Sanctions renewed by the United States on Zimbabwe are illegal, and will prevent Zimbabwe from receiving financial support from multinational financial institutions, Dickson Dzora, the director for administration at ruling Zimbabwean ZANU PF party told Sputnik on Friday.
"Those are illegal sanctions. They are not United Nations sanctions. A country is choosing to impose sanctions on another independent country which is what we don’t understand, because now they are just using their power, their muscle, in those multinational financial institutions to block any support," Dzora said.
Dzora added that Zimbabwe would struggle to receive loans from organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to a lack of US support.
"[Sanctions] will affect Zimbabwe because America is the major contributor to the World Bank, the IMF, so they have management control of those institutions. Wherever there is voting on loans or grants for Zimbabwe, Americans will veto that. There is no country which can survive without balance of payments support," Dzora said.
Zimbabwe will not commit to any policy changes in light of the recent extension of US sanctions, as Zimbabwean authorities lack an understanding of what reforms would cause their removal, Dickson Dzora, the director for administration in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) said.
"We have already done so. We are not going to do more… We don’t know what the [United States] wants," Dzora said, in answer to a question on whether ZANU PF would introduce policy changes to prevent the extension of US sanctions on Zimbabwe in the future.
Dzora added that the government had attempted to prove their willingness to institute reforms through holding fair elections, but with little effect on whether the United States chose to extend sanctions on the county.
"We thought Zimbabwe had opened itself up for re-engagement and engagement and a lot has happened. We have done a lot of reforms and we were thinking that they were going to appreciate that we have had the most free, fair, credible elections as a result of this new dispensation. We should have been rewarded but instead we are being punished for no apparent reason," Dzora said.
US President Donald Trump announced on Monday the extension of US sanctions on Zimbabwe by a year. The sanctions will affect 141 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ZANU PF party.
US Sanctions on Zimbabwe were first initiated on March 7, 2003, imposed on individuals and entities, which the US Department of the Treasury believed to be undermining democratic institutions or processes, committing human rights abuses related to political repression, or engaged in public corruption in Zimbabwe. - Sputnik
