via Coltart calls for lifting of ‘scapegoat’ sanctions | SW Radio Africa by Alex Bell on Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Former Education Minister David Coltart has called for the lifting of the targeted sanctions still in place against key members of the Robert Mugabe regime, saying the measures have provided ZANU PF with a scapegoat for its failures for too many years.
The ZANU PF rhetoric about the targeted, restrictive measures has been relentless in recent weeks, with the Western imposed restrictions being blamed for everything from hyperinflation to, most recently, the poaching crisis in the Hwange National Park.
Indications from the Western nations, including the US and the European Union (EU) are that the measures will not be lifted until real democratic reforms are achieved in Zimbabwe. The US, the EU, Britain and Australia have also all raised concerns about reports of vote rigging during the July poll, and have refused to follow in Africa’s footsteps in endorsing the contested election results.
According to Coltart, who is also the Secretary for Legal Affairs for the Welshman Ncube led MDC, the presence of the targeted sanctions will further hinder any hope of democratic progress.
“With ZANU PF having engineered fraudulent election results in its favour and in doing so made all these promises of job creation and so forth, ZANU PF realises they now have to deliver and they know it will be difficult because most of the promises were false,” Coltart told SW Radio Africa.
He added: “So they need scapegoats and excuses. And sanctions present them with a very good excuse.”
Coltart explained that it would be better for Zimbabwe in the long term if the measures were lifted, “so that ZANU OF can no longer use the propaganda line that sanctions are to blame.”
He however acknowledge that it is “problematic in the short term”
“If they (the West) lifted all the sanctions now, ZANU PF will trumpet that as proof that they agree that the elections complied with democratic laws and our constitution, which they didn’t So clearly it would be a propaganda victory for ZANU PF in the short term,” Coltart said.
But he continued: “In the run up to the next election, it is critical that ZANU PF not be given the slightest excuse not to deliver on their promises.”
“They destroyed the economy long before sanctions were imposed and unless they undergo a miraculous transformation, the chances are they will continue to mismanage our economy. We simply cannot allow them to have this excuse of sanctions in the run up to the next elections. They must be exposed for who they are, as people who have a history of being corrupt and a history of misgoverning the country, so that the electorate can then know very clearly that if they want to take the country forward, they will need to vote for someone else,” Coltart said.
Political analyst Clifford Mashiri disagreed with Coltart’s assessment, saying that nothing has changed to justify the lifting of the targeted measures.
“Now is not the time to do it. It would be giving into ZANU PF propaganda and blackmail. Those measures must remain until the reasons for their imposition have been addressed,” Mashiri said.
COMMENTS
Coltart should know that most Zimbabweans are far more educated than he is and therefore will see through the nonsense he wrote in this article. Sanctions were put in place by him in order to help him rule the country on behalf of whites and western imperialists. Now that the scheme failled, he is now calling for a ‘tricky lifting of sanctions in a manner that still maintains them even more so that the peoples’government fails, paving the way for this former Selleus Scout’s ascendence to power. It is time to destroy Coltart and all that he stands for in our country.
Ha Ha!! Good one George, I have not read such a funny sarcastic piece in a long time.
I CONCUR WITH DAVE!
Are you daffy… If it weren’t for the sanctions, ZANU would just dream up other reasons how the West continue to destroy the Zim economy. They’ve discovered how to rig elections with impunity, so improving the economy is very low on their list. Lifting sanctions would be declared as indisputable evidence that the West has validated the elections. Because a convicted murderer claims innocence isn’t reason to release him from prison and set him free to continue to slay innocents.
I concur with Macon……..but I respect Dave and he needs to leave that stupid party he supports and join Morgan.
Right on GBZ. Coltart has misunderstood these guys or he is with them cozying for crumbs on the table. Even if sanctions were lifted unconditionally, who would want to invest in country run by gangsters unless they’re gangster like our Chinese friends. How much investment anyway has come from the East, why are they not pouring billions into Zimbabwe? Something is wrong in this country and we should all sacrifice to rid of this dictatorship. Targeted sanctions must stay until we go back to negotiating, I would rather have another GNU and early free and fair elections than another 5 years with Zanu PF. Wake up David Coltart I used to think you were more clever than that.
Coltart is a misguided idiot with a misguided sense of priorities which seem determined to misguide civilised countries into legitimising ZANU-PF and their stolen election.
No wonder ZANU-PF love him to bits. They’ll probably offer him a job in education
yes zanu will only find other excuses, droughts, sabotage, colonial past, you name it, egghead now heads the ministry of excuses.
Coltart is right as long as they are sanctions Zanu pf will continue to win election as was alluded to by the Tanzanian Foreign Affairs minister when presenting the election report
Its a realisation that sanctions have failed to remove ZANU from power and replace it with MDC as it was intended. It is also becsause of the diminishing hope of having MDC in power in future.
Coltart is correct on his point , i really agree with him when he says ZANU had been scapegoating for too long with these sanctions , but i don’t think we can continue begging and kneeling down for Westerns to lift the sanctions , westerns have failed to listen to our begging ,Easterns are ready to work together with Zim , then lets try their fake products than to pray the westerns instead of God
Even if Mugabe and ZANU-PF ‘ran IMF’, they would still run out of money. I mean the guys are so incompetent they will give any excuse for failure. Okay Dave, which sanctions? Diamonds to Antwerp? These guys have been selling diamonds to Israel and India since time immemmorial. It wont make much difference even if they sold them to Europe, we will never see the money. As for GBZ and his stupid party school of thought, if Morgan’s ‘party’ was full of geniuses, how come they have failed to defeat Mugabe since 2000? Politics, stupid!
BRAVO Rejoice!!!
Bravo Rejoice..! are you a chick or an oke? Oh maybe an MDC-N..
Party of geniuses??!! No hope of that in this country ever..look at the frikkin mess we are in…Rejoice!
There is no difference between Zpf and mdc to those from Mat.
Even if sanctions are lifted they will still find other excuses as to why the economy of Zim has failed! Sanctions need to stay in place.
zanu pf & mdc are diferend sides of the same coin