AS the anti-sanctions campaigns continue to gather momentum, one puzzle that has not escaped the attention of progressive forces across the board is the pervasive reality that the MDC is responsible for the embargo.

It is equally astounding that they continue to squander the opportunity to come out clean on their role in the fiasco so that the country can come together and pull in the same direction.

Despite their fervent denial on their role in calling for those gory sanctions, there is overwhelming evidence attesting to that ubiquitous fact, evidence which we will provide in this column.

Never mind their lies that the sanctions were as a result of so-called human rights violations, lack of rule of law or that Zimbabwe ‘failed’ to settle its debt with the IMF, World Bank and other international creditors.

It is indisputable that the MDC was founded on the basis of maintaining the hegemony of colonial rule premised on a few minority owning and controlling the means of production at the expense of the majority.

In their perverted estimate, the country is better off in the hands of a few whites whom they naively believe will better the lives of Zimbabweans.

As such, a suffering Zimbabwean populace can only be rescued from the doldrums by its tormentors!

Which is why it takes little to realise why the MDC handlers are hostile to the historic Land Reform and Resettlement Programme, the source of the impositions of those sanctions.

They are hostile to the economic empowerment of the masses since an empowered Zimbabwean leaves little room for them to regain control of the land and economy.

They are inimical to the collective unity and prosperity of the country and facts speak for themselves because a united Zimbabwe is difficult to manipulate.

They are woefully bunkrupt of any ideology except to hand over the country to the whites.

They do not represent anything of substance except to ascend to power through the suffering of the masses and, on this one, they are doing a good job of it as seen by the untold misery that the people of Zimbabwe have endured and continue to enduring as a result of the MDC’s sanctions.

This is why the MDC founding leader, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, would gleefully traverse the Western world calling for sanctions.

On March 12 2002, Tsvangirai met a senior member of the US Government, Senator Russell Feingold, in Washington whom he told ‘to paint as bleak a picture as possible’.

Not even the irony of calling for South Africa to cut off power supply could capture his hopeless imagination, if at all he had any.

In 2002 he said to the BBC:

“South Africa should say ‘OK, under those circumstances we are going to cut fuel, we are going to cut transport links’.”

Even the so-called inclusive Government failed to wake him up from his embarrassing slumber.

Wikileaks provided us with an interesting perspective of how naïve the MDC leadership was.

They still are!

In the US cables, Tsvangirai told the Americans that he wanted the sanctions to remain in place and that his meek calls for their removal were merely for public show!

The new MDC leader Nelson Chamisa was quoted in the damning cables as taking matters a step further.

According to the cables, not only did Chamisa want the sanctions to remain in place, he wanted the Americans to invade the country.

And the British and Americans were becoming increasingly agitated.

On more than one occasion, they unwittingly revealed that they work with the MDC, in particular Tendai Biti, to come up with the sanctions hit lists.

For instance, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that his country was working with the MDC to effect illegal regime change in the country, with the sanctions coming in as a useful conduit.

“We work closely with the MDC on the measures that we should take in respect of Zimbabwe, although I am afraid that these measures and sanctions, although we have them in place, are of limited effect on the Mugabe regime,” said Blair. 

“We must be realistic on that. 

It is still important to put pressure for change on the Mugabe regime.”

Elsewhere, the Americans were typically animated, planning for a post-Mugabe and ZANU PF Zimbabwe in which they saw a ‘stampede’ for Harare’s resources with the MDC firmly in power.

Even after President Robert Mugabe left office in November 2017, they continue to haunt the country, frantically trying to install an MDC-led government.

The Americans were clear on their intentions, with the late former Secretary of State Collin Powell admitting on June 4 2004 that his country was working with Harare’s opponents.

Said Powell: “And we (Bush administration) will continue to assist directly, in many different ways, the brave men and women of Zimbabwe who are resisting tyranny. 

If that happens (regime change), the US would be quick to pledge generous funding to the restoration of Zimbabwe’s political and economic institutions (which have been destroyed by the sanctions). 

Other donors (those Western countries that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe), I am sure, would be close behind (in restoring a Zimbabwe devastated by sanctions). 

Reading this, Robert Mugabe and his cohorts may cry, ‘Blackmail’. 

We should ignore them. 

Their time has come and gone.”

Lost to Powell and his Uncle Sam was that the brave men and women of Zimbabwe are those who have resisted the West’s tyrannical conduct as well as their imperialist propaganda.

These are the true and real heroes of our time and generations to come.

But the Americans were not done with us yet.

In its State Department Report, ‘Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The US Record 2006’, released in Washington DC on April 5 2007, the US proudly admitted to subverting President Mugabe’s Government and to supporting the opposition (MDC).

It added: “To further strengthen pro-democracy elements, the US Government continues to support the efforts of the political opposition, the media and civil society to create and defend democratic space and to support persons who criticise the Government (of President Mugabe).”

The tragedy with the MDC is their dishonesty which manifests in what one might call treachery.

For instance, while they claimed during the inclusive Government that the sanctions were hurting the masses, they would soon and typically make an about turn once they were out of Government. 

Such behaviour must be nipped in the bud once and for all and, once again, we make the call for expeditious signing into law of the Patriotic Act.

Biti, for once, had his belligerent mind cleansed.

Confronted with the agonising reality of running a sanctioned economy, he told the world in 2013 that the sanctions are destroying the country.

Let us hear him speak as published in The Globe & Mail edition of January 10 2013: “He called on Canada and the international community to lift sanctions on the country and its officials, saying they are not serving anyone. 

The use of sanctions and isolation, I think they’ve outlived their usefulness.”

On the eve of the July 31 2018 harmonised elections, Biti threatened to make Zimbabwe ‘ungovernable’ if the MDC Alliance lost the polls, which they did.

He claimed he would mobilise the world to impose more sanctions on Zimbabwe, saying ‘ZANU PF won’t get a penny’.

“The international community is not going to be fooled by this madness (2018 election results),” he said. 

“We will make sure they don’t get a cent,” he said, before being asked by a journalist how he was going to do it, to which he responded:

“I can’t tell you how but I can tell you we have done it before.” 

The other problem with the MDC is their fatalistic canard, their senseless illusion that the sanctions will catapult them to power.

But as evidence has suggested, the sanctions have emboldened Zimbabweans to fight for their country.

They have aroused the much needed sense of patriotism and made them fervently defend their country.

Let those with ears listen.