By Nobleman Runyanga
Zimbabwe’s anti-sanctions drive is gaining momentum globally as more and more people are finding it repugnant that one State imposes sanctions against another in a bipartite dispute which the imposer is not involved.
This came out when hundreds of the December 12 Movement (D12) staged an ant-sanctions march in New York today at the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which kicked off on Tuesday. The march bolstered the increasing calls for the removal of the illegal and debilitating sanctions which have strangled Zimbabwe’s economy affecting her citizens.
The D12 has been supporting Zimbabwe since the liberation struggle when its members mobilised supplies for guerrillas on the battlefront.
“We think that Zimbabwe is the model of what Africa should be doing, Zimbabwe has stood for African independence (and) stood for self-determination. (It) has recognised the importance of Pan Africanism (and) supported our struggle here in the United States for liberation and therefore Zimbabwe has to be supported,” said D12 official and human rights lawyer, Roger Wareham on the sidelines of the march.
Wareham explained that the way the United States government was treating Zimbabwe was similar to the way it was treating black Americans hence the mutual support between them and the people of Zimbabwe.
“This is not an act of kindness. We see our struggle and the struggle of Zimbabwe as the same. As Pan-Africanists, we know that Africans on the continent and African is in the diaspora are intimately connected and that none of us can be free if we separate our struggles,” Wareham said.
The D12 official highlighted that his movement would continue to press the US to remove the sanctions.
“Our contribution...in the United States (is) to do everything possible to get the United States government to lift the sanctions. That’s what we are focusing on,” he said.
The D12 solidarity march comes on the back of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s resolution last month in Tanzania to designate 25 October 2019 as a solidarity anti-sanctions day to support Zimbabwe in its fight against the sanctions imposed on the country by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union in response to the southern African country’s land reform programme.
