What the targeted measures actually amount to are Shopping Sanctions that prevent Mugabe and his minions travelling the world and shopping with other peoples money. Every political or religious cult has its founding myths and fables. The Nazi cult had at its core the myth of Aryan racial superiority.
The Zanu cult has many myths but currently the most popular is the Sanctions myth. This has been pushed very hard for many years now but now even the rural people, the main targets of Zanu (PF) propaganda, are disbelieving. Of course the reason we have heard these endless tales about sanctions is that these mythical sanctions serve as a fig leaf to cover the nakedness of Zanus destruction of the country. The economy of Zimbabwe has been deliberately destroyed by Mugabe and his party as a means of illegitimately clinging to power. Over the last 10 years the web of patronage has reached epidemic proportions. Gideon Gono had a wonderful scheme going where he printed pretty (but worthless) pieces of paper called Zimbabwe dollars and forced the population to exchange this for their real money. This real money was then used to enrich the party faithful and to oil the machinery of oppression. Thankfully this has ended with the decision to kill the Zimbabwe Dollar, though we still hear occasional bleats from the usual suspects who are enraged that their money tree has been ring-barked and fails to bear fruit.
And all the while, whenever fingers were pointed at the collapsing health and education systems, we heard the mournful cry of sanctions as the cause. I am NOT the one! It is the sanctions. What a lot of total nonsense. Lets look at the restrictive measures (which Mugabe and Zanu call sanctions) and see what they amount to. First theres ZDERA or to give it its full name the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. Now, one would wonder how anyone could be against democracy and economic recovery, but amazingly Mugabe and Zanu are totally opposed to both. Basically ZDERA promises to financially reward the introduction of democracy and at the same time prevents US representatives agreeing to further loans from the IMF and World Bank. Interestingly, because Zimbabwe has defaulted on these loans years back ZDERA actually has no practical effect whatsoever! Now lets look at some of the other restrictive measures (sanctions) that cause so much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Zanu elite. First, most of the civilised world has placed travel restrictions on a small number, around 200, of the worst offenders against freedom and the rule of law in Zimbabwe. Some have had their assets frozen on the logical assumption that this was looted from the citizens. Then a small number of businesses closely linked with the oppressors have been placed on the list. John Bredenkamp has a number of businesses that are listed, which no doubt causes great distress.
Yet another myth is that these Shopping Sanctions were slapped on Mugabe and his Minions in retaliation for the Land Grab. Wrong! They were imposed by the EU after Mugabe threw out the head of their election monitoring team in the run up to the 2002 elections. It seems that Mugabe and Zanu have a deep terror of anything resembling Free and Fair Elections or the Rule of Law. So these sanctions we hear so much about are not trade restrictions on the nation. On the contrary, Zimbabwe can and does trade with any nation in the world that desires to do so. What they actually amount to are Shopping Sanctions that prevent Mugabe and his minions travelling the world and shopping with other peoples money. Its interesting that of late Mugabe has managed to get those who should know better to call on the EU and others to end these Shopping Sanctions. Both the EU and the USA have made it crystal clear that all that needs to be done is for the Rule of Law to be introduced and for the terms of the GPA to be observed. In a nutshell all the hullabaloo is because . . . the Zanu fatcats want to go shopping! Sanctions are, and always have been a complete myth, deliberately fabricated to cover up the total failure of Mugabe and his Minions. But to Zanoids this myth is sacred; without it they would have to admit to failure, and that would never do.