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Bruce Wharton

THE United States policy on Zimbabwe has always been informed by its so-called special relationship with its Anglo-Saxon ally — the United Kingdom — hence the hardening of its stance towards Harare at the same time as Zim-UK relations plumbed to their lowest ebb at the height of the land reform programme.

While Zimbabwe has no specific quarrel with Uncle Sam, Washington has followed the lead of Whitehall in its dealings with Zimbabwe. When Britain pressured the European Union to slap sanctions on Zimbabwe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand followed suit and imposed ruinous embargoes that are still blighting the country’s efforts to turn around the economy to this day.

What is baffling however, is that while Zim-EU relations have thawed with the latter easing its sanctions regime in a significant way, the US has been speaking with a forked tongue —parroting the re-engagement line while at the same time tightening sanctions in a classic case of double-speak. We refer here to the addition of one company and several Chinese nationals doing business in Zimbabwe to a travel and financial blacklist along with the freezing of the Zimbabwe embassy account in Washington.

In a sinister move indicating America’s unhappiness with the outcome of last year’s harmonised elections, the US slapped Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede with sanctions even as 10 Zimbabwean nationals — including controversial white millionaire businessman Billy Rautenbach — were removed along with dead senior Zanu-PF officials. And yesterday, we reported on these pages that the US last week froze the bank account of the Zimbabwe embassy in Washington resulting in staff failing to access their pay.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa told an international business conference at the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair that the seizure of the funds was only reversed after Zimbabwe took up the matter with the State Department. Cde Chinamasa said the US action, coupled with its continuation of economic sanctions against Zimbabwe, were a landmine planted to thwart the country’s efforts to fix the economy.

US Ambassador Bruce Wharton was in the audience when Cde Chinamasa raised the issue. “I couldn’t believe it when I was told that the US had frozen the embassy account,” Cde Chinamasa said, speaking at the Zimbabwe International Business Conference at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. “It created problems because we couldn’t send money to pay the embassy workers their salaries. We advised them to open a new account with a different bank, but this was not possible as every other bank gave them flimsy excuses.”

While Wharton later said that the bank account had since been unfrozen, a furious Cde Chinamasa said it was wrong for the US to have frozen it in the first place. “I know that the account has been unfrozen, but why do that in the first place? The account was only opened after talking to the State Department. Why go that far?” asked Cde Chinamasa.

Indeed, why would the US, which has been seeking to normalise relations with Zimbabwe, go as far as freezing the embassy account without justification? This is totally unacceptable and America should come out clearly and state its position on Zimbabwe. It appears to have hardened its stance against Zimbabwe of late and we wonder why it should be pursuing that course of action when the country is clearly on the path to national reconciliation and unity only comparable to the period immediately after the 1980 elections.

Zimbabweans are finding each other across the political divide and the polarisation which characterised the past 15 years is falling away with the country’s citizens displaying remarkable tolerance and patriotism which can only be good for the nation. We acknowledge the United States’s presence at this year’s ZITF and applaud them for coming back after years of absence but such gestures should be complemented by similar actions on the political and diplomatic front.

The Zimbabwean government has said it is willing to engage with anyone in the international community and normalise trade and bilateral ties and we believe the West should reciprocate this invitation and normalise relations with Harare.

Powerful countries such as the US should show their hand and stop this hypocritical attitude of pretending to care about the people of Zimbabwe while feverishly working behind the scenes to sabotage their government. Washington should be reminded that the people of Zimbabwe voted overwhelmingly for Zanu-PF and its President during the July 2013 elections and must respect that outcome.