SADC calls for lifting of all sanctions on Zimbabwe

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) has reaffirmed its unwavering solidarity with Zimbabwe in the call for lifting all illegal sanctions that remain imposed on the country.

In a statement Angola President, who is also the SADC chairperson, Hon João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço said as a regional family, SADC firmly echoes that the targeted sanctions adversely impact the country.

“It is now over 20 years since the imposition of these targeted sanctions – two decades marred by the inability of the people of Zimbabwe to fully achieve their potentials across various sectors as a nation.

“This reality, which is not new to the International Community, damages Zimbabwe’s image and limits its potential for access to financial and capital markets. The extent of this block to Zimbabwe’s socio-economic growth on the livelihood of its people represents a modern-day atrocity which we, as the SADC Family, strongly feel is an impediment that leaves one of our Members behind from our common quest for regional integration, growth and prosperity,” said President Lourenço.

He further called on the International Community to factor the report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, made by Alena Gouhan, on her visit to Zimbabwe, which proposes the lifting of these sanctions within the ambit of key principles of International Law.

“Our call for lifting sanctions on Zimbabwe is made as a firm request to the International Community for a new rhetoric, story, and direction for the country. An unconditional lift of sanctions shall create the conditions for Zimbabwe and the SADC region to consolidate its collective efforts to spearhead national and regional growth and substantively develop in critical areas of good governance, human rights, and social cohesion. It is, therefore, Incumbent on all parties concerned to do our parts in re-writing the discourse for the Government and people of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” said President Lourenço.

“In a time where global insecurities pose Food Security and other pertinent challenges to the African Continent and SADC Region, the sanctions imposed on the Republic of Zimbabwe create an alarming double-imposed threat to its peoples’ livelihood and survival,” he added.