UNITED Arab Emirates-based businesswoman and politician Edith Chibhamu says sanctions can be removed if Zimbabwe engages the right people to do the lobbying.
Chibhamu said President Emerson Mnangagwa’s administration needs to engage the right people to engage Washington and lobby for the removal of sanctions.
“Holding demonstrations in Zimbabwe and talking about how unfair the sanctions are is not helpful,” Chibhamu said.
“We need a team that will lobby in the right offices.
“If sanctions are to be removed, proper dialogue needs to take place with the right people, not people who will actually create more problems than remove the sanctions and help the Zimbabwean economy to grow.”
The United States first imposed sanctions in the early 2000s targeting individuals and companies over human rights abuses and corruption.
The sanctions have been reviewed annually and in the latest round of new sanctions announced this month, the US government is targeting individuals who include Mnangagwa, his wife Auxillia and Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga.
They were targeted under the Global Magnitsky sanctions programme on allegations of corruption and abuse of human rights.
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Businessman Kudakwashe Tagirwei and his associated companies, Sakunda Holdings, Fossil Agro and Fossil Contracting were also sanctioned.
All other individuals previously on the Zimbabwe sanctions were delisted.
“This should never have happened if the right people were doing their job,” Chibhamu said.
“A lot of people are ready and willing to help Zimbabwe, but the people around the President spend more time telling the President how evil the other is and forget how their squabbles affect the common person.”
The ruling Zanu PF party and the government have often scoffed at the new sanctions regime, saying the sanctions should be removed in their entirety without any conditions.
The US, however, insists on the rule of law first, among others conditions, for the lifting of the embargoes.
