By Zivanai Dhewa
As the anti-Zimbabwe narrative continues to escalate across the globe, ostensibly meant to discredit the person of the President and Government of Zimbabwe, former Deputy Finance Minister Terrence Mukupe has defended Government position and exposed the real cause behind the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.
Speaking through a virtual interview with a Nigerian news channel Arise News, Mukupe dismissed assertions that the struggling economy of Zimbabwe was as a result of failed policies, but rather unpacked the origins of what caused the perpetual suffering of the people of Zimbabwe.
“On the state of the economy, I think you have to look at the genesis of what caused the collapse, which is sanctions that have been imposed on the country. If you are to read the ZIDERA Bill, any financial institution that the American government has got a contribution to cannot transact with Zimbabwe, as a result it means the IMF, the World Bank and any of the international banks cannot provide any lines of credit to Zimbabwe.
Posing a question to the interviewing duo, Mukupe said, “Now you tell me as Nigerians, right now if all the lines of credit, where cut off from your businesses where you going to survive.
“We are very clear, as long as the sanctions are there no one will thrive. I can take the Nigerian government and bring them to Zimbabwe under the condition of the sanctions, I can bet you they will fail, no one will be able to succeed,” Mukupe said.
Adding that, “As Zimbabweans we are saying please give us the space, give us the room to be able to operate normally and lets not have a situation where you put conditions that will not allow our businesses and people to thrive. Lets get rid of the sanctions, lets get rid of the ZIDERA Bill. Allow international companies to be able to trade freely with Zimbabwe".
Making reference to the recently signed Global Compensation Deed Agreement, while responding to a question on why Zimbabwe made the commitment to pay the farmers given its state of the economy, Mukupe said, “According to the ZIDERA bill in terms of the sanctions on Zimbabwe that’s one of the conditions that we have to pay the farmers, if we don’t pay these farmers the sanctions will continue, so you tell me what should we do, we choose not to pay the farmers and the sanctions continue, we decide okay we have got a moral obligation according to America to pay these farmers, we are not paying for our land, but for improvements on our land.
“We then choose as part of fulfilling the obligation to pay the farmers but you come back and you are hammering us for doing it, so what should we do now,” Mukupe posed a question.
Meanwhile, there has been wide spread of the negative propaganda manufactured through fake news and using old file pictures from back in 2016/17 by the proponents of the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, just to put Zimbabwe on an international agenda.
