The anti-sanction petition has been launched countrywide. The balls have begun rolling and two million signatures are targeted.
Overzealous Zanu PF supporters have begun spewing spin in support of the initiative.
The question on my mind is: After getting two million signatures, what next?
When our forefathers embarked on the armed struggle, a pot of gold was promised at the end of the rainbow. What happened after independence?
The revolution was hijacked by a few people who are bent on staying in power by hook or crook.
Human rights, which were the cornerstone of the struggle, are now dubiously dismissed as empty rhetoric used by the West to achieve regime change.
True to Zanu PF rantings, sanctions — take over especially the suspension of government-to-government interaction — are hurting us.
But to completely place the blame on them is hiding behind a tattered defensive mechanism.
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Sanctions are not solely the cause of Zimbabwe’s misfortunes.
Gideon Gono claimed to be solving Zimbabwe’s problems, but he was putting out fire with an ocean of paraffin.
Zimbabwe’s economy faltered like a skeet board on snow as the Reserve Bank governor continued to recycle his flawed policies until our currency was worth nothing.
His frivolous attempt to circumvent the so-called “sanctions” through the philosophy of making “heroes from zeroes” through bearer cheaques was an uninformed expedition.
His fiscal policies were a desperate undertaking. Even an undergraduate economics student will concur that such economics belong to pseudo-economists.
It is no secret that corruption is rampant and that it has become a subculture. The culture of impunity has been nurtured and propagated to protect certain corrupt individuals.
A minister can amass wealth through corrupt means and get away with it.
Why do we shift the blame sorely to sanctions when Zanu PF has misgoverned for three decades?
What will a million or ten million signatures achieve where policy has failed? Martin Luther King (Jr) once said darkness cannot drive out darkness. Zanu PF cannot solve our problems because they are the cornerstone of our troubles.
How did Ian Smith survive under United Nations sanctions? What happened to the much-touted Look-East policy?
Why are we failing to rescue ourselves from this quagmire? Is President Robert Mugabe really looking East or is it one of the classical political gimmicks?
Parastatals are dysfunctional, diamond revenue cannot be accurately accounted for, infrastructure is in a dilapidated state, people don’t have title deeds to their land; and the list is endless.
Why then put the blame squarely on sanctions?
Placing the blame on sanctions is empty propaganda.
What is clearly lacking from the State is tact and intelligent manipulation of the opportunities that are at our disposal.Signing a piece of paper and sending it to wherever will not resolve maladministration, rampant corruption and the flagrant abuse of human rights.
The anti-sanction petition is a futile exercise.
Rather than bickering and being cry-babies, a paradigm shift is required to help navigate out of this disaster.
The only solution to our problems is foreign direct investment. How can this be achieved? It is our dream to own our resources but to give undercapitalised companies to undercapitalised people is retrogressive.
We are our worst enemies because we tend to take one step forward and four steps backwards.
The only solution to Zimbabwean problem is therefore foreign direct investment that will jump-start the comatose economy, create employment and generate money for the government through taxes.
The million dollar question is: how can a piece of paper succeed to achieve where policy and dialogue has failed?
Where Zanu PF is supposed to engage diplomats and craft the way forward, they embark on personal crusades haranguing and pouring hate speech.
Where logic and common sense is required, they decide to be stubborn.
They are a guerrilla movement which failed to adapt with change.
Gone are the days of employing the scorched earth policy because they are now hurting the people.
The anti-sanction petition is much ado about nothing. Zanu PF needs to face reality and acknowledge they have failed.
They might try to brainwash people through ideologies such as 100% empowerment, total independence etc but that won’t bring food to our tables.
Even though their ideologies on face value might seem informed, they are cheap rhetoric.
I am not going to sign this petition. This petition is just but sound and fury. I definitely won’t sign such a misinformed petition because it is futile and will inevitably fail.
Mbiba is a journalism student at Nust and he writes in his personal capacity
