via White lobby group wants Mugabe restrictive measures lifted | SW Radio Africa by Nomalanga Moyo on Tuesday, February 18, 2014
A predominantly white pressure group has been formed to press Western countries to lift the remaining restrictive measures against ZANU PF officials.
The group, which calls itself Zimbabweans Against Sanctions, blames the restrictive measures imposed on the Mugabe regime 12 years ago for the collapse of the country’s economy.
Speaking in Harare on Monday, the chairman of the group Mathew Smith, a hotelier and contract miner, said they want western countries to remove all the measures which he said were imposed on all Zimbabweans.
His father Gary who is also a member of the group is the finance director of a transport and trucking business.
Mathew said his group believes that the targeted measures are hurting the country and Zimbabweans, and should be lifted unconditionally.
“We are forming this lobby group because the truth about Zimbabwe needs to be heard and for that truth to be heard it needs to be told from our perspective, especially as white Zimbabweans on whose behalf these damaging sanctions were supposedly imposed,” he said.
In a passionate speech delivered at a press briefing in Harare the leaders of the group denied that the motive behind the formation of the group is to protect their businesses from ZANU PF’s property grabs.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa Tuesday, Mathew Smith said he has never felt the need to protect himself in his 33 years living in Zimbabwe, “and we are starting now because the time just feels right”.
He said the country has just had a “fantastic, peaceful, free and fair election and it is time that the citizens are freed from the sanctions yoke. Our interest is Zimbabwe and ordinary Zimbabweans”.
Defending ZANU PF’s controversial indigenisation law which requires foreign-owned businesses to cede a 51 percent stake to locals, Smith said this was a good policy that was benefitting every Zimbabwean but which has been misunderstood due to the negative perception the world has on the country.
The restrictive measures were imposed 12 years ago on some ruling party ZANU PF officials by the United States, Britain and the European Union following a sustained campaign of human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime.
Explaining his government’s position, US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Bruce Wharton said: “The underlying principle is that the US targeted sanctions programme seeks to limit the economic activities of that very small number of individuals and entities that have shown a willful disregard for the rule of law, democratic process, and human rights in Zimbabwe.
“In our view, those are the activities that have weakened this country’s economy. Targeted sanctions are our means of expressing concern and trying to encourage decisions that will strengthen Zimbabwe,” Wharton said.
But Smith said this was a misconception, and criticised Monday’s decision by the EU to retain restrictions on Mugabe, his wife Grace and arms dealer the Zimbabwe Defence Industries.
Prominent retired Zim cricketer Heath Streak is one of the members of the Zimbabweans Against Sanctions lobby group whose membership comprises almost 3,000 others.
COMMENTS
To Heath Streak I say have you already forgotten your team mates Henry Olonga and Andy Flower who cannot come home.Sellout.
I agree lift all sanctions then we are free to make Citizen Arrests within The Euro Region a la Pinochet – Good News
So who are these 3,000 others? Lets have the names of the people who think its OK for people who oversaw murder, torture, rape, arson and theft not to be held to account.
This group of white has a long history of bedding with zanupf while pretending -all they want is to loot the country of wealth from their interests
Hey this is a positive -the whites supported the RF and the MDC and look what happened. If they all join ZANU-PF then hopefully that will be the nail in ZANU-PF’s coffin!!
This is very strange stuff.
Strange and Sad
No matter what colour they are – This is bull sh!t!
They are speaking on behalf of their pockets and not the principal of the matter.
Hey, what are these guys smoking? But on the other hand, if sanctions are lifted, then we can follow these theiving, lying, murdering swines, all the way to their foreign bank accounts and properties and seize them like we almost did in Cape Town.
Furthermore, no matter how big your house, or how flashy your car, or how expensive your clothes are – our graves will all be the same size.
“He said the country has just had a “fantastic, peaceful, free and fair election and it is time that the citizens are freed from the sanctions yoke. Our interest is Zimbabwe and ordinary Zimbabweans”. COME NOW!!! what has zanupf promised you ??.be honest now.
Mathew Smith you and your 3000 are a bunch of idiots and need your heads read.Must say I love all the comments.Methinks everyone sees through you lot!!!
joke, just looking after your own interests…try and work out why these measures were imposed in the first place and weather zanu has changed..
I had a photo taken with Heath Streak as a boy, had it blowen up and hung it in my room as a child…….i burnt that photo last night !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant stand zanu-pf sell outs, they have destroyed our wonderful Zimbabwe
Mathew, you are so shallow minded you should just shut up. It is clear no sanctions have been imposed. Its restrictions against a few. How many times does the EU have to clarify this? If 3000 of you don’t know this, then you know. It is disgusting to hear of such a view. Just shut up and run your businesses guys, or talk about looting and salarygate.
Smith, you are a spineless individual! How can you head an organization when you are involved in illegally taking gold out of the country and selling it in South Africa. You are a sellout, trying to keep in with those that supply you with alluvial gold. You should be jailed. We’ll start looking into your dealings very carefully from now on. As for Streak…you are just one useless individual, not even worth commenting on, you are a has- been and just another one without a spine. Streak, pay us for our farms then you can get on with shagging your shona delinquents with whom you are in bed with.