By Thulani Ncube
Former Home Affairs Minister and interim leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) Dumiso Dabengwa has blamed his old party Zanu PF for the sanctions imposed on them.
He blamed the violent land reform programme and a controversial indigenization law as being counterproductive and amounting to a self-imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Dabengwa made the remarks in Bulawayo’s Lobengula Hall over the weekend where he was addressing ZAPU supporters.
“Farmers who had invested so much capital, and in some cases had found international partners, were just evicted by someone who just had to bring an offer letter for the land from the government,’ he said.
‘Now they are targeting mines and businesses through what they call indigenization. Who would invest his or her money so that they could become a minority shareholder? We put ourselves and the country under sanctions due to our bad policies.’
‘Even the Russians and Chinese would not invest under those circumstances. In effect we have imposed sanctions on ourselves. We must remove the sanctions we put on ourselves first before expecting the EU and the US to remove theirs,’ he added.
‘We need a win-win policy framework for both foreign investors and locals. indigenization must be done in a manner that is not self-destructive or for a few people.’
Last week the European Union lifted sanctions on 9 Zimbabwean companies and 6 individuals, including Dabengwa. The EU also announced it was extending “targeted sanctions” on Zimbabwe, including an arms embargo, assets freeze and travel ban on 197 individuals connected to Mugabe and 31 companies. Nehanda Radio
