THE National Assembly passed the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill (Criminal Code), also known as the Patriotic Bill, recently.
That the opposition CCC tried to oppose and the provocative posturing by the US Embassy in Harare aptly sums up why the country needs more such laws to cushion it from wanton interference by outsiders who continue to use their local proxies to further their nefarious agendas.
There was little surprise in the CCC’s invocation of their now tired narrative that the law would ‘stifle’ democratic space, among their numerous anti-Zimbabwe theories, which was yet another inadvertent, timely confirmation of what the progressive world has said over the years – that they are indeed working with outsiders to destabilise the country.
But an opposition that openly clamours for alignment with hostile outsiders to malign and bring misery to its country in order to gain power deserves to be punished at the ballot and on all fronts.
And ours is an opposition founded on no solid ideological grounding hence their nauseating gyrating in front of and with Western governments whose detest of the upliftment of the livelihoods of the masses is a matter of public record.
That too will be duly taken care of by the Patriotic Bill which, to all intents and purposes, firmly asserts Zimbabwe’s stance as a sovereign country.
Zimbabwe is currently reeling from the devastating effects of Western-imposed sanctions which came into effect as a result of strenuous opposition lobbying and its overt collusion with the West and several other hostile foreign governments against Harare’s historic Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000.
History properly lays bare why the West engaged the services of certain characters in the country to do the bidding on their behalf.
The end of the war of liberation in Zimbabwe, in 1979, did not signal the end of Britain and the Rhodesians’ quest to maintain their grip on the land and the means of production.
It only meant they were living on borrowed time as the rightful owners of the land would soon want their asset back.
In order to maintain that control, the white commercial farmers embarked on a process of identifying those who would be useful to their untenable cause of maintaining that grip on the land and the economy.
The first port of call would be student activism in the early 1990s which today forms the core of opposition politics in the country.
Workers, grossly exploited by the same people who were controlling the land and the economy would also be critical in the destabilisation agenda.
A certain name would be picked up to pursue that drive.
From as far back as 2000, senior opposition leaders, such as the late Morgan Tsvangirai, ‘founder’ of the MDC, now fragmented into various entities and coalescing around the CCC, went on a whirlwind regional and global tour lobbying for economic sanctions and isolation of Zimbabwe.
The same history will never disconnect from the fact that CCC ‘leader’ Nelson Chamisa was a key member of anti-Zimbabwe gang, calling for a US-led military invasion of the country according to leaked January 14 2009 Wikileaks cable.
Not to be outdone is the so-called ‘civil society’ which also forms a critical chunk of that anti-Zimbabwe project whose objective is to galvanise the masses to turn against their Government and make the country ungovernable.
Today, part of the opposition narrative is their annoying claims that they are protecting the workers whose lives have taken a severe battering from the illegal economic sanctions they called for to be imposed on the country.
What is even alarming is their veiled attempt at feigning ignorance of why the law was enacted in the first place.
Any country’s wellbeing is anchored on a Government’s ability to protect its citizens from activities of hostile elements within and outside its borders, meaning the masses should be discouraged from embarking on actions that hurt national interests which are premised on a policy of non-interference.
This is what the Patriotic Bill seeks to do and achieve, according to Clause 2 (3) which says:
“Any citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe who, within or outside Zimbabwe, intentionally partakes in any meeting, whose object or one of objects the accused knows, or has reasonable grounds for believing involves the consideration of or the planning for implementation or enlargement of sanctions or a trade boycott against Zimbabwe (whether those sanctions or that boycott is untargeted or targets any individual or official, or class or officials), but whose effects indiscriminately affect the people of Zimbabwe as a whole, or any substantial section thereof, shall be guilty of wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe….”
Such actions which have been on display over the past two decades attract penalties of, among other things, imprisonment not exceeding 10 years.
And there is nothing benign about Western countries, in particular the US’ supposed ‘solidarity’ with the opposition in denigrating that law while playing commissariat role for CCC through their offensive activities on social media.
Uncle Sam has been teetering on the brink of breaking his host’s patience and will soon get what he deserves.
His tweet on June 1, promoting, endorsing and encouraging homosexuality in the country could be the final straw not only for the CCC but his undesirable stay in the country.
And this is precisely why the Patriotic Bill will nudge the nonsense and why August 23 2023 is crucial in maintaining the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
