CONSUMPTION ELITE A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO ZIMBABWE.
As an organization we have been actively generating public awareness that Zimbabwe has been under economic warfare in the form of unilateral sanctions for the past 18yrs, resulting in the violation of the collective human rights of 16mil citizens through international isolation, economic stagnation, human underdevelopment, division and government failing to deliver services to its citizens.
We have gone further to advocate that addressing this economic warfare, requires us as a people to unite; collectively save, invest, produce, innovate solutions to our problems, import substitute, preserve scarce resources and stand together, to mitigate this illegal collective punishment of civilians.
However, many Zimbabweans refuse to unite because they say our nation generates enough foreign currency [about US$6bil/yr] but it runs short of medical supplies, savings, investment, functional factories and public services, due to foreign currency shortages caused by politicians and connected individuals corruptly accessing and misappropriating forex allocations to import obscenely expensive, nonessential luxury vehicles.
As examples of this vulgar consumption they point to the recently publicized importations of two US$3.5mil Bugatti Chirons, a US$500 000, Rolls Royce and a US$200 000 Lamborghini Urus by politically connected individuals. This is at a time the nation is on the brink of economic collapse and the Human Rights Council has just issued a report that 7.7mil Zimbabweans are threatened by starvation due to the drought.
Then Mary Chiwenga’s case of externalizing $1mil, exposed that the Reserve Bank is doling out forex allocations for the private consumption of the political elite, yet producers and hospitals lack forex to import essentials for industry and public services. These are cited by many as examples that politicians and the elite are not committed to building Zimbabwe or fighting sanctions because their looting is the cause of our economic struggles.
As a civil society organization fighting against sanctions, we agree that individuals who misappropriate national resources for personal gain (particularly in times of war) are stealing from the nation and assisting the enemy to sabotage the economy, which is treason.
However, we still emphasize that these individuals are mere pawns in the greater economic war to destroy the nation by crippling production, foreign payments, investment and the financial system, to stop technology transfer and industrialization. This also involves sanctions senders facilitating the looting of our national coffers and the laundering of proceeds into western banks to bankrupt our treasury. As a result many of these politically connected individuals launder money out of Zimbabwe to splurge on cars without being targeted by sanctions or global anti laundering laws, because their actions advance the objectives of the sanctions sender by depleting our foreign reserves and making our banks dysfunctional.
For this reason, we call upon the President to declare a national emergency on sanctions and to enact policies that will prosecute treason, regulate the use and allocation of national resources; so that we can build the nation, defend it from sanctions, infiltration, division and instability that could pave way for foreign intervention.
In 2020, ZUAUWS will be pursuing a class action suit upon the nations responsible for the violation of human rights through illegal economic war upon our nation. We also hope to pursue the individuals, organizations, and commercial entities that have profiteered from this crime against innocent civilians over the past 18yrs.
