NEW: Sanctions on Zim a modern-day atrocity: SADC chair

The Sunday Mail

Sunday Mail Online

THE two-decades-old sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, which continue to damage the country’s image and limit its potential to access financial and capital markets, represent a modern-day atrocity, and have to be lifted unconditionally, SADC chairperson and Angolan President João Lourenço has said.

In a statement released Wednesday to mark the annual SADC Anti-Sanctions Day — a day reserved for regional solidarity against the illegal imposition of the embargo — the regional chair also noted that the coercive measures also have an impact on regional integration, growth and prosperity.

“This appeal by SADC for the immediate lifting of sanctions on the Republic of Zimbabwe rests on the backdrop of growing concern over the impact these sanctions continue to pose on the country and the SADC region,” he said.

“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.”

President Lourenço said the continued imposition of sanctions, particularly at a time of heightened global insecurities, “create an alarming double-imposed threat to its people’s livelihood and survival”.