The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Harare says targeted sanctions imposed on Zimbabwean individuals accused of human rights abuses do not affect trade or the country’s economic development.
Regional bloc, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) declared October 25 as solidarity day against sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by United States of America and other western countries.
In a statement, the embassy said UK has targeted sanctions on five individuals and one entity for human rights violations and corruption.
“To be absolutely clear, the UK has targeted sanctions on five Zimbabwean officials and one entity for human rights violations and serious corruption. The five individuals are Owen Ncube, Isaac Moyo, Godwin Matanga, Anselem Sanyatwe and Kudakwashe Tagwirei. The entity is the Zimbabwe Defence Industries. These measures do not affect trade or economic development.
“Trade between UK and Zimbabwe was 175 million USD last year. We are working hard to increase this. The UK also provides considerable development assistance to education and health care in Zimbabwe — 114 million USD this year. This is assistance in support of Zimbabwe’s own National Development Strategy. We want to see Zimbabwe succeed. Anything to suggest that the UK wants to harm Zimbabwe or ordinary Zimbabweans is simply false,” said the UK embassy
The United States department of State is also on record saying the sanctions are targeted at individuals who undermine democratic processes.
“The Zimbabwe sanctions program is a policy-driven program that targets human rights abusers and those who undermine democratic processes or facilitate corruption. U.S. sanctions do not target the Zimbabwean people, the country of Zimbabwe, or Zimbabwe’s banking sector,” said the department
Commemoration for the event are being held across the country’s provinces with a group of individuals besieging the United States embassy in Harare.
