Moyo: Sanctions on Zimbabwe ‘causing untold suffering’

“The whole gamut of sanctions to this country has caused serious and unintended consequences. I have always called it a weapon of mass destruction because (…) it deters investors who’d like to come into this country despite the fact that Zimbabwe is open for business,” Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo told host Sarah Kelly on DW’s Conflict Zone.

“We believe that these sanctions are now irrelevant as far as the situation in Zimbabwe is concerned. But they are causing untold sufferings, not probably to the leadership, but particularly to the total mass population of the people,” said Moyo.

Moyo addressed the country’s economy, described by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the ‘worst economic crisis in over a decade’: “We are changing. We are reforming. And we are undertaking specific key decisions which are orientating the economy. And a key among them is the stabilization of the exchange rate. But we’re also doing a lot of other economic reforms, which ensures that even the investment community is free to come in within our mantra of ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’.”

The Foreign Minister defended the government’s attempts at currency reform stating that “it was an appropriate decision” which was done “so that our own currency can operate side by side with foreign exchange operations and that has been the desire of this government.”

READ ALSO: ZIMBABWE: Health Minister sacked over alleged corruption, faces 15-yr jail term

On reports that the government purchased luxury vehicles for officials amidst an economic crisis, the Foreign Minister said: “We have had to ensure that our diplomats are mobile and that was quite a serious issue when we took over because the conditions of our diplomats externally was really at a state of collapse because they were moving with Ubers (…) Something which is not appropriate for a diplomat who is assigned in a foreign mission (…) the cost of those vehicles was not necessarily the issue which has caused the economy to be where it is. The economy has been like this.”

Speaking on the firing of the Health Minister this month over inappropriate conduct after he was accused of illegally awarding a multi-million dollar contract for COVID-19 medical supplies: “There’s justice in this country. He’s going to appear in court and every evidence is going to be presented. And then it will be up to the judiciary either to convict him or not.”

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