Maravi

(HERALD) Sanctions: Zim to reciprocate

Sanctions: Zim to reciprocate
Herald Reporters

ZIMBABWE has been too soft on its enemies and will henceforth adopt a tougher stance that will see it reciprocating measures such as sanctions with its own policies. Government will also be tas-ked to come up with laws that make it treasonous for a person to support sanctions against the country in any way.

President Mugabe said this in his opening address to delegates to the 11th Zanu-PF Annu-al National People’s Conference that opened in Mutare yesterday.

The Zanu-PF President and First Secretary said: "We have been too good to malicious people, to countries that seek to destroy us. Why should we have 400 British companies operating freely here, with Britain benefiting?

"Why should we continue to have companies and organisations that are supported by America and Britain without hitting them back?

"The time has come for us to revenge. And one way of (doing this) is for us to use the Indi-genisation and Economic Empo-werment Act.

"That Act gives us authority to take over the companies. We can begin with 51 percent but in some cases we must read the riot act and say this is only 51 percent but if you do not lift the sanctions then we will take 100 percent.

"And that includes, mind you, companies that are mining gold, other minerals, platinum etcetera and some of them have been here for years — even before I was born.

"We cannot allow them to continue fooling us.

"I will say to our (conference) organisers that as you look at this area, you come up with a resolution on an anti-sanctions programme."

President Mugabe urged the conference to go further and look at the possibilities of coming up with legalistic mechanisms to punish citizens, parties and organisations that advocate or support sanctions on Zimba-bwe.

"It should be treasonous to do so; treasonous to call for sanctions on the people and anyone doing so is inviting punishment . . . we want to have laws to deal with this."

MDC-T is on record calling for sanctions on Zimbabwe and at one stage its leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai called on South Africa to cut transport and energy ties with Zimbabwe.

Despite the Global Political Agreement binding Mr Tsvangirai to advocate an end to the illegal sanctions that his party invited on Zimbabwe, he has not done so and yet the inclusive Government is nearly two-years-old and will soon be dissolved to pave way for elections.

The Head of State and Gover-nment and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces yesterday said Zimba-bwe would not allow NGOs the same free reign they enjoyed in previous years during which they acted as political agents and campaigned against Zanu-PF.

President Mugabe also said his Government would boot out any ambassador who meddled in Zimbabwe’s internal political affairs.

He said Zimbabwe had taken enough blows from its enemies

and the Christian tenet of "turning the other cheek" had been abused long enough.

"I do not have three cheeks. I turned the other cheek already and now I fight. Those who have a third cheek can turn it," he said.

President Mugabe said the inclusive Government had given the nation an opportunity to see what the MDCs stood for.

"Now you know that this creature called MDC has no policy at all, it has no ideology at all, it has no philosophy at all – except (to say) ‘chinja’."

He slammed party divisions that had contributed to Zanu-PF’s poor showing in Manicaland in the 2008 harmonised elections and vowed to root out the scourge of imposing candidates.

However, he said that was not sufficient excuse for Zanu-PF winning just six of the 26 Parliamentary seats in the province and called for introspection, re-dedication to duty and respect for the constitution for the party’s performance to improve.

President Mugabe recalled that it was at the 1997 Annual People’s Conference in the same city that the burning issue of land came to the fore and exploded into a full revolution soon afterwards.

At that conference, President Mugabe asked the then Minister of Agriculture Cde Kumbirai Kangai to read British Overseas Development Minister Claire Short’s letter renouncing the United Kingdom’s obligation to fund land reforms as agreed at Lancaster House in 1979.

Three years later war veterans and land-hungry individuals proceeded to occupy farms held by whites, prompting Government to embark on the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.

"Generally, the land reform programme has gone well. We are aware that there are some things that have not gone well and we are correcting that…

"Some of those who got offer letters have been contracting the utilisation of that land, in some cases to the same settler farmer who used to occupy the land and to other white farmers.

"Zvino wapihwa land, nyangwe iri 50 hectares, unotsvaga murungu kuti akushandire? Ipo ndipo patinotora mapfumo…ChiMDC ichocho chekuramba uchidzokera kuvarungu."

President Mugabe said Zimbabweans should believe in themselves and their own capabilities.

He said God had blessed Zimbabwe with many precious minerals – some of which were only being discovered now that the country was in black hands – and these should be fully harnessed to improve people’s standards of living.

Labels: NATIONALISATION, ROBERT MUGABE, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 12:24 AM