Gondai Kamumango  

The Japanese religious movement, Soka Gakkai Foundation is failing to forward its US$10 000-00 donation to Cyclone Idai victims, citing the unilateral sanctions on Zimbabwe by the United States, Harare Post can exclusively reveal.

Information unearthed by this publication reveal that Soka Gakkai Foundation mobilized the money as aid for victims for Cyclone Idai which left many dead and thousands homeless in Zimbabwe.

Further information expose that the foundation’s bank, Mitsubishi UFJ is failing to find an intermediary bank to facilitate the transfer of the money to Zimbabwe as a result of the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe by the US despite the US insistence that they are only targeting individuals.

The US Embassy in Harare in a statement alleged that the sanctions are not meant to harm Zimbabwe but aimed at a small section of Zimbabweans.

“The US does not maintain comprehensive sanctions against Zimbabwe. Suggestions that the US intends to harm the Zimbabwean people with sanctions are false and misleading.”

The failure by Mitsubishi UFJ to find an intermediary bank to facilitate the transfer may stem from the fact that the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) fined Barclays bank US$2.5 million for 159 apparent violations of the Zimbabwe sanctions regulation. 

CBZ bank was also hit with US$385 million penalty by OFAC for allegedly carrying transactions on behalf of ZB Bank, claiming that they were done under economic sanctions.

The US also fined Standard Chartered US$18million for handling Zimbabwe transactions, claiming that they were violating sanctions.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy director for Financial Markets, William Manhimanzi, speaking at a post 2019 Monetary Policy Statement review, revealed that South African banks were also withdrawing their support for Zimbabwe in fear of being fined by OFAC.

The donation by Soka Gakka Foundation could have helped thousands of Cyclone Idai victims had it not the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the US.

The sanctions are contributing to the suffering of the masses in the country despite continuous allegations by the US officials that the sanctions are only targeting a small section of Zimbabweans.