rights and yet their track record is far from positioning them as paragons of virtue or, indeed, ideal lecturers on such issues.
Invariably the world’s self-styled world policeman will be targeting Zimbabwe.
The latest is by US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland.
In a recent press conference, she said Zimbabwe, which was once a beautiful country in the 1990s, was ‘falling back’ in its observance of both democracy and human rights. To paint an even grimmer picture, she said the country’s economy had ‘collapsed’.
As if hanging on Nuland’s coattails, sacked former South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane seemed to read from the same script on the 41st Anniversary of our Heroes holidays last week.
His diatribe against ZANU PF rule was meant to please his Western handlers.
When talking about democracy and human rights, the Americans tend to see the speck in Zimbabwe’s eye and fail to see the log in theirs.
Documented evidence shows that the US police extrajudicially killed
1 021 blacks in 2020.
But you hear the Americans harping on the post-electoral violence of August 1 2018 when six people were shot dead.
The Motlanthe Commission set to investigate the incident concluded that the death had occurred when security forces shot back after being overwhelmed by a violent crowd bent on destruction.
There is no way we can condone any incident that leads to loss of life.
However, what baffles us is how the Americans tend to go on top of Mount Everest to announce the death of the six Zimbabweans.
And yet they appear unconcerned about the thousands of blacks killed by their police over the years.
Isn’t this the height of hypocrisy?
Nuland talks about ‘democracy challenges all over Africa’, Zimbabwe included.
This is not surprising since democracy and human rights are contextual.
There is no one size fits all.
To the Americans, gay marriages, homosexualism and lesbianism are basic tenets of democracy and human rights, whereas here in Africa, Zimbabwe included, these abominable practices are repulsive.
A major tenet of democracy, universal adult suffrage, was introduced in Zimbabwe only after American cousins, the British, had been defeated on the battlefield.
Now then, how dare these people attempt to lecture us on democracy!
The Americans, speaking in the corner of the MDC Alliance, have incessantly been calling for ‘reforms’.
Yet the Second Republic has effected a number of reforms the opposition had been calling for.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) is gone and Public Order and Security Act (POSA) is now history.
And, of course, the realignment of laws to the Constitution is an ongoing legislative process.
True, a number of opposition members have been arrested and taken to court.
In most cases, the culprits were activists seeking publicity by deliberately breaking the law.
But then no-one is above the law.
The most ridiculous utterance by Nuland was her claim that the Zimbabwean economy had ‘collapsed’.
This was obviously their wish when they imposed illegal sanctions after indigenes had been empowered by being given land.
But this is a country whose economy is projected to grow by a staggering 7,8 percent, the highest in the SADC region!
In fact, all the ingredients of a country going forward are there for all to see.
Because of good rainfall and wise farming methods, the country’s food security is unprecedented.
Multi-billion mining ventures have been approved.
Infrastructure, like roads, is being refurbished.
Above all, through well thought out reforms, our currency has stabilised while inflation has been effectively tamed.
Maybe it would have been a good idea if Nuland had paid us a visit since she was in the neighbourhood, otherwise her distorted perception has made her a very unreliable political analyst.
