Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) has called for the immediate and unconditional removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe by the United States of America and its Western allies saying the embargo is unjustified, inhuman and impacts negatively on the livelihood of the ordinary citizen.
In a statement released by the Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda on Tuesday, the SADC Parliamentary Forum expressed its detestation of the economic embargo and called for its unconditional lifting.
“The SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) has condemned in the strongest possible terms the illegal and unjustified economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America, the European Union, and their western allies, and called for the immediate and unconditional removal of this unilateral embargo,” he said.
In a motion proposed by Angola and seconded by Malawi, during the 46th SADC PF Plenary Assembly held in Swakopmund, Namibia, from 10th to 17th December 2019, Parliamentarians from the SADC region spoke with one voice in condemning the unjust and illegal sanctions which violate international law and have caused untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe.
Hon. Josephina Perpetua Pitra Diakate, Member of the National Assembly of Angola and Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Democratization, Governance and Human Rights of the SADC PF, expressed grave concern at the illegal sanctions.
She said the sanctions; “Undermined the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals number one to five and impacted negatively on the people’s livelihoods.”
Mr Chokuda said Hon Diakate disabused the proclamation that the sanctions were ‘targeted’ at particular individuals in the Government of Zimbabwe and affirmed that the illegal embargo was hampering economic growth, thereby affecting the most vulnerable population who include young girls, women, children, the disabled and elderly people.
The motion to call for the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe was supported by Hon. Dennis Namachekecha of Malawi who said Zimbabwe had turned a new chapter under the new dispensation.
He averred that the SADC region cannot stand by and watch the suffering and pain in Zimbabwe, because “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
In subsequent robust debate, the delegates from the SADC region, led by their Speakers of Parliament and Heads of Delegations, joined the clarion call, with Hon. Nicholas Prea, Speaker of the National Assembly of Seychelles, advocating for the removal of the illegal sanctions on the basis that they are inhuman and have no place in the new world order.
Hon. Thandi Modise, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, also made an impassioned plea for the removal of the sanctions saying they were retarding progress in the region. She indicated that South Africa cannot afford to stand by and watch whilst the sanctions were hurting even the unborn child.
Added Mr Chokuda; “Hon. Fernando Piedade dos Santos, Speaker of the National Assembly of Angola reiterated the need to remove the sanctions which have no legal basis. He noted that the current Government led by His Excellency, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, deserved praise for the re-engagement trajectory it had taken, hence the need to maintain the dignity of the people of Zimbabwe and the SADC community through the removal of sanctions. Delegate after delegate called for the removal of the sanctions as they affect the economic growth potential of Zimbabwe and the region.”
The 46th Plenary Assembly Session also unanimously endorsed the Declaration adopted by the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government that the 25th October of every year as the date for SADC Member States to collectively express displeasure by condemning the illegal punitive sanctions imposed on the Republic of Zimbabwe by the United States of America and the European Union.
In contributing to the motion, the Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Advocate Jacob Francis Mudenda chronicled the unjust acquisition of land in Zimbabwe dating back to 1923, when the “Meikles Looting Committee was given the mandate to expropriate all prime land and moved the native people to regions 4 and 5”, where there are poor unproductive sandy soils.
In a historical treatise, Cde Mudenda unpacked the 1931, Land Apportionment Act, subsequent cattle looting in 1955 and the forced labour and enslavement of the black people through forced labour.
He said the principled stance remains orbited around payment of improvements on the farms, not the land itself since it was taken away without payment in the first place. It was thus fitting and historic that the aforestated declaration by the SADC Summit was made in Tanzania, the home of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, one of the founding fathers of the Frontline States Movement.
Cde Mudenda concluded by giving the Parliamentary Diplomacy roadmap which has seen a legislative delegation from Zimbabwe meet with their counterparts in Sweden and would soon visit London and the United States Congress to further the cause of the removal of the sanctions in support of President Mnangagwa’s spirited re-engagement matrix. He assured plenary that the new dispensation remained geared towards achievement of economic growth and prosperity for all Zimbabweans.
The Clerk of Parliament said the region made its intentions and collective voice clear that the unwarranted, unjust and illegal sanctions imposed on the people of Zimbabwe were stunting growth in the region and should be removed immediately and unconditionally as they violated international law.
Online Reporter