MDC Whips Tsvangirai Over Sanctions Statement
19 March 2020
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Vincent Tsvangirai

THE late founding father of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai’s son Vincent, pictured, — who is the MP for Glen View South — has come under fire from his party after he said that sanctions were not targeted, but were affecting all Zimbabweans.

Tsvangirai told the parliamentary portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs that sanctions must go now.

“I believe they (sanctions) should go. In this day and age, they don’t help anything if you look at every other country out there in the world. Look at all the statistics that are out there, they don’t help with anything, you may target one person, but that person is never targeted and that person will continue with their lives.

“I am a patriotic person who believes that sanctions do hurt ordinary persons but at the same time making an act like that I believe sometimes you may end up opening up citizens to further harm,” said Tsvangirai.
This did not go down well with the party, which yesterday immediately distanced itself from Tsvangirai’s position.

“What Honourable Tsvangirai said is not the party’s position. As the people’s party, the MDC remains clear and unequivocal in its stance.

“We are more focused on the lifting of ‘domestic sanctions’ that the illegitimate regime has imposed on the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe,” MDC spokesperson Daniel Molekeli told the Daily News yesterday.

“Zanu PF must focus on opening up the democratic space at home first, and then the so-called international sanctions will naturally fall away. Those are not economic sanctions, but they are targeted at individuals who are violating human rights,” he added.

This comes after the US State Department recently added to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list minister of State Security Owen Ncube and former commander of the Presidential Guard, Anslem Sanyatwe, for their role in the killings of civilians by the security sector in 2018 and 2019.

Ncube and Sanyatwe were last year placed on the US State Department Visa Travel Negative list for their role in thwarting protests and under the SDNs designated persons will have their assets blocked while nationals of the world’s richest country are prohibited from dealing with them.

The US senators, Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who is the chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Coons (D-Del.), member of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, are pushing for more names in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to be added in what could further isolate Zimbabwe and render futile government international re-engagement efforts.