Your Presidency is soaked to the skin

GOOD day, President Emerson Mnangagwa.

Your Excellency, as I see it, your Presidency is soaked to the skin. Verily, it was ordinarily unthinkable for an incumbent President to be designated under the United States of America (US)’s Global Magnitsky Programme.

Yet, you were the first sitting President to clinch the dishonour of designation. Also included in the restrictions is your wife, vice president Constantino Chiwenga and eight others. At its core, the restrictions regime is a new change in the US sanctions tools. It allows it to restrict foreign officials implicated in alleged corruption and human rights abuses.

Methinks you sufficiently comprehend the far-reaching consequences of your being designated has on the economy. Your statement that despite the albatross of “illegal, unjust” and baleful economic sanctions, Zimbabwe will continue marching on the path towards upper-middle-class society by 2030, is merely a matter of whistling through the graveyard.

Addressing the second ED Mnangagwa Business Summit in Harare recently, you stated that Zimbabwe would continue making intervention towards bolstering the plinths it has established to ensure business thrives, concomitantly ensuring economic growth is inclusive and transformative.

Yet, it is self-evident that the business community, so as citizenry, are constrained by the prevailing harsh realities characterised by the high inflation on one hand and the free falling local currency on the other. With all due respect, Zimbabwe cannot be open for business on the backdrop of the ongoing instability of the business operating environment.

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Your Excellency, my public debate elder Ibbo Mandaza, in his reaction to your designation, challenged the US to substantiate its allegations of corruption and human rights abuses against you. He was not satisfied by the statement that you were surrounded by corrupt individuals.

He demanded evidence from US to prove that you are involved in corrupt activities, in particular those relating to gold and diamond smuggling networks. "President Mnangagwa provides protective shield to smugglers to operate in Zimbabwe illicit markets, taking bribes in exchange of his services. He also oversees Zimbabwe's security services which have violently repressed political opponents and civil groups," charged US President Joe Biden.

I state it respectively to my elder Mandaza that the evidence of corruption in Zimbabwe is commonplace. Although the US has the burden of proof, from where I stand, I subscribe to the conviction that Zimbabwe is a diamond in the rough, owing to corruption.

However, one technocrat who has been the voice against corruption is the Prosecutor-General Justice Loyce Matanda-Moyo. Her heart grieves at the prevalence of graft. She is determined to snuff corruption out of government. Speaking at a roundtable on the pilot establishment of integrity committees in State institutions in September 2021, while she was the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission chairperson, she cried her heart out.

"The integrity committees sought to curb corruption and malpractices that are rampant in public institutions. The Auditor-General's reports annually expose corruption and malpractices in public institutions, hence the integrity committees were timely," she said.

She underscored that the reports present a big picture of the state of corruption in the public sector. They disclose lack of proper controls in State institutions, thus providing a conducive environment for public officials to engage in acts of corruption, fraud, theft, money laundering and other offences. My conviction is that the gathering and presentation of evidence for the designation of sanctions is a matter of cherry-picking.

Her cry for the eradication of corruption is in tandem with the objective of the US in designating sanctions. Addressing the media in Harare recently, Laurence Socha, the Charge d’Affairs at the US Embassy said the sanctions are timely, relevant and targeted against individuals responsible for corruption and serious human rights abuses.

"We continue to urge the Zimbabwe government to take concrete steps to more open and democratic governance including addressing corruption and protecting human rights," Socha stated.

Apparently, your score sheet reads lowly on these variables.

Your Excellency, all things considered, it is humane for you to be sobbing your heart out over the designation. It is below the dignity of a President to be condemned with such severity as ones inherent in the sanctions.  If you ask me, you ought to be inconsolable for your Presidency is soaked to the skin.

As a matter of fact, your Presidency came short of the credibility test. Given the disrepute that emanates from the designation of sanctions, forsooth, the aspirations of the country, lingering as they might have been, were instantly doused due to the stigma of the sanctions.

The sanctions come in the aftermath of the August 23-24, 2023 harmonised elections, which were roundly condemned by all accredited observer missions, inherently, the polls were not credible at all. Consequently, they were unanimously categorised as a sham.

Held on the backdrop of government refusal to undertake electoral reforms that could make room for free, fair and uncontested polls, it was little wonder there was no legitimacy to your claims of victory. It was a matter of time for the gavel to come down on your Presidency.

Ever since the US quit participation in the talks on the restructuring of Zimbabwe's multi-billion dollars debt, citing lack of progress in democratic processes, corruption and disregard of human rights, the die was cast on your Presidency.

Assuredly, there has not been progress towards the establishment of a progressive and tolerant society. With the immediate past harmonised elections held without meaningful electoral reforms, prospects of credible and conclusive polling were sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Despite its lack of constitutional mandate, the Zanu PF aligned group, Forever Associate Zimbabwe, nonetheless, was active in the running of the elections.

Your Excellency, your designation in the notoriety league, which includes the infamy Gupta brothers and the late former Angolan President Edwardo dos Santos' daughter, Isabel dos Santos, your Presidency is soaked to the skin.