The Sunday Mail
For as long as the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA), and UK and European Union (EU) sanctions are extant, the country is still under siege.
Obviously, the end state of these overbearing extraterritorial measures was to collapse the economy and with it the ruling ZANU PF that had dared to take back land that had previously been violently appropriated by white colonial settlers.
The country currently does not get support from Bretton Woods institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.
The private sector has not been spared.
With local banks losing more than 100 correspondent banking relationships and also finding it increasingly difficult to get international lines of credit, local businesses have no option, but to seek credit from the local market.
From 2020, business, however, has been getting a lifeline from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s foreign currency auction when they should normally be getting succour from local banks.
As recent as 2019, the United States Treasury slapped Standard Chartered Bank with a US$18 million fine for handling transactions for Zimbabwe State-owned firms and individuals.
These are the asphyxiating conditions Zimbabwe has had to contend with for the past 20 years.
Ordinarily, the economy should by now have collapsed, but this is not the case.
Quite the opposite — local manufacturing is recovering, exports are rising, output in agriculture is growing exponentially and the economy is on a growth trajectory.
Last year, against all odds, the economy grew by an incredible 7,8 percent and is further expected to expand by 4,6 percent this year.
Remarkable!
We are clearly on the march, and this has helped temper the debilitating impact of sanctions.
Central to our achievements have been the valiant and distinguished crop of war veterans who have helped shape our destiny during key historical periods.
Our political freedom and independence in 1980 was built on their tears, blood and selfless sacrifices.
At the turn of the millennium, they stepped up to the plate once again by helping redistribute land from white minority colonial settlers to landless blacks.
We are fortunate that this generation which has sacrificed a lot for the motherland is still alive today, especially at a time when we are in the throes of yet another struggle to reclaim our economy and create a prosperous future.
As remarked by President Mnangagwa at ZANU PF’s War Veterans League Inaugural Conference on Friday, veterans of the liberation struggle still have an indispensable role to
play by providing the critical guardrails of patriotism, loyalty, ck, sacrifice
and self-belief needed in our new struggle.
“You remain the source of inspiration that must help propel our party and give confidence to all our people to drive the national development agenda forward towards Vision 2030.
Let us, therefore, never abdicate the responsibility to inculcate patriotism, loyalty, hard-honest work, sacrifice and self-belief among the younger generation,” he said.
“The evil colonial system never crushed our resolve to be an independent people.
“Similarly, their illegal heinous sanctions will never defeat our determination to modernise, industrialise and lift many of our people out of poverty into prosperity.”
Our sacrifices will be fully meaningful if we deliver a prosperous and sovereign nation to posterity.
In the face of continued assault on our economy, we need to muster the resolve and indomitable spirit of our veterans who upended a well-resourced and backed settler regime to deliver a free Zimbabwe.
But we cannot do so without espousing the values of patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice and the dignity of honest, hard work.
If anything, the past four years under the Second Republic have shown us that we are our own saviours.
Our own people are constructing our roads, building our dams, producing our food and manufacturing our own products and in the process changing the face of Zimbabwe for the better using local resources.
We are even faring better than countries that remain unencumbered by sanctions, which shows our sheer determination as a people.
We have an abiding generational duty to leave Zimbabwe better than we found it, and this can be done by putting our country first in the same way inspirational veterans of the liberation struggle did, and continue to do.
None, but ourselves can deliver the Zimbabwe we want.
