Leader of FreeZim Congress, Joseph Busha, has called on the United States government to be sincere and remove the economic sanctions, which he believes have caused a lot of untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe.
Through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) (S. 494), the US government imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, allegedly to provide for a transition to democracy and to promote economic recovery on the back of gross human rights abuses and undemocratic governance at the hands of former president, Robert Mugabe.
Since the imposition of the sanctions, the country’s economy took a nosedive, despite Washington maintaining that the embargo was targeted at selected Zanu-PF and government officials.
However, Busha is of the view that the removal of the sanctions will see Zimbabwe move in the right direction as it will be able to create trade partnerships with the Western world.
“As a party, we have called for the repeal of ZIDERA. We think the United States of America should review and reverse ZIDERA. Imposition or the renewal of ZIDERA is against what the United States government say they want to do for the people of Zimbabwe.
“They say ZIDERA is aimed at promoting democracy, to ensure that Zimbabweans participate fully in the economic activities of the country. But by reintroducing ZIDERA, we believe this has a negative effect on the majority of Zimbabweans because economic activities are stifled yet the executives in government continue not to feel the consequences of ZIDERA,” said Busha.
He added that his party will soon deliver a letter to government and main opposition party, the MDC,to push for the review of ZIDERA.
Busha, the self-proclaimed ‘messenger of peace’ said he will engage the US Embassy to spread his message failure of which, he will take to the streets.
Recently, the United States administration challenged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to deal with his government’s economic mismanagement rather than blame the current economic mess on sanctions the global powerhouse imposed on Zimbabwe.
