by Innocent Mujeri

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has thanked his South African counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa for utilising the platform at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to call for the removal of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West.

Writing on his Twitter handle today, President Mnangagwa said that sanctions were an evil that had injured the people of Zimbabwe for almost two decades.

“Thank you to @CyrilRamaphosa for once again calling for an end to the debilitating sanctions that have injured the people of Zimbabwe for almost two decades,” tweeted President Mnangagwa.

Speaking at the UNGA virtual meeting yesterday, President Ramaphosa said that the position of the African Union (AU) was that economic sanctions against Zimbabwe and Sudan should be lifted to allow their Governments to respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was not the first time for President Ramaphosa to fight on Zimbabwe’s corner on issue of sanctions.

The  South African President has been on the forefront calling for the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe to be removed.

In May, this year, while giving his speech at the 57th anniversary celebrations of the African Union, President Ramaphosa again called for an end to the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, as well as for economic interventions in developing economies.

Ramaphosa’s call for the removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe is a clear sign that the relationship between the two countries is solid and can not be destroyed by anything.

Recently, the country’s detractors were exerting pressure on President Ramaphosa, who is also the AU Chairperson to intervene in Zimbabwe to solve a non-existent crisis.

However, the detractors were left with an egg on their faces when President Ramaphosa refused to bow down to the pressure, and instead chose to engage ZANU PF, as a sister liberation movement.