By Charles Motsi
When Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States of America (USA) the whole world was shocked and some reports say that even he was surprised at the American people’s choice, the guy did not even trust himself in the hot seat. Three years into his reign Trump is dogged by an inquiry into his conduct during the 2016 presidential race which was characterised by a lot of backroom dealings and a ridiculous number of lies.
Now it seems the lying virus has taken root and spreading into all departments of his government. Zimbabweans yesterday witnessed this first hand when the US embassy in Harare released a statement which was shocking, to say the least, claiming that, “The U.S. does not maintain comprehensive sanctions against Zimbabwe. Suggestions that the U.S. intends to harm the Zimbabwean people with sanctions are false and misleading.”
The statement which was released on the embassy’s official twitter page did not end there, it went on to state that, “U.S. targeted sanctions list: 84 individuals and 56 entities. People of Zimbabwe: 16 million +. Sanctions do not target the people of Zimbabwe.”
Needless to say that this blatant lie of a statement has caused justified uproars from scores of Zimbabweans from all walks of life who have felt the devastating effects of the illegal US imposed sanctions.
Let us set aside reason for a bit and assume that their targets were just the 84 individuals and 56 entities as they claimed in their statement. The trickledown effect of that action alone shows that the targeted individuals will not suffer alone from these sanctions as their families, friends and other business interests, which most definitely employ dozens if not hundreds, would also be disadvantaged directly or indirectly.
So even at face value these sanctions are ruining the lives of hundreds not just individuals and one wonders why a whole embassy would seat down and see it fit to lie in such a manner.
A short glance at the sanctions list reveals that the said individuals are top government officials and other influential socio-political leaders. Therefore, by merely placing them on a list under the heading sanctions it is enough to scare away any potential investor as no one would want to be associated with a country whose leadership is not allowed to freely do business with the world’s top financial institutions.
Furthermore, all those individuals on that sanctions list are richer now than they were before regardless of the over 15 years of sanctions. Whereas when Agribank is sanctioned, it fails to provide loans to the basic farmer so that he earns a living for his basic ordinary family. Even though that farmer’s name is not on the sanctions list the effects of the sanctions squeeze will not spare him.
On top of reinforcing the Zimbabwean Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) Trump extended sanctions on Zimbabwe through an executive order and the order made outlandish claims that this measure was meant to “deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat (Zimbabwe) to the foreign policy of the United States.”
The fight is no longer with individuals here, it is with the whole country as it places Zimbabwe on a list of enemies of the USA who threaten to destabilise that country’s foreign interests. By proclaiming that Zimbabwe poses a threat to their interests it also translates to Zimbabwe being at war with the friends of the US who are also obliged to safeguard the interests of the USA as they might also be, their own interests. The USA has basically made Zimbabwe a no-go area for any of their friends and this is big enough a deal to shake a whole nation not just individuals and entities.
President Trump and his administration need to stop telling lies and the world needs to open its eyes and see the US for the bully that it is, causing untold suffering to millions of Zimbabweans just to assert its dominance on the weak. Shameful.
