The United States of America through its Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, senior fellow and Centre for Global Development executive director Todd Moss, warned President Emmerson Mnangagwa against blaming the U.S for Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.
Giving testimony before the U.S Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy,Moss urged the Zimbabwean leadership to take full responsibility for the economic mess.
“The government of Zimbabwe constantly complains that economic difficulties are the result of US sanctions rather than their own mismanagement and corruption,” Moss said.
“Blaming the U.S is just another example of a government failing to take responsibility for its own actions”.
The United States has maintained sanctions on Zimbabwe since 2001 through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) and sanctioned individuals and dozens of companies associated with the government.
The U.S maintains that sanctions were not the reason Zimbabwe was not accessing lines of credit, but that Harare has not been servicing its international debt obligations.
“The reason the government cannot borrow from international financial institutions is not because of US sanctions, but because the government has not paid its bills since 2001 and is now more than $5 billion in arrears to international creditors (about $2 billion to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank, and roughly $3 billion to the US and other Paris Club creditors),” Moss said.
Moss warned the U.S government to be very careful when dealing with the Harare administration, urging Washington to maintain the sanctions and withhold debt relief or new loans until significant reforms have been made.