Zimbabwe’s fury over US sanctions on Tanzania envoy

Harare. Zimbabwe has summoned the US ambassador to Harare to protest US travel sanctions imposed its envoy to Tanzania over his alleged role in a military crackdown that left six civilians dead last year.

Anselem Sanyatwe, former commander of the presidential guard, is accused of commanding soldiers that opened fire on unarmed demonstrators protesting a delay in the release of last year’s election results.

The foreign affairs ministry said in statement that it had “summoned” the US ambassador to Harare Brian Nichols “to express the displeasure” of the government following the US sanctions.

“The decision by Washington is regrettable as it comes at a time when government is intensifying the implementation of political and economic reforms,” including recommendations by a commission of inquiry into the killings, the ministry said. The US flagged Sanyatwe on its sanctions list, barring him from entering the country over what it called “his involvement in gross violations of human rights”.

Zimbabwe government spokesman Nick Mangwana expressed “strong displeasure” at the US decision saying it undermined Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

He said the action was “posturing meant to fan divisions rather than initiate national healing and understanding”.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after the ouster of Robert Mugabe in 2017, has sought to break away from the brutality of the former dictator’s rule. But the shootings have triggered international outrage.

Mnangagwa appointed a commission, led by former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe, into the fatal shooting.

The inquest report blamed the military and police saying the use of live fire was “unjustified and disproportionate”.

In applying the sanctions, the US said it has “credible information” that Sanyatwe was involved in the violent crackdown during post-election protests on August 1, 2018 - days after the July 30 elections.

It said not one member of the security forces has been held accountable for the violence.

Sanyatwe becomes the first Zimbabwean to be sanctioned by the US since the end of the Mugabe era in November 2017.

Earlier this year the US extended, by another year, sanctions first imposed in 2003 on more than 100 individuals and entities -- including President Mnangagwa and Mugabe -- over human rights abuses and undermining Zimbabwe’s democratic processes.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said an equity law blamed for scaring off foreign investors would be abolished as the country seeks to woo fresh capital to shore up its moribund economy.

Presenting the mid-term 2019 budget to parliament, Ncube said the so-called Indigenisation Act -- which requires foreign companies to give shareholdings of up to 51 per cent in joint ventures to local partners -- would be repealed.

When the law was originally passed in 2008, the government argued it would empower the majority black population who had been disadvantaged by colonial rule. (AFP)

But critics say it merely benefitted allies of the then President Robert Mugabe and has scared away foreign investment.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from Mugabe, has promised to revive the economy and declared Zimbabwe “open for business”.

He had also pledged to end the country’s international isolation, woo back investors and generate economic growth to fund the country’s shattered public services.

Nevertheless, the economy has declined even further, with shop prices rocketing and annual inflation peaking to 176 per cent in June.

The US dollar has been the national currency since 2009 when the country trashed its own currency following hyperinflation of as much as 500 billion per cent.

But in June, Zimbabwe ended the use of US dollars and other foreign currencies and replaced them by two local parallel currencies -- “bond notes” and electronic RTGS dollars, which would combine to become the new “Zimbabwe dollar”.

The new “Zimbabwe dollar” does not yet exist in paper form.

The mid-term budget also included proposals to raise electricity tariffs by between 200 and 400 per cent in order to ease power shortages that have led to power cuts lasting up to 18 hours across the country.

The finance minister also said the government was feeding hundreds of thousands of people affected by drought both in rural and urban areas, providing grain to 757,000 households since January.

A government document early this year said that around 7.5 million people -- around half of the population -- in both rural and urban areas would require food aid between February 2019 and March next year.