ED Says Zimbabwe Is "Determined To Industrialise, Restrained By External Interference"

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that the country is determined to embark on development initiatives that transform the lives of the citizens but it is restrained by a number of issues including interference by Western states.

Addressing the two-day Russia-Africa Summit which ended on Thursday, with 49 Heads of State and Government in attendance, Mnangagwa said:

Zimbabwe has borne the brunt of the unilateralism, interventionism and external interference in our internal affairs, in the form of a crippling sanctions regime imposed by some Western countries for two decades. These illegal sanctions continue to cause untold suffering to our people and hamper us from the realisation of our full economic growth potential and prosperity.

Meanwhile, the government has organised an Anti-Sanctions march as a way of showing the world that the citizens yearn for the removal of sanctions which authorities say have deterred development for two decades.

On the other hand, Western authorities have insisted that sanctions are never on Zimbabwe as a country but on a few individuals and entities who engaged in or aided others in violating human rights.

More: The Chronicle