A Zimbabwean legislator today told Parliament that former South African President Thabo Mbeki told the British that they would be wiped out in 24 hours if they invaded Zimbabwe.
Buhera West legislator Tafadzwa Mugwadi said the British were planning to invade Zimbabwe to remove the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front from power because of its land reform programme.
Contributing to the debate on the unconditional repeal of United States sanctions on Zimbabwe, which have been in force for two decades, Mugwadi said according to declassified information when the British contemplated invading Zimbabwe, Mbeki told them that they were not going to get out of the terrain in Zimbabwe because the liberation generation veterans were still active enough and they would wipe them away within 24 hours.
“He had to stop an invasion in Zimbabwe. Russia and China had to play a very fundamental role in the Security Council to stop those machinations. We owe them a salute as the Parliament of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” the former ZANU-PF director of Information said.
Mugwadi said the United States and their Western allies imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to reverse the land reform programme, to remove ZANU-PF from power and to isolate Zimbabwe from the rest of the world.
Below is his full contribution:
HON. MUGWADI: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. May I take this opportunity to convey my compliments to you in the new season.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Mugwadi and same to you.
HON. MUGWADI: Madam Speaker, allow me to add my small voice to the debate under discussion on sanctions. Firstly, while thanking so much three colleagues who spoke before me and contributed immensely to this debate. I want to take this opportunity to qualify what sanctions are. My small understanding tells me that where sanctions are supposed to be imposed on a State, they must follow the protocols and legal requirements provided by the United Nations (UN) Charter, such that for those sanctions to be able to pass the test of legality, they must be multi-lateral and not unilateral.
What we have on the Republic of Zimbabwe and its people are unilateral sanctions by former erstwhile colonial masters, the British, Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. Therefore, because they were unilateral and were not imposed following the provisions of the UN Charter, we have illegal and unlawful sanctions in this country and its people. Therefore, by all standards, they should be removed because they have no space or place in the community of nations – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
Madam Speaker, to that end, we have the African Union. It has made its voice categorically and unequivocally clear that the sanctions regime on the people of Zimbabwe, their leadership and country are illegal and must be removed. We must therefore, as Parliament, give a strong commendation to the entire African Unions for standing with the people of Zimbabwe. The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has set aside and observes the 25th of October as a special day annually, as a day of regional solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in calling for the removal of sanctions which we now call, the SADC Anti-Sanctions Day.
Madam Speaker, not only them, powerful nations that sit in the UN Security Council, China and Russia and other progressive Nations, have joined hands with the people of Zimbabwe, SADC, African Union, the non-aligned movement, in calling for the removal of these illegal sanctions. Now, therefore Madam Speaker, it is important to qualify in this House why these sanctions were imposed. I was still very young when these sanctions were imposed. In fact, if I recall very well, I was still nursing my Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC). Now, I am almost 40 years old and have grown to understand that there is so much opportunity in this country because of the yoke of sanctions which our people, leadership and nation has had to needlessly carry because of irresponsible actions of counterproductive and counter revolutionary Zimbabweans who, on a normal day, should be seated on the opposite benches. They called for these sanctions and must be called out – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]
Madam Speaker, it is not speculation. We have video evidence of people receiving khaki envelopes from white men calling for these sanctions – it is there on record. We can even quote them in verbatim saying in one of the instances with Morgan Tsvangirai, may his soul rest in peace. The former leader of the opposition MDC, which of course stands against our goals, has fractured several times such that we do not know what character it takes at the moment. He said, at one point in time in 2003, that this regime in reference to the ZANU PF Government, the people’s Government, a democratically elected Government which, thanks to God, is still there, that this Government does not understand any other language than having sanctions on it. He said that very clearly and the videos have been circulating. I am privileged to have a director of information from one of the progressive revolutionary practices of this country and have access to that information. I have it and if Parliament wants it, I can bring it here, it is there for the record.
They called for sanctions and when these sanctions were called Madam Speaker, we must be very clear as parliamentarians and as the people of Zimbabwe just as our leadership is very clear that these sanctions were not imposed yesterday for reasons that we are now raising today. At the time that these sanctions were imposed, the reasons were very clear, and of course, those who imposed them were the administrations of George Bush and Tony Blair and were not smart enough as to hide the reasons. We must not pretend or assist them to hide those reasons today because the reasons were very clear. Number one of the reasons was that the Zimbabwean Government should not have proceeded with redistributing land to address the historical colonial imbalances over the ownership and possession of land in Zimbabwe.
Therefore, because it has taken this giant revolutionary decision towards completing the process of decolonisation in Zimbabwe, this Government must be punished because it is a bad influence between Cape and Cairo. All other African Governments, bad people and Africans outside of Zimbabwe who have no access to their land because the white men in their countries are still holding onto it. Do not go far away, go down Limpopo, you know the land question has become topical today because the people of Zimbabwe and their leadership were brave enough to draw the first line and bring back land to the people. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
These sanctions were imposed not for the Human Rights that they are talking about today, not for stage-managed disappearances that they allude today; and not because of the elections that were held in 2008, 2018 or 2023. These elections have already taken place and they called them uncredible and unfair and therefore reasons for keeping the sanctions. No, that is a lie and we can not be lied upon as to the reasons why they imposed sanctions. It was because we united our people with their land, the land which our forefathers fought for. The land, today, that so many souls are lying in unmarked graves for, we have it and others do not have it. Therefore, Zimbabwe needed to be punished according to the white men because it was becoming a bad influence to other African Governments.
This is why we are proud as one of the few or, if I am not mistaken, the only African country where the process of decolonisation has completed when others are yet to. We therefore were sanctioned for taking this brave decision. We must remind our colleagues who should be, on a normal day, seated on the other side, that today amongst them are a rapacious clique of land barons in the cities. They are now preying on that land that we had to forcefully take from the white people – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – they are building their houses and communities on top of that land which we have made sure that they are united with. They must reflect and understand that we must speak with one voice when it comes to the question of sanctions.
Madam Speaker, the sanctions were also imposed for the second reason that I am going to allude to, that the ZANU PF Government elected by the people then, is no longer desirable for purposes of the white people and therefore needed to be replaced and for all intents and purposes, the sanctions were put in place for regime change. They said this Government has become too revolutionary, that this Government is too brave for a black Government, that this Government is daring, that this Government is abandoning useless Lanchester provisions of willing seller and willing buyer and therefore must be punished. What should we do? Let us form an opposition party to pamper and give it all the support to wrestle power from ZANU PF legally or illegally. That is why the leaders used to say, we will remove the ZANU PF government constitutionally or unconstitutionally, violently or non-violently. They were very clear on that – [HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – It is because the sanctions were put in place to remove this Government. Thank God we still have a Government almost 23 years later.
Madam Speaker, the third reason why sanctions were put in place is there in black and white in one of their Senators who used to sit in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States of America Congress. It was apparent, we had imposed a sanctions regime on the people of Zimbabwe, not on targeted individuals. They were obvious that on the people of Zimbabwe, on the State of Zimbabwe, on the Government and economy of Zimbabwe, such that their economy shall scream and people should start to ask where the problem is because there will not be bread in the shops. “We will attack their finances and inflation will be the order of the day”. “We will make sure that their economy gets to the fundamentals for people’s survival”. “There will not be fuel, they shall not produce anything from their land”. “We will cut their access to farming equipment and at the end of the day, people will say what do we have with ourselves except that it has become a life and death situation”.
Therefore, let us overthrow this Government. The people therefore in Zimbabwe are supposed to be screened and made to scream according to these sanctions’ regimes.
Thank God that even as they scream, they continue to scream in revolutionary terms, that is why they failed to achieve that, but they were very clear. I am just trying to bring these things Madam Speaker, to the fore so that everyone including those on a normal day would have been seated on the other side, must understand that even if they are there, where they are based on other reasons than what I am saying, then they do not know exactly what kind of an animal they have become part of and that is why there is a lot of chaos in their party.
Our economy has been made to scream Madam Speaker. There was a time when we could not count quintillions and they were almost closer to achieving that because the whole purpose of these sanctions was to cut the umbilical cord between the people and their revolutionary party such that when that happens, Zimbabwe becomes a country of what I would call wada watonga, anyone could be anything in Zimbabwe because the fabric that keeps it intact would have been destroyed. Thank God, twenty-three years after the sanctions, we are still breathing.
Madam Speaker, the sanctions were put in place to isolate Zimbabwe and allow me to go into unchartered territories. For this, I want to salute the former President of South Africa, President Mbeki who was very clear and there were things that he declassified which are essential indeed that at one point in time, he had to be engaged in a lot of series of diplomatic engagements and series assisted by the then, I think British Chief of Staff Defence. When the British were now closer to contemplating an invasion of this country, he assured them that they were not going to get out of the terrain in Zimbabwe because the liberation generation veterans were still active enough and they would wipe them away within 24 hours and they will regret any decision to invade Zimbabwe. He had to stop an invasion in Zimbabwe, Russia and China had to play a very fundamental role in the Security Council to stop those machinations. We owe them a salute as the Parliament of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Madam Speaker, President Ramaphosa continues to take every global and international stage given to him to call for the removal of sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. President Samia Suluhu, picking on the late President John Magufuli of Tanzania, continues to shine on every global and international stage so given to her that the people of Zimbabwe must be removed from the yoke of Zimbabwe. President Nyusi of Mozambique continues to call for the removal of sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. Former President of Zambia, Lungu, was very clear that sanctions on the people of Southern Zambezi needed to have sanctions removed from their necks.
I do not know Madam Speaker, of course just as you are, what the other presidents out there think about, it is not for me to discuss. I just do not know, but I must be very clear. I knew that President Lungu was very clear on sanctions on Africans in Zimbabwe that they must be removed.
I want to thank President Joao Lourenco of Angola who was very clear that sanctions on Zimbabwe must be removed. President of Malawi, His Excellency Chakwera, was also very clear that sanctions on Zimbabwe must be removed. President Hage Geingob from Namibia was very clear that sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe must be removed. President Mokgweetsi Masisi from Botswana is very clear, that sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe must be removed.
Madam Speaker, the King of Eswatini was also very clear that sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe must be removed. President Paul Kagame is very clear that sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe must be removed.
Having said all this, where are my fellow Members who must be seated opposite to me on this debate? Are all these people who are saying these sanctions must be removed not on ZANU PF, but even on their necks? Are these people men? Where are they in this debate when everyone who matters is saying the sanctions must be removed? They cannot even utter a single word that sanctions must be removed on all of us including them too, but when the price of bread soars, they are the first to complain. When our currency is attached, they are the first to complain and they would want to hoodwink the people of Zimbabwe to think that it is incapacity of our Government yet they know exactly where the elephant in the room is. They will tell you that sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe are not effective in causing the challenges that we are having. The question that I want to pose to the opposite bench as I sit down is that if these sanctions were never meant to achieve anything of all that I have alluded to, why do you want those sanctions to be still kept in place if they were meant to achieve nothing?
Madam Speaker, in short as I sit down, sanctions, as Hon. Nyoni has said, are part of what is called high-breed warfare to belittle other States. I would suggest that before a delegation is sent to the United States of America to debate and discuss with them about sanctions, we have the leader of Government Business here to provide us guidance. The Ambassador of the United States Government must be here first to answer the basic question of whether he knows the land between Zambezi and Limpopo better than we do. We have never been in the United States of America to comment about their elections. Elections in Zimbabwe take place according to the laws of the jurisdiction of Zimbabwe and not theirs. We were not there at Capitol Hill when they were at each other’s throats. We did our swearing-in ceremony very peacefully and in love at the National Sports Stadium.
So, we do our things according to our systems. However, notwithstanding that they still try to find and scavenge for a reason to suggest they are still keeping sanctions on us, we must summon them here and have a discussion even a breakfast meeting in this building. I so submit Madam Speaker.