In an interview with France24, President Mnangagwa responded to Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Harriet Baldwin’s call for the European Union (EU) to add new Government officials on the sanctions list.
United Kingdom’s Minister for Africa Harriet Baldwin said her Government is considering putting new Zimbabwean government officials under the European Union sanctions list for human rights violations following recent crackdown by security forces. Baldwin said this when she appeared before the parliamentary committee on International Development. Baldwin said the recent crackdown by the military had made the UK realise it is not the right time to remove sanctions against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
When asked if he is afraid that the EU will add more sanctions Mnangagwa said:
The sanctions are already there, they have not been removed. So what other new sanctions are you talking about which have been imposed. We already are suffering under these sanctions ZIDERA EU sanctions.
When asked if he is appealing to his African counterparts to push for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be removed Mnangagwa said:
We have been doing that for the last 18 years, we are not changing. We will continue to appeal to member states in SADC, to the continental body to assist us to have these countries that have imposed sanctions on us to realise that it is hurting our people. We have not offended anybody. What we are doing is good for our people, is good for Zimbabwe.
The sanctions are not against Zimbabwe, the sanctions are against the thieves and murderers in ZANU-PF. They what you to think that the problems in Zim are because of sanctions, they are not. They sanctions are there to stop these people from sealing even more then they have from the country. There are not sanctions against the good people in Zimbabwe
” ZIDERA covers lending by international organizations to Zimbabwe and forgiveness of the debt that Zimbabwe has to those organizations, and countries in the Paris Club. The sanctions that exist are executive branch sanctions on 154 individuals and entities”
It is against 154 Zanu-pf members not Zimbabwe