by Mirinda Mazino

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) House of Assembly Member for Glen View South, Vincent Tsvangirai has invited the wrath of his party leadership after abandoning the party position on sanctions when he admitted that sanctions were the cause of the people’s suffering in the country.

The MDC has long been adamant that sanctions are only targeted and have no bearing on the economic challenges facing the country and the ordinary citizens. 

Tsvangirai, who is son to the late founding leader of the MDC, said these statements while responding to oral evidence presented by Broad Alliance Against Sanctions who petitioned parliament over illegal sanctions placed on the country.

Commenting on mooted plans to introduce the Patriotic Act, which seeks to punish citizens who advocate for sanctions against their country, Tsvangirai admitted that the real problem lay with the illegal sanctions.

"My fear is that it (Patriotic Act) may sound good to pass an act like that, I for one, am a patriotic person who believes that sanctions do hurt ordinary persons, but at the same time passing an act like that, I believe sometimes you may end up opening citizens to further harm.

"There are other ways like you said, that they are targeted sanctions correct, we want to find out who are the targeted people on those sanctions. Then are they economic sanctions, and who are they dealing with, those economic sanctions (sic).”

Tsvangirai added that the sanctions against the country are unwarranted, “I believe they should go, in this day and age they don't help anything if you look at other countries 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.”

Despite the West, especially the United States (US) insisting that the illegal sanctions imposed in 2001 are only targeting individuals, the sanctions are actually comprehensive, affecting everyone and every sector of the economy.

Zimbabwe’s Balance of Payments (BoPs) position has deteriorated significantly since the introduction of sanctions, access to credit lines have been blocked. Lending programme from international financial institutions has been suspended, even Diaspora remittances to the country has been affected, negatively impacting the lives of ordinary citizens.