Zimbabwe 2013 aftermath: The US' review of sanctions among other things....

Sub-Committee Chairman Smith (middle) and Arthur Gwagwa (left)

There was pomp and fanfare in the ZANU Patriots' Front camp after the Zimbabwean election of 2013. Many people have come forward to decry the electoral process claiming that it was heavily rigged and the opposition, on whom people wishing for change pinned their hopes on. Beaten by a margin of over 20%, the MDC set off on a mixed exercise of blame and complacency to save face and perhaps get the people's empathy. To think of the electoral process as flawed is one huge guess, perhaps in the right direction, towards being labelled a traitor by the victorious party. They have notoriety in calling anyone who stands in opposition to their being, a western driven traitor who works to please his masters, the west. To think of it as not flawed again is to take a dive into the pitch black night because the victory margin is just unimaginable, especially in a country that has gone through a helluva time under the presidency of the octogenarian Robert Mugabe. What reconciles the two different opinions together could be a simple fact of the complex situation Zimbabwean people are caught in. On the other hand, there is need to safeguard the country's sovereignty, the land with its mineral wealth as well as championing of black people's critical role playing in economic development. Given the pre 1980 situation in which a handful of British descendants who colonized the country officially on September 13, 1890 had all the power and privilege. After Mugabe's paradigm for economic empowerment in Africa, which saw the privileged white Zimbabweans being stripped of their wealth and rights, wealth began to more and more fall into the hands of blacks, but only a few blacks.

Since the Patriotic Front has laid claim on the role of being the only liberator of black peoples in Zimbabwe, they have been downright arrogant in their affirmation and have refused to incorporate any other claims that other parties fought as much as they did and if they happen to do so, they have shown no proper respect for them. This has them to hold in contempt anyone who happens to vie to liberation of people but this time, from them. That is when the ex-trade unionist leader of the opposition Movement of Democratic Change comes into vision. Having amassed so much support during his reputable May 1 speeches. Mr Tsvangirai went on to form a party in 1999 that during the 2013 election promised to rebuild the economy and encourage foreign investment. In his JUICE programme, which promised to revitalize the country's economy, he pinpointed the need to encourage domestic and direct foreign investment, a point which their sole opposers seized to hammer home the point they had raised against them time and time again, that they were working hand in glove with western governments to effect regime change in the country. Their claim, the western countries covert the country's land, which has fertility and minerals. The MDC in my opinion, benevolent in their plans as they could be, failed to spring back and get themselves out of being traitors as they had been labelled by the ZANU (PF) government and to make matters worse, their plan JUICE seemed to confirm the rumors. They have also trotted the globe seeking for funding and that partly is caused by the fact that the government of Zimbabwe has no plausible structures to finance opposition parties that come in to achieve a healthy democratic nation. Furthermore, Patriotic Front-men, saviors at first turned into savages who began to greedily amass wealth for themselves, and sank their teeth into diamonds of Marange and shut everyone else out. As we know it, diamonds cost very much and so, they made a lot of it, and are still making it, being where they are because of the power of the ordinary man's vote, which in this regard, is questionable.

So when does the United States come into the picture? Thousands of people migrated from Zimbabwe to the US and other developed countries, seeking greener pastures and many have found them for some, the story is not pleasant to tell. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, engineers and others left the country creating a huge brain drain that made the country the country suffer even more. Meanwhile, the EU community and the United States slapped the country with economic sanctions that have brought untold suffering to common people and not the government officials who were said to have been targeted. One might think that these big powers, by sanctioning the country wanted to achieve the current Arab-world countries' style revolutions. If people are disgruntled, they riot and topple the government, at least the Arabs do. But Zimbabweans took it all differently, they remained mum, crying inwardly, smarting outwardly.  Attempts to march in protest were quashed by the police. In Zimbabwe, the government uses the army and police heavily to intimidate anyone who dares challenge the rulers. More So, they stamp their authority in the form of repressive laws such as AIPPA, POSA and the likes which work in a double way, helpful and oppressive, it all depends upon implementation. The proceedings of the Sub-Committee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations sought to establish a way for the United States government's continued stance on maintaining sanctions on Zimbabwe due to the Patriotic's party's victory which has been much thought to have been rigged. The chairman of the committee Christopher Smith pointed out that the US government sought to maintain the sanctions and make sure that they affect the members of the autocratic government as compared to everyone else in the country. UK based Zimbabwean lawyer, Arthur Gwagwa who gave a witness's' account as to the situation in the country as well as his opinion, since he worked as a lawyer on humanitarian grounds also gave his opinion on the matter of sanctions, he hesitantly said that he truly felt they negatively affected people and hence should be scraped or revised in order to relieve ordinary Zimbabweans who are already suffering from a ship-shape economy. He also suggested that they consider levelling the sanctions on the members of the ZANU PF party directly for they continued to prosper in the face of the so called sanctions. Smith then mentioned that his government was working on a new way to sanction dictators and other human rights abusers by trying to pass a new law in order to effect that.

So much work still needs to be done in this country, there is still joblessness, rampant corruption and a heavily crippled economy among other things. The question is: Is the new government going to deliver political goods as promised, as people expect or as they wish?

The link below has the proceedings of the Sub-Committee hearing of September 2013

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-troubling-path-ahead-us-zimbabwe-relations