The United States (US) government has announced sanctions against Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son, Emmerson Mnangagwa Jr, ahead of a summit of African leaders in Washington, DC, reported The Aljazeera.
In a press release, the US Treasury Department announced it was hitting four Zimbabwean people and two companies with penalties for their roles in undermining democracy and facilitating high-level graft.
“The Zimbabwe sanctions programme targets human rights abusers and those who undermine democratic processes or facilitate corruption. US sanctions do not target the Zimbabwean people, the country of Zimbabwe, or Zimbabwe’s banking sector,” the press release read.
The sanctions come one day before President Joe Biden is scheduled to host a summit of African leaders in Washington, DC, to discuss issues such as climate change and food insecurity. About 50 African leaders are expected to participate.
The Washington Treasury Department alleged that the people targeted by the latest sanctions were connected to the businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his Sakunda Holdings company. The sanctions hit Tagwirei’s wife Sandra Mpunga, Sakunda’s chief marketing and public relations officer Nqobile Magwizi and Tagwirei’s business partner, Obey Chimuka.
Tagwirei is accused of bribing high-level government officials for receiving state contracts. He was sanctioned in 2020.
The sanctions freeze the US assets of those designated and generally bars Americans from engaging in business dealings with them.
The Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa had his own US assets blocked in 2003 after the administration of then-President George W Bush sanctioned him for undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
In the statement, the Treasury Department called out the Zimbabwean government to take steps towards creating a peaceful, prosperous, and politically vibrant Zimbabwe, and to address the root causes of many of the issues affecting the country including corrupt elites and their abuse of the country’s institutions for their personal benefit.
It added that the goal of sanctions is behavior change.
