By Farai D Hove| US President Donald Trump has thrown the frozen shoulder on President Emmerson Mnangagwa, just a month after the Zimbabwean Head Of State had reached out to bring Trump to Zimbabwe to set up hotels and golf courses.
At the Davos World Economic Forum in January, President Mnangagwa said he was personally inviting Trump to invest in Zimbabwe, which he said is now “open for business.”
“If Trump came here, today and I’m still around, I’ll be able to talk to him, I’ll be able to make request from him and say, oh, Mr. President, Zimbabwe is open for business. I know Americans like to play golf, come and build golf courses at Victoria Falls, build hotels, and we’ll give you incentives, 5% incentives to do all those things,” he said, while ending with the emphatic, “we are open.”
Mnangagwa sounded out a new tone totally different from his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, in what many thought would usher in a positive swing of Western favours.
But on Friday as ZimEye.com revealed, Trump pulled out a 15 year old proclamation dated March 6, 2003, by Executive Order 13288.
Trump cited how the then President declared a national emergency and blocked the property of certain persons, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706), to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions. “These actions and policies had contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region.
“On November 22, 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13391 to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 by ordering the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
“On July 25, 2008, the President issued Executive Order 13469, which expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 and authorized the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
“The actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2018. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288.
“This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 2, 2018.”