IN a week in which SADC’s focus, and indeed that of the rest of Africa, was on Anti-Sanctions Day, there were some gremlins desperate to divert attention from the major event.
At the 39th SADC Summit in 2019, the bloc’s leaders adopted a resolution declaring October 25 of every year Anti-Sanctions Day in support of calls to end the illegal coercive measures against Zimbabwe.
Like in previous years, Wednesday, October 25, the anti-sanctions message was again loud and clear.
Why not, when the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe through America’s ZDERA have their ripple effects ravaging the whole region.
The regional anti-sanctions crescendo should have the effect of forcing the perpetrators to listen and eventually act.
However, seldom do our Western puppets let such events just pass.
On a day when Angola, Botswana, Comoros, the DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and the rest of Africa joined Zimbabwe in denouncing the illegal sanctions as a modern day atrocity, our own CCC was calling for mass demonstrations.
For a people in an anti-illegal sanctions mode, the call was emphetically ignored.
It is the timing of this call that betrays the loyalty of the puppets among us to those countries responsible for the illegal sanctions.
This is why spreading the anti-sanctions message alone is not enough.
People should be educated equally vigorously on how their jobs, salaries, health, education, buying power, agriculture and social well-being are adversely affected by these evil sanctions.
Because of this, sanctions tend to tilt the electoral field in favour of the opposition who benefit from the protest vote.
Why Zambian Dr Nevers Mumba’s interim SADC report dealt on the country’s laws and court judgments, but remained mum on sanctions, only he and probably the EU and the Carter Centre know.
The addressing of marchers by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga in Africa Unity Square after their anti-sanctions march on Wednesday was one such suitable occasion to highlight awareness of the evils of sanctions.
He did just that.
The Mutoko Summit and similar ones are useful platforms for Government Ministries and departments to further expose the harm generated by sanctions.
It is at such fora people are given opportunities to give accounts of how they have personally been negatively affected by the illegal sanctions.
This helps to dismiss the myth that sanctions are targeted.
Now that Zimbabwe is the only SADC country under Western illegal sanctions at present, it is incumbent upon us to lead the way in showing how we can tame them.
The Second Republic has not been found wanting in this respect.
We are denied all lines of credit so as to cripple our development objectives.
For the past five years, the Second Republic has gone round this by use of own resources to initiate development projects.
The mantra: ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi’, has become a byword as the country embarks on a unique development trajectory.
One thing which distinguishes ZANU PF from its CCC counterpart is that the revolutionary Party is an oasis of democratic values and has belief in planning.
Thus, in all its deliberations, the party is already looking ahead to 2030 when an upper-middle income economy will have been achieved.
That is why the Party is having its 20th Annual National People’s Conference in Gweru over the weekend.
Here, the Party will collectively focus on reviewing progress and programmes in line with its development trajectory.
No wonder SADC has found it worthwhile to declare October 25 an Ant-Sanctions Day, working together with such a well organised political party.