Sanctions on Zim harming whole region – SADC

Harare(New Ziana) – Sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West led by the United States and Britain continue to impede economic progress in the country and the region and should be lifted, Southern African Development Community (SADC) executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe has endured two decades of the economic sanctions, imposed in retaliation against the agrarian reforms pursued by the government.

The land reforms, meant to address colonial land ownership imbalances, involved compulsory acquisition of excess white-owned farmland to resettle landless blacks.

Speaking ahead of SADC’s Anti-Sanctions Day at the weekend, Dr Tax said the sanctions continued to have a far-reaching ruinous impact on Zimbabwe and the region as a whole.

“October 25th is the Anti-Sanctions Day. The occasion brings all the people of southern Africa to support their brothers and sisters in their fight against economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe,” she said.

“The sanctions have caused suffering among Zimbabweans and continue to have far- reaching effects on Zimbabwe and the entire SADC region,” said Dr Tax.

She added: “The Zimbabwe Democracy Recovery Act (ZIDERA) as was passed by the US Congress in 2001 and its subsequent amendments is particularly harmful to the economy of Zimbabwe and welfare of Zimbabweans.”

Dr Tax said this was because the Act punished Americans who support multilateral funding to Zimbabwe and discourages doing business with Zimbabwean businesses.

“This has left our sister Republic (Zimbabwe) without external support for capital projects,” she said.

She, however, applauded Zimbabweans for showing resilience notwithstanding the ‘damaging’ sanctions.

“It is commendable that Zimbabwe is now among the top 5 Doing Business and Reformers in Africa and top 20 improvers on ease of doing business scores in the world. This is accordance with the World Bank’s doing business report of 2020,” she said.

Dr Tax said the region noted the government’s effort to compensate the former white commercial farmers whose farms were compulsorily acquired for resettlement.

“Zimbabwe continues to implement economic reforms aiming to turn around the economy and reforms under the Transitional Stabilisation Programme are gradually stimulating the economy.

“The Public Order and Security Act as well as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act have been repealed as part of the ongoing political reforms,” she said.

Dr Tax added: “Zimbabwe would have achieved more if it was not under sanctions.”

At its annual meeting in Tanzania in August last year, SADC agreed to collectively lobby for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and designated October 25 as the day when each member country will be carrying out activities to denounce the sanctions.

The Zimbabwe government then declared 25 October a public holiday to mark SADC solidarity against illegal Western sanctions on the country.

New Ziana