Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa just like the late Robert Mugabe, has blamed sanctions slammed on the country by the West as the reason behind the country’s economic woes.
President Mnangagwa had said this in a rally on Friday afternoon where he denounced the measures in front of thousands of his supporters in Harare. While thousands backed President Mnangagwa for protesting what he called ‘cancer’ on his country, others stayed away from the demonstrations, saying they were a distraction from the president’s mishandling of the economy, which is plagued by 18-hour daily power cuts and shortages of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines, Reuters had reported.
President Mnangagwa who took over from late dictator, Robert Mugabe, has so also failed to unify the country since taking over. Hopes of a swift recovery have faded as the economy struggles to exit its deepest crisis in a decade, the Reuters added.
President Mnangagwa blaming the United States and European Union for the sanctions since 2001 says they are intended to remove his party from power.
“Every part and sector of our economy has been affected by these sanctions like cancer,” Mnangagwa told a sparse crowd in Harare’s 60,000-seater national stadium. “Enough is enough, remove them. Remove these sanctions now!”
Singing and dancing, they waved placards inscribed “No sanctions, no discrimination, sanctions new version of slavery,” and “Enough is enough, remove sanctions now.”
He continued saying:
“Despite opening up the political space, strengthening the rule of law, transparency, accountability & ramping up the war against corruption, crippling sanctions remain. Zimbabwe is simply held to disproportionate standards like no other country. Enough is enough.
Sanctions and their negative effect on FDI have hampered every single sector of our economy. They claim they are targeted is simply not true when banks and entire sectors are cut off from funding. The average Zimbabwean pays the heaviest price.
So we will fight the sanctions just as we continue to engage in the spirit of peaceful coexistence with all nations of the world. This is now the key pillar of our foreign policy. It’s time to end the sanctions. It’s time for Zimbabwe to re-join the family of nations” he said on Friday.