The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has called for an end to the sanctions imposed by the West on Zimbabwe and claimed that the surge of economic refugees from the country fleeing hardship at home is putting a strain on southern African nations.
According to him, sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are hurting the economies of several Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations in addition to Harare.
"They are also having a negative impact on us because as the sanctions weaken Zimbabwe’s economy, Zimbabweans are forced to migrate and to come to our own country and other countries in the sub-region," he told reporters at a presser. "They flock to Botswana, they flock to South Africa, to Namibia and they exert enormous pressure on us."
As a result, Ramaphosa said the sanctions should be withdrawn and "we should be able to bolster the economies of these countries so that people can have less of an incentive to leave their countries to go to other countries because their economies would be glowing."
“Once again, we call on the various countries that have applied sanctions on African countries, particularly Zimbabwe, to lift those sanctions so that the economy of that country can get back on its feet and it can be what it used to be," the president stressed.
Ramaphosa expressed hope that lifting the sanctions would lead to the prosperity of Zimbabwe, so they could "go back to live normal lives in their country."
Moreover, in a statement this week, SADC chair and president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, called for the easing of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
This year, South Africa announced that it was discontinuing a special permit scheme that had allowed over 200,000 Zimbabwean economic refugees to reside there legally. Due to the lack of documentation, it is unknown how many such Zimbabwean refugees there are in South Africa, however, some estimates in local media put the number at over three million.
According to the US State Department, the sanctions against Zimbabwe are intended to hold responsible those officials accused of violating human rights, undermining democratic institutions, or promoting corruption. While Washington claims the sanctions do not target ordinary people, Zimbabwean officials have repeatedly denied Western accusations of corruption and pointed out that the embargo that was imposed nearly two decades ago is to blame for the collapse of its economy.
In addition to the US and the EU, other countries with sanctions against Zimbabwe include the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.