𝗘𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗦𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗜𝗡 𝗭𝗜𝗠, 𝗦𝗢 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗗?

It's disheartening that the Office of the President trusted Eddie Cross, a racist Rhodie, as the President's advisor, author, and leader of the business anti-sanctions lobby.

Despite his inability to deliver tangible results for his mandate and consistently undermining ZANU PF's leadership with veiled insinuations that they destroyed Zimbabwe, Eddie was given a platform to serve the President.

Prior to serving the President, he was the same one who lied to Mugabe that ZANU PF officials (shade on the Lacoste faction) stole $15 billion worth of diamonds, which is implausible given Zimbabwe's diamond production capacity never reached $15 billion of the stolen diamonds and $6 billion sold through the Kimberley Process over the period.

While Eddie was paid to lobby against sanctions on Zimbabwe, he claimed that sanctions on the country were less severe than UN sanctions on Rhodesia, which were notoriously circumvented and busted by the West, with the U.S. even creating the Byrd Amendment to evade them outright.

Meanwhile, black patriots like myself worked tirelessly with limited resources after being commissioned separately by government to fight the same sanctions because Eddie and his lobby were not delivering results. As a result, our strategy got SADC marching against the sanctions, we got the U.N. to come and measure the negative impact of the sanctions on the country; we took the U.S. government to court; convinced the South African government to champion the fight against U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe; and pressured the Congress’ subcommittee on human rights, health, and organizations to undertake a human rights impact assessment on U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe that led to a congressional report to Biden recommending the lifting of executive sanctions on the country.

Our efforts resulted in the generation of an official U.S. Congress report documenting the detrimental effects of U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwean civilians and a recommendation that the U.S. President end executive order sanctions that the same Congress asked to be imposed through the ZDERA Act in 2001. In essence we brought the U.S. executive order sanctions on Zimbabwe full circle by getting Congress to ask for their removal in March 2024.

In contrast, Eddie achieved nothing in line with his mandate but instead he decampaigned Zimbabwe by spreading lies about the country and the First Family in a manner that divides that nation and may lead to more Magnitsky sanctions being imposed on the President and his family.

Now the question is after spreading falsehoods about the first family on SABC, why isn't he being arrested for this criminal act like Blessed Mlanga? Zimbabwe has capable and loyal black and non-racist white Zimbabweans who should be recognized and rewarded for their work based on merit. Meanwhile Cross needs to be treated like everyone else and sent to jail for advancing falsehoods about the country and its leadership on international platforms that could get the nation and its leaders sanctioned.

It’s unfair that we are fighting to resuscitate brand Zimbabwe by promoting the nation without any support, while people like Eddie Cross piss on the brand and continue to be respected and rewarded by the OPC.

Written by Rutendo Matinyarare, Chairman of ZASM.

https://zimbabweantisanctionsmovement.org/𝗘𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗘-𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗦𝗦-𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦-𝗕/