Anti-Sanctions March, ZANU PF’s Strategy For Survival
25 October 2019
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By Prince Gora

It’s only a matter of time before ZANU’s reign comes to an unceremonious end, we know it, they know it. We may argue however we want but the truth is that they have taken the country down the drain leaving millions of Zimbabweans impoverished and bitter.

This they know, not only that, they also know that the masses will eventually organise themselves and liberate themselves from their jaws by whatever means necessary. The masses have shown that they have the  ability to do so in the past, voting for the opposition overwhelmingly at one point and attempting on numerous occasions to start an uprising, the masses of Zimbabwe are a time bomb waiting to explode, when it does, change will become inevitable!    

…but ZANU has been in power for so long that it simply can’t imagine a life without power and likewise, its aging leadership has lived a luxurious life, looting and abusing taxpayers’ money at will, they are certainly not  ready to give up that now, they would rather let the masses suffer instead.

So what’s their strategy?
Well, all that Zanu cares about right now is to be in power for at least one more day.
  How? They rig elections, then find strategies to drag us towards the next election that they will most likely rig again (as they have done before).

Zimbabwe’s young population is not only angry, but also idle making it extremely hard to control – except of course by ZANU PF.

What does ZANU do?  They just give the populace something to occupy their minds and today it’s the anti-sanctions march.

Believe you me, this march has more to do with us than the Americans and their Western allies. The message (propaganda ) is not being sold to the Americans (they can’t fool them, can they?) but they can fool the electorate, particularly the rural voters.
Why else would they record songs in vernacular languages to be played on national radio and television?

For the past week or so, Zimbabwe’s young, idle and angry populace has been occupied, puzzled by the anti-sanctions march. We have been speaking and debating about it. It’s useless and just another waste of taxpayers’ hard earned money – we’ve been arguing – and won’t yield anything, the Trump administration won’t be fooled that easily.

Of course, we are right, at the end of this march, chances are nothing would have been achieved in as far as the removal of targeted sanctions on certain individuals and companies in Zimbabwe is concerned for the west clearly stated what it wants to be done before sanctions can be lifted. Over the past week, both the EU and US have released statements telling ZANU that they are “barking up the wrong tree” and reminding them of the conditions to be met for sanctions to be lifted. ZANU dont want to do that because for them, it is the equivalence of reforming themselves out of power, even though it means putting people and the nation first, for them, that doesnt matter.

But to look at this march in terms of its impact on the Americans and Europeans is to miss the point. At the end of this whole thing, they will still be firmly in power, with the threat of the masses having been significantly thwarted for close to a month by diverting their attention to something so useless, the best way to defend is to attack, isn`t it?

Meanwhile, we will still be poor and most likely hopeless and regrouping and of course being slowly dragged towards the 2023 elections, for ZANU, this is more like winning the league one match at a time.

The not so knowledgeable electorate (mostly rural voters ) will be left believing that their problems do not  emanate from ZANU’s failures but rather from the so called “illegal sanctions”.

Does ZANU PF major on the minors by mistake or purposefully, I believe the later. They lead us astray so that we take our eyes off the ball. They did it with the 1 million man march, they did with ZUPCO, with BACOS, they even do it in small ways like opening a bin or an internet café and countless other examples.

They have two main intentions, to make us lose focus and to stay in power just one more day and alas, they have largely succeeded thus far.

Right now, because of the march, we have momentarily forgotten about the price hikes, the state brutalities (particularly the vendors’ issue and the shenanigans that transpired at the burial of Hilton), the poor state of the roads, the stolen vote (excelgate), the lack of electricity, etc. All because of the useless anti-sanctions march!

It`s about time, we bring to an end this strategy. For how long shall we allow it to work on an enlightened, educated populace like ours?
Let them major on the minors alone, it’s high time that we stop majoring on ‘memes’, memes will not liberate Zimbabwe!

About the Author

Prince Gora is a student leader and a Zimbabwean citizen.