Zimbabwe’s autocratic President Mnangagwa and his wife have been sanctioned by the United States for their involvement in state looting and human rights abuses.
President Biden has ordered punishments targeting a total of 11 members of Zimbabwe’s “criminal network of government officials and businesspeople”, replacing broader measures imposed in 2003 against the late dictator Robert Mugabe and his associates and companies.
Biden said he continued to be concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe, “particularly with respect to acts of violence and other human rights abuses against political opponents and with respect to public corruption, including misuse of public authority”.
The original punishments were introduced by President Bush in 2003 after the forced takeover of land from white farmers. The announcement followed lobbying by southern African leaders who complained that the sanctions were punishing Zimbabwe’s population of 15 million.
Mnangagwa’s government claimed the announcement as a vindication of its foreign policy.
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Nick Mangwana, a government spokesman, wrote on X that the sanctions would affect all Zimbabweans. “As long our president is under sanctions, Zimbabwe remains under illegal sanctions; as long as members of the first family are under sanctions, Zimbabwe remains under illegal sanctions; and as long as senior leadership is under sanctions, we are all under sanctions.”
Matthew Miller, the state department spokesman, quipped in response: “It’s rare that you see a government say that sanctions on the sitting president is a victory for the government.”
Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party has been in power for more than four decades and extended its grip in elections in August that observers, including from its African neighbours, said was tainted by fraud.
Hopes of a thaw in relations between Zimbabwe and western countries surfaced briefly after Mnangagwa, 81, pushed Mugabe out of power in 2017. But his first term was marked by runaway inflation, currency shortages, rocketing unemployment and intolerance to opposition.
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Some of the individuals and companies being penalised, including Mnangagwa and Constantino Chiwenga, his first vice-president, were on the earlier list. A new target of sanctions is the first lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa, who “facilitates her husband’s corrupt activities”, Washington said.
