Yes, sanctions were removed off Zimbabwe. And you’ll be able to find articles like this one from Dentons, the biggest law firm in the world. And this one says: “US Terminates Zimbabwe Sanctions Program.
” So let me simplify that so you can understand what this means. So on the 4th of March 2024, Joe Biden, the US President, removed all sanctions on Zimbabwe. These were EO 13288, EO 13391, and EO 13469. He also dismantled the legal instruments used to impose those sanctions: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Code of Federal Regulations 541, to remove all sanctions on Zimbabwe.
He even denounced the three national emergencies that were used to impose these sanctions.The reason the United States President was forced to remove sanctions was because of civil activism and legal fight undertaken by Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement.
Through that legal fight and through that activism, we got the South African government to become the biggest voice against sanctions on Zimbabwe. And the United Nations to come do an impact assessment that brought out a report saying that sanctions were illegal and violated human rights—if not crimes against humanity.Even more exciting, we decided to take the US President and government to South African courts because they were forcing companies to implement sanctions illegally, because South Africa was Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner.
When the US President decided to declare that he wants immunity, we challenged that immunity with a precedent set on Grace Mugabe by AfriForum, saying that the US President did not deserve immunity because he was forcing South African companies to break South African law by threats of prosecution and confiscation of their resources.
The win came when a Congress legal advisor and a liason for the department of state, defence and White house, who actually asked for sanctions—sent a senior legal advisor to contact us and ask “how do we end this negative US campaign”.
We said: “Do a human rights impact assessment of your sanctions, and then if you find that they are hurting civilians, remove them.” They did an impact assessment, discovered that their sanctions were hurting civilians—depriving women and children of healthcare and enjoyment of human rights—and asked Biden to remove the sanctions.
Biden then removed sanctions by saying he is removing sanctions that are hurting civilians. He imposed new sanctions called Magnitsky sanctions on politicians. Those are what ZANU-PF is currently fighting, saying politicians under sanctions so are Zimbabweans.
