Zimpapers Logo

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
Government has rapped the United States for pretending to be a genuine friend of Zimbabwe, yet the country is refusing to remove the ruinous sanctions regime it imposed on Harare that were engraved in its legislative framework.
Foreign Affairs secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha told delegates attending the 238th anniversary of the US independence celebrations in Harare yesterday that although Washington was helping Harare at a lower level of engagement, relations between the two countries remained shaky.

This was after the US ambassador Mr Bruce Wharton claimed that Washington was assisting Zimbabwe in a number of ways.

Mr Wharton said since Zimbabwe’s independence, Washington’s assistance had exceeded US$2 billion.

The West’s illegal sanctions regime is estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over US$42 billion in lost revenue since the turn of the millennium.

Mr Bimha acknowledged that gesture, but said relations at government level remained frosty.

“While a lot has been happening on the ground in terms of US assistance to Zimbabwe, unfortunately this is not so at the level of Government,” he said.

“You may be aware Your Excellency that there is a lot of engagement taking place at this point in time between Zimbabwe and many Western countries and there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, however, at Government level our relationship with the United States of America . . .  there seems to be no light or even a tunnel.

“This is especially so since the USA sanctions regime on Zimbabwe is engraved in US legislation. Nonetheless Your Excellency diplomacy like in politics is the art of the possible. It is my hope that our countries do everything possible to restore our erstwhile relations.”

He said Zimbabwe remained committed to normalising relations with the rest of the international community.

Ambassador Bimha said Zimbabwe appreciated the US contribution towards the attainment of food security through its assistance in the agricultural sector.

In his earlier address, Ambassador Wharton had said the US was assisting Zimbabwe in many ways.

To date, Ambassador Wharton said, the US government had contributed US$2 billion towards assisting Zimbabwe.

“Since Zimbabwe’s independence, the US government has provided more than US$2 billion in development and humanitarian programmes,” he said.

Ambassador Wharton said Washington was currently undertaking programmes worth US$140 million in Zimbabwe.

Dean of African diplomats in Zimbabwe who is also the Democratic Republic of Congo Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mwanananga Mwawampanga said Washington was not being faithful with facts.

He said in as much as the US government had contributed US$2 billion towards assisting Zimbabwe, the country should also divulge what it had looted from Zimbabwe.

“Every time they (Western diplomats) will tell you that we have given so many billions to Zimbabwe. But can they tell you that how many billions they have looted from this country,” he said.

Ambassador Mwawapanga said funds that  the US bragged it had given to Zimbabwe was not for free but was meant to protect their personal interests.