Page 39 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 29
P. 39

Leadership
































                                                                sanctions which were regulated by the Federal
                                                                Regulation Code (CFR) 541, included, executive
                                                                orders EO 13288, EO 13391, EO 13469 and were
                                                                instituted through the International Emergency

                                                                Economic Power Act. The sanctions were
                                                                purportedly introduced in response to perceived
                                                                political and human rights violations by the

                                                                Zimbabwean government. However, the illegal
                                                                measure, which collectively targeted the national
                                                                government, local government, state-owned
                                                                enterprises, investors, financial institutions,
                                                                mines, farms, and other entities that did business

                                                                with them—the entire engine of the Zimbabwean
                                                                economy—were collective punishment of all
                                                                Zimbabweans and thus deemed illegal by the UN
               innocent Zimbabweans for its political and
               foreign policy aims. These illegal sanctions have   in 2021.

               deeply affected these innocent civilians and the
               nation’s socio-economic fabric. It is crucial to   The fact is that the objective of these illegal
               understand the full extent of their impact on    measures was to pressure the Zimbabwean

               human rights and the steps we are taking to      government to reverse land reform, economic
               address the injustice faced by our citizens.     transformation, and to force the Zimbabwean
                                                                government to return the economy and land to
               In the early 2000s, the United States imposed the   whites. It was also to force electoral reforms,
               illegal Zimbabwe Sanctions Program               which, alongside sanctions, would help achieve

               extrajudicially and extraterritorially. These    quick regime change to an opposition that would
                                                                return land and economic control to white




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