By Tendai Matunhu
Citizens have come out criticising the United States of America Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs Tibor Nagy, following his statement that the US sanctions were against certain individuals and co-operations and not against the Zimbabwe at large.
Mr Nagy had said, "There’s a very false narrative which I want to correct. Some people say that the U.S. has sanctions against the country of Zimbabwe. We do not, repeat, do not have sanctions against the country of Zimbabwe. We have sanctions against certain individuals and corporations and there could be greater detail on that, but not against the country of Zimbabwe. There is nothing to stop U.S. businesses from investing in Zimbabwe, from going to Zimbabwe"
One individual only identified as Ubuntu tweeted to say, “You can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool all the people all the time. It is a shame that you are denying the sanctions you placed on financial institutions. Zimbabweans cannot freely transact with anyone abroad. I am in the property market and we cannot transact.”
In April this year the Standard Chartered Bank was fined US$18 million by the US government for violating American sanctions on Zimbabwe by handling transactions for State-owned firms and sanctioned individuals.
One netizen, Charity Maodza tweeted, “Another blatant lie. When ZIDERA instructs US officials at IMF and World Bank to block lines of credit to Zimbabwe, which individual is targeted? Your satanic sanctions are targeted at all of us Zimbabweans. You cannot hoodwink anyone. Remove your evil sanctions!”
Part of ZIDERA reads, “Until the President makes the certification described in subsection (d), and except as may be required to meet basic human needs or for good governance, the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against, (1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or (2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.”
Henry Nemaire tweeted castigating the US sanctions saying, “As a result of ZIDERA, offshore insurance, freight and finance services to Zimbabwe are loaded with a risk premium. This premium is costing Zimbabwe operations millions of US dollars.”
One netizen, Mmatigari also tweeted criticising the sanctions saying, “Sanctions on Zimbabwe are affecting the people. You can’t spin it. It’s not justice to victimize 15 million people because Mugabe took land from a handful of white farmers and have it to Africans.”
Mabutho Butroes tweeted, “You can try and hide behind a figure, when you ban a company’s exports, you are directly fighting against a Country's GDP. You fight with its economy so that people will revolt against its government, once that happens; you then take control of it.”
