On the 20th of January, United States (U.S) President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of America.
Biden’s win was recently confirmed by the US Congress months after the incumbent Donald Trump and his Republican party unsuccessfully sought to challenge the November 2020 election result, which they said were marred by irregularities.
Prior to that Trump, armed with his social media platforms including microblogging site Twitter and Facebook incited an insurrection that saw his supporters storming the US Capitol in Washington DC on the 6th of January 2021 resulting in five people losing their lives including a federal police officer.
Facebook and Twitter have since suspended Trump’s social media accounts, permanently.
The attempted “soft coup” at the US Capitol left millions questioning the so-called democracy that Americans preach around the world.
Not to be left out, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa seized the opportunity to call for Biden’s administration to remove sanctions on the former British colony.
The US and its allies imposed “targeted” sanctions on Harare in 2001, following the Land Reform Programme that saw around 4,500 white farmers lose land under the leadership of the late President Robert Mugabe.
The sanctions, under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) of 2001 restricts US support for multilateral financing to Zimbabwe. The sanctions can only be removed if Zimbabwe implements political and economic reforms.
The Mnangagwa regime has even dedicated the 25th of October annually as a day to campaign against sanctions.
But the US continues to insist that sanctions will remain until Mnangagwa implements comprehensive electoral and human rights reforms.
In 2019, Trump’s administration renewed the sanctions with Mnangagwa’s top allies including businessman Kuda Tagwirei and National Security minister Owen Ncube being added to the list.
Mnangagwa, who ascended to power in 2017 through a military coup that ousted his mentor and long time ruler Mugabe, took to Twitter to denounce insurrection at the US Capitol and to call for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
“Last year, President Trump extended painful economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about Zimbabwe’s democracy,” he wrote.
“Yesterday’s (Wednesday, 6 January 2021) events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy. These sanctions must end.”
Mnangagwa said his administration was ready to work with Biden to build cordial relations between the two nations.
Zimbabwe is, as it always has been, ready to work together as friends and partners with the U.S for the benefit of both our peoples.
— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) January 7, 2021
After outlawing the use of multi-currency in mid-2019 and introducing its local currency the Zimbabwean dollar, the latter has been losing value against major currencies.
As of January this year, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate was nearly 380 percent, according to Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.
The country faces a myriad of problems.
There is a shortage of medicine in public hospitals which has left the majority of Zimbabwe’s population struggling to access health care amid the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
The Mnangagwa-led administration, after dumping its “Open for Business” Public Relations stunt, has adopted the removal of sanctions mantra as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
The government thrives on propaganda and blame-shifting.
Political analysts and international relations experts believe the US is not going to be moved by Mnangagwa’s talks without the implementation of political and economic reforms.
Pearl Matibe, an international geopolitics scholar with an interest in foreign policy and national security based in Washington DC told Ubuntu Times that Biden’s administration will continue to push the Zimbabwean government to respect human rights.
“What I do foresee is continued bipartisan support for transparency, fairness, and efforts that advance respect for human rights, democracy, and good governance,” she said.
Daglous Makumbe, a lecturer in the department of political studies at the University of the Western Cape said the US foreign policy does not change especially in response to dictatorial regimes such as the Zimbabwean one.
“The coming of Biden to the presidential pulpit will not change the political conundrum between Harare and Washington. Whether a Democrat or a Republican comes to power in the US, its conditions are clear on Harare,” he said.
“It is not about a Democrat or Republican coming to power in America, but a change of draconian policies in Zimbabwe that will make the US change its stance on Zimbabwe. Washington and Harare relations, therefore, are going to continue being polarized as long as Zimbabwe remains stiff-necked and recalcitrant.”
Tawanda Zinyama, in academia at the University of Zimbabwe, said the character and behavior of Mnangagwa’s administration may help shape the US policy towards Zimbabwe.
“The fragmentation of the opposition and civil society in Zimbabwe does not entice the US to continue some of its policies as it may be counterproductive on their part,” he said.
Zinyama said the opposition parties thrive on legitimate grievances of the people and once the Mnangwagwa regime addresses them, even partially, the US will be forced by the reality on the ground to engage with them.
Biden was part of the congress that passed ZDERA.
The Mngangagwa regime has been using the country’s security forces to descend on political opponents and critics since 2018.
In August 2018 the military shot dead six civilians in the streets of Harare who were demonstrating against the electoral body which was delaying to announce the country’s first elections after Mugabe.
In January 2019, the military was deployed to quell demonstrators, who were protesting nationwide against Mnangagwa’s decision to hike fuel prices by 150 percent, resulting in the death of 17 people and leaving hundreds injured.
In 2020, the government using its security forces committed gross human rights violations under the guise of enforcing measures that had been imposed in March that year to slow the spread of the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
From March to September 2020 there were over 1,200 human rights violations cases ranging from unlawful arrests, assaults, threats and intimidations, harassment of citizens and journalists, and extrajudicial killings across the country, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, a human rights advocacy movement.
Zinyama said the democrats are likely to be more directly confrontational against a nationalistic Zimbabwe and they are more impatient about the pace of the democratization they want to see than the Republicans who simply paid lip service to Zimbabwean issues.