IT is befitting that the UN Special Rapporteur, Alena Douhan, will still be in Zimbabwe on Monday, October 25 when SADC will be marking its anti-Zimbabwe Sanctions Day.

While Douhan is on a 10-day fact-finding mission on the effects of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, SADC will be emphasising the call for these unilateral coercive measures to be  unconditionally removed immediately. 

The economic strangulation of Zimbabwe by these measures is diabolic.

These unilateral coercive measures have made it difficult for Zimbabwe to access lines of credit and to attract investment.

This has, in turn, adversely affected agriculture, industry, mining and access to markets.

The closure of factories has forced retrenchments, with thousands losing their jobs while the decline in agricultural production has worsened poverty and hunger among ordinary Zimbabweans.

These are the main sources of formal employment.

Lack of job opportunities as as a result of these unilateral sanctions has forced thousands of Zimbabweans to leave the country to seek employment elsewhere.

Zimbabwe, if left alone to run its affairs without imposed hurdles like these cruel illegal sanctions, is capable of competing with the best.

Thousands of jobs have been killed by these heartless sanctions.

Zimbabwe has lost a staggering US$42 billion in revenue over the past 18 years.

The withdrawal of grants by donors who fear to be punished by the US has particularly crippled the health sector.

What else can we say about unilateral sanctions that don’t even care about health and death of innocent souls.

That is why these illegal coercive measures have been condemned, not only by SADC, but also by the AU and the UN itself.

Here in Zimbabwe are the people who have felt the debilitating effects of these evil measures.

Religious organisations, industrialists, politicians,  health practitioners, teachers, farmers, students, miners and farmers, among others, all want immediate unconditional removal of these genocidal measures.

Surprisingly though, there are some among us who are urging the tightening of these sanctions.

And curiously enough, they are Zimbabweans!

But these are Zimbabweans only in outlook  and yet, in reality, they are Western-backed puppets dancing to the tune of their master’s voice.

Some civic society groups and Nelson Chamisa’s variant of the MDC,  in particular,  don’t like sanctions to go

This Western created party looks at these sanctions as a potent weapon to attract the vote of the protesting suffering masses.

There will be talk of unsubstantiated looting and corruption.

And the crafters of these sadistic sanctions knew very well that these measures would be an effective catalyst to this worldwide  scourge.

But why subjecting a newly independent country like Zimbabwe to such inhuman illegal sanctions.

There is a misleading conception why these sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe by the West in the first place.

The Land Reform Programme only helped to trigger a grand design by the US and its allies.

The West never wanted the liberation movements to be in power because they feared they would guard their resources jealously.

The vast natural resources in countries that won their independence through the gun has seen the West drooling uncontrollably over them.

They then think the best way to get control over them is by imposing proxy governments in countries like Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.

That is where the gospel of regime change in Southern Africa comes from.

Illegal punitive sanctions on Zimbabwe are meant to bring down ZANU PF, a Government by a former liberation movement. 

And the West believes that once a Government by a former liberation movement in Zimbabwe is replaced by a pliant puppet regime, that wind of change would be replicated throughout the region.

SADC is aware of this and won’t let it happen.

The West has always had a soft spot for for puppet parties like Abel Muzorewa’s UANC and their cousins led by Ian smith.

That is why the West only half-heartedly supported the legal sanctions imposed on the rebellious Smith regime.

And the US was not even ashamed to breach the legal sanctions imposed on Rhodesia through the Byrd Amendment Act of 1971, giving Smith  lifeline.

This was an Act which saw the US defy the UN by allowing  banned chrome imports from Rhodesia.

This is the same US which is now imposing illegal sanctions, with everything they entail, that are strangling the economy of an emerging democracy like Zimbabwe .

Thus, we see there is not even one noble cause for the imposition of these unilateral sanctions.

The main reason, as the US has already pointed out, is to see our economy ‘scream’.As the economy screams, innocent souls suffer. 

We have had general elections ever since the illegal unilateral sanctions were imposed.

An MDC variant, now led by Nelson Chamisa, was created by the West to take advantage of an electorate being choked by illegal sanctions.

But this is an electorate whose relatives were prepared to shed blood to free themselves from the shackles of colonialism.

That time, the West tried to use UANC, hoping Zimbabweans would punish the liberation movements for the loss of lives during the war. 

The Western proxy party got three seats while the liberation movements got 77. 

As we go towards the 2023 harmonised elections, there shall be a lot of noise about a level playing field,

However, we believe the most uneven part of the playing field are the ruinous illegal sanctions.

We suggest ZANU PF demand their removal first, even if it means only two years up to the 2023 harmonised general elections.