HARARE, March 12 (NNN-KNA) — The Chairman of Pan African Forum Dr David Matsanga has called on the international community to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe stating the restrictions are hurting the southern African Nation.
Matsanga termed the sanctions as illegal and assured Zimbabwe of his continued advocacy to ensure that the restrictions are lifted.
“The illicit perpetual sanctions against Zimbabwe has become hallmark of the West’s injudicious mobocracy and sanctimony that has excruciatingly pummeled the lives of Zimbabweans from flesh to bone.
“These senseless sanctions have caused anguish, abject poverty, despair and an economic meltdown that can only border crimes against humanity. Africa should not leave Zimbabwe in the lurch, we must call for the removal of these sanctions” he said.
The international conflict resolution expert said the sanctions are exacerbating corruption in Zimbabwe as banks, companies and individuals banned from trading abroad simply bribe others to conduct their business for them.
“I call on all countries which imposed sanctions as well as banks and companies of third states as well as countries where these banks are registered, to behave in accordance with the rule of law, due diligence, principal, lift sanctions, make legislation which corresponds with international law and principals of human rights protection. And the last point is that all the discrepancies which exist between all parties, between states, between the government and some sort of opposition leaders and any other institutions shall be settled on the basis of structural dialogue,” Matsanga added.
Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe passed away more than two years ago. The new government thinks it’s high time the human rights sanctions imposed decades ago, during his regime, are removed.
In September 2019, the ministry of foreign affairs and international trade hired the London-based subsidiary of US lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs to lobby for a fresh start under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The European Union imposed travel and financial sanction on allies of then-Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in 2002, in response to alleged election rigging and human rights abuses by his party and government. The U.S. followed suit with sanctions in 2003.
President Mnangagwa’s government says the sanctions must be lifted, arguing they are derailing the country’s efforts to climb out of a long economic slump.
In October last year in separate statements, the United States, Britain, and the European Union said Zimbabwe’s economy was suffering not because of sanctions, but because of corruption and government mismanagement of the country’s resources. — NNN-KNA
