Story by Peter Chivhima
Unity has been identified as crucial in mitigating the devastating effects of coercive and unilateral sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America. This was the key takeaway from the recently concluded UN International Conference on Sanctions, Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.
In an exclusive interview with ZBC News reporter Peter Chivhima (PC), Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister, Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi (ZZ) emphasised the importance of unity in mitigating the impact of coercive sanctions.
PC: As the United Nations International Conference on Sanctions, Business and Human Rights concludes, what are the key takeaways for Zimbabwe and how do they align with Zimbabwe’s goals?
ZZ: Accross the board where sanctions are impossed, nations are complaining that there is overcompliance and companies are not willing to do business with them. So we are beginning to see that voices are beginning to grow louder and sentiments are being shared that these are kind of losses. Nations are saying let’s continue with this trajectory, let’s have conferences like this year, let’s continue to put pressure on countries that have imposed sanctions to say it’s time to adhere to the United Nations Charter, let’s remove sanctions.
PC: There are critics who say that the sanctions are targeted. What is your take?
ZZ: We have observed from this conference that sanctions are not targeted. We have heard that in nations where sanctions are imposed, the generality of people there are suffering, which means they are not targeted. Non Governmental Organizations also came up with interesting papers and presentations indicating how their work is being affected by the so-called targeted sanctions, yet the very countries which imposed sanctions say they support humanitarian work. So sanctions are not targeted.
PC: Back home what measures are you putting in place to overcome the devastating effects of sanctions?
ZZ: Back home we are putting a cocktail of measures, as you are aware that we have been under sanctions for over two decades. We have told ourselves that let’s build our own country with what we have. We have built our infrastructure, we now have a New Parliament building, we now have a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical warehouse and in terms of agriculture, we have improved tremendously using our own resources.
