Harare(New Ziana)-Zimbabwe appreciates the gesture by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of calling for the removal of sanctions imposed on the country by the West, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Tuesday.
At its Summit in August this year in Tanzania, SADC resolved to collectively assist Zimbabwe, one of its founding member countries, in campaigning for the sanctions to be removed.
The regional bloc dedicated the 25th of next month as a day to collectively call for lifting of the embargo, and assigned its chair, Tanzanian President John Magufuli, to raise the issue at the recently held United Nations General Assembly.
In his State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Mnangagwa said by setting aside October 25th as the day on which SADC member states would call for the lifting of sanctions, the bloc had shown true friendship.
“We remain indebted to SADC, following the landmark resolution taken at the 39th Summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in August this year, declaring 25 October as the date for member states to collectively call for the lifting of the illegal sanctions imposed on our country.
“Zimbabwe deeply appreciated this gesture of friendship and solidarity,” he said.
The United States and the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2001 to force the government to abandon its land reforms, under which it compulsorily acquired excess white-owned farmland to resettle landless blacks, mainly peasants.
The reforms were meant to correct colonial land ownership imbalances which favoured minority whites, and economically empower the majority blacks.
The sanctions, which include trade restrictions and withdrawal of bilateral and multilateral financial support, are estimated to have cost Zimbabwe about US$100 billion over the past two decades.
In his address at the recently held UN General Assembly in New York, President Mnangagwa implored the West to unshackle Zimbabwe from the illegal sanctions saying the embargo was not only holding back economic development, but was a violation of human rights.
New Ziana
