RECENT startling revelations by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya that the cash shortages in the country are a result of externalisation is confirmation of the West’s meddling politics that seeks to cripple the country.
The West’s strategy meant to hold back the country, clearly revolves around sabotaging the economy.
There has never been any doubt that the West, together with its protégés in the country are bent on negating the broader empowerment of Zimbabweans.
Information gathered by The Patriot this week reveals that there is a co-ordinated and well-organised syndicate involved in an illicit cash outflow scheme that is designed to weaken ZANU PF ahead of the hugely anticipated 2018 harmonised elections.
There are several pointers to buttress the allegation that this syndicate is working towards creating grounds for people’s disaffection with the Government.
The first is the revelation that a staggering US$50 million has been externalised via wire transfers since January 2016.
Cash transported out of Zimbabwe physically is still to be quantified, but there are genuine fears that it could run into hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Second is the proposed demonstration by Morgan Tsvangirai’s embattled MDC-T over the introduction of Bond notes in the next two months.
The RBZ announced last week it would introduce Bond notes backed by a US$200 million Afreximbank facility to cushion Zimbabweans from the biting cash shortages that erupted in the past month.
And Tsvangirai, whose entry into mainstream politics was marked by economic sabotage characterised by senseless stay-aways and strikes, has in recent times found his voice again and is in a buoyant mood; daring the Government at each opportunity over what he says is an ‘economic meltdown’.
Also buoyed by the cash shortages, some pro-Western media outlets have been splashing headlines claiming that Zimbabwe is now a ‘dead country’ in order to galvanise the masses against the Government.
Mangudya told The Sunday Mail this week that the RBZ is investigating several top companies for allegedly externalising millions of US dollars, contributing to present cash shortages.
Those fingered in illicit financial flows will face the full wrath of the law.
Already, platinum giant Zimplats has been fingered in the damning whistleblower papers, ‘Panama Papers’, which revealed the company’s top management were paid millions off shore, depriving the State of much needed revenue.
Such is the reality of MDC politics that a weakened economy becomes a potential ticket to the coveted State House.
This is because a few months after its ill-fated September 11 1999 formation, the MDC was already in a ‘leadership’ mood with their predictions correctly tallying with those of their founders, funders and handlers in the West who were already preparing for a ‘post-Mugabe’ era.
The post-Mugabe era mantra is slowly finding traction within MDC corridors which is banking on the cash shortages to make its presence felt amid revelations by party insiders that the party is set to abandon its election boycott and form a coalition with fellow outcasts within opposition circles.
History is replete with MDC and the West’s economic sabotage activities.
Joining in the latest sabotage frenzy are some top companies and individuals who sympathise with the MDC.
In 2000, the MDC predicted a critical turning point by December of that year, saying President Mugabe and the Government would be out of power by Christmas.
In its February 21 2001 edition, the Daily News claimed President Mugabe would be out of office by the first day of July 2001.
Other media also chipped in; from South Africa, Norman Reynolds and others said that it was not only the President who would be out of office by July 2001.
The whole country would have completely run out of food by that time as well, they said.
With the strategy carefully knitted around blaming President Robert Mugabe for everything, including HIV and AIDS, economic saboteurs were making the loudest noise on the state of the country’s economy.
Speaking at the Africa University in Mutare (eastern Zimbabwe) in November 2005, former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell said: “Neither drought nor sanctions are at the root of Zimbabwe’s decline.
“The Zimbabwe Government’s own gross mismanagement of the economy and its corrupt rule has brought the crisis.”
Dell blamed President Mugabe for pursuing what he said was ‘voodoo economics’ in place of ‘economic orthodoxy’ to which he saw no other substitute.
This is the charge President Mugabe and his Government are being ‘convicted’ of today.
But surely externalisation of US$50 million in just four months cannot be blamed on President Mugabe.
It is simply sabotage, an act of economic war against the Government of Zimbabwe.
At the beginning of 2007, Dell would again read that his government had directed the American agro-processor, Olivine Industries, itself part of the Heinze empire, to close shop in Zimbabwe on the grounds that its raw materials, principally soya beans came from new black farmers who now occupy land ‘stolen’ from whites!
As the 2018 polls beckon, the reality is that Zimbabwe is facing another economic war reminiscent of 2008.