THE late Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith was slapped with United Nations sanctions from 1965 until 1979, but the country remained one of Africa’s richest nations. Zimbabwe was slapped with targeted sanctions by the United States of America and the European Union in 2005, which left top government officials and some connected people very wealthy, amid poverty among ordinary people. Is it because the Zanu PF-led government, which has gone unchecked for years, is clueless or it is because the Smith was shrewder than President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seems clueless? If the Smith regime had the Marange diamonds and Blanket Mine at its disposal, it would easily have been more than the jewel of Africa. Apart from schools built with assistance from donors, the government has done nothing, particularly for the rural people, other than destroy what was set up by the colonial regime. Everything has been reduced to rumble. National roads have become death traps because of potholes. Senior government officials have become filthy rich in a country whose manufacturing industry has virtually collapsed with cartels of briefcase and shelf companies owned by those connected to the echelons of power and their relatives having taken over everything as they are awarded major tenders. If we continue at this rate, Zimbabwe will be a shell by 2023, with nothing to show for the natural resources the country is endowed with. Farai Cheuka
