THE provocative attempt by the opposition CCC to overshadow Wednesday’s Anti-Sanctions Day commemorations through their failed demonstration on Monday was yet another stark reminder that their Western handlers, the sponsors of the debilitating embargo, are not about to let go of Zimbabwe.

The political compass once again pointed towards an escalation of the aggression against the country, with mineral resources formulating a critical chunk of their policy of targeting purportedly weaker countries.

The message from the West has always been clear from the onset that they are not only waging a war with Zimbabwe through their relentless onslaught on the citizens of this country; they are indirectly fighting against Africans who are pursuing economic independence from colonially induced poverty.

Their dire need of mineral resources to shore up their reserves in the wake of emerging giants like Russia, China and Brazil means they will up the tempo in their bid to install puppet governments.

Supporting Ukraine and Israeli genocide is financially draining their economies, severely affecting them for years to come hence the need to further destabilise countries like Zimbabwe whose mineral resources have been on their radar for far too long.

Zimbabwe, to them, and to the rest of the world, presents an untapped frontier of mineral resources that will spur the global economy in the very near future.

This is why, in Zimbabwe, we have an opposition we do not need; an opposition that is disconnected from the noble demands of a just and peaceful world; an opposition that is oblivious of evolving global political economic dynamics, hence their attempted rush to destabilise the country on Monday.

They call this ‘the struggle for democracy’ to equate their puppetry to the country’s war of liberation.

Western fingerprints were inscribed all over the failed demonstration.

It was just another message that our erstwhile enemies are continuing with their aggressive policy towards Zimbabwe, putting the country on notice for more vigilance. 

This is a familiar road traversed over the past two decades, a path that has been replete with failed efforts to effect regime change through illegal means. 

Each time there is a major event in Zimbabwe and beyond our borders, we are served with these mischievous antics by the opposition, orchestrated and co-ordinated by Western Embassies in Harare.

They were very much active in trying to render the Anti-Sanctions Day commemorations hollow, releasing funding and dishing out instructions to the opposition and its cohorts.

It was also another timely reminder that while the failed demonstration was a regurgitation of notes from the old script, the long-held plan of sabotaging the country remains very much at play. 

The West’s plan has always been for the people to enjoy political independence without any economic benefits accruing to them, which is why at the core of the fight with Zimbabwe is land.

That is why the prime task of the opposition at its inception was to hand back the land to whites if perchance they had assumed power.

The ill-fated formation of the MDC, now CCC, on September 11 1999 was not in any way meant to protect the worker. 

It was specifically designed to put the country in the hands of the US and Britain, to curtail the economic independence for the people of Zimbabwe.

Workers, whom they claimed to protect, have lost their jobs as a result of the illegal sanctions they imposed to dissuade the rest of Africa from copying the Zimbabwean template of repossessing stolen land and resources.

But telling the sanctions story must begin with its most shocking moment, the role that was played by some individuals in the country in calling for the same.

On a relatively chilly winter day in Zimbabwe, on June 13 2000, somewhere in the US, former US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Chester Crocker, was laying bare his country’s destabilising plan of a Harare that was in the middle of correcting a historical injustice through the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme.

He had had contact with senior members of the MDC, such as its founder, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, Gabriel Chaibva and Welshman Ncube, among others, who were aided by Rhodesian remnants who included Ian Kay, Roy Bennett and David Coltart.

The plan was to isolate Zimbabwe from accessing lines of credit from the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs).

 Significantly, the sanctions were designed to mobilise the masses against their Government. 

More than two decades on, Zimbabwe is still on its feet.

But the war from the West is far from over.

As Zimbabwe commemorated the Anti-Sanctions Day on Wednesday, fresh on the minds of progressive Zimbabweans was how the embargo has not been the only weapon used as elements outside Zimbabwe are now being roped in the evil machinations.

The latest episode to play out were the August 23 harmonised general elections.

The West tried to use the head of the SADC EOM, Nevers Mumba, from Zambia, to sneak opposition leader Nelson Chamisa into the State House through the backdoor in the just ended elections, desperately claiming authorship of a preliminary election report that had been written by malicious characters from the EU and the US.

This is part of the West’s frenzied plan to remove liberation movements in Southern Africa from power.

We have not seen the last of that plan, which is also anchored on the opposition’s naivety.

The opposition, together with their Western handlers, have relied on cynical and opportunistic propaganda that the sanctions are ‘targeted’ at a few individuals within the ruling Party ZANU PF, trying to hoodwink Zimbabwe into voting for them.

Besides their feeble attempt to clothe themselves in ‘democratic’ robes, something they have failed dismally to exercise in their party, they have not really exhibited anything that points to them being equal to the mammoth task of running the country’s affairs.

Hence their endorsement of illegal sanctions which have left the people of Zimbabwe with psychological scars, reminiscent of those of the liberation struggle. 

Choosing October as the month to denounce the new strategy by the West to subdue African countries is a befitting way to honour great men like Thomas Sankara, Samora Machel and Colonel Muammar Gaddaffi who lost their lives at the hands of the West.

While the country continues to bask in the many successes of the home-grown solutions it has adopted to curb the effects of the sanctions, there should never be easing of the call for the removal of the embargo.