The United States of America has responded to the 25 October Anti Sanctions March by adding one more minister to the sanctions list.
Minister of State Security Owen Ncube has been added to the sanctions list for participating in gross human rights violations in his office of minister.
These are yet more targeted individual sanctions as the US argues that it doesn’t impose sanctions on Zimbabwe but individuals and institutions which participate in these gross human rights violations.
The Government of Zimbabwe had escalated calls for the removal of sanctions but it seems like the efforts are seen as comical rather than serious.
The US argues that reforms only are the prerequisite for the removal of these sanctions.
The government of Zimbabwe seems resolute on it’s reluctance to reform and it demands unconditional lift of sanctions.
The imposing of sanctions on one more state official is a further sign of damned efforts for international re-engagement.
Below is the official statement released by the Trump administration
Today, the Department designates Owen Ncube under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2019 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act (Div. F, P.L. 116-6), as carried forward by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020 (Div. A, P.L. 116-59) due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights. Section 7031(c) provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals are ineligible for entry into the United States and may be publically or privately designated as such by the Secretary of State. The Department has credible information that Owen Ncube was involved in gross violations of human rights in his capacity as Zimbabwe’s Minister of State for National Security.
