THE son of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has joined the list of Zimbabweans who have been placed on the US government’s sanctions programme targeting human rights abusers and ‘those who undermine democratic processes or facilitate corruption’ in the country.
In an announcement by the US Department of Treasury on Monday, Emmerson Mnangagwa Jr. was said to be in charge of businesses belonging to his father, who is already under US sanctions.
He joins three other individuals and two businesses that were added to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list. The Treasury said all of them had ties to Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his company, Sakunda Holdings, already under sanctions.
Tagwirei was placed on the OFAC list in August 2020 for ‘having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, the government of Zimbabwe’.
Through Sakunda, Tagwirei was said to have ‘utilised his relationships with high-level Zimbabwean officials to gain state contracts and receive favoured access to hard currency, including US dollars’.
A Treasury statement added: ‘In turn, Tagwirei has provided high priced items, such as expensive cars, to senior-level Zimbabwean government officials. ‘Since former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s 2017 departure, Tagwirei used a combination of opaque business dealings and his ongoing relationship with President Mnangagwa to grow his business empire dramatically and rake in millions of US dollars.’
Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian E. Nelson said: ‘We urge the Zimbabwean government to take meaningful steps towards creating a peaceful, prosperous, and politically vibrant Zimbabwe, and to address the root causes of many of Zimbabwe’s ills: corrupt elites and their abuse of the country’s institutions for their personal benefit.’
‘The goal of sanctions is behaviour change.’
Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, said the sanctions were in line with the US government’s ‘continued commitment to act in support of a transparent and prosperous Zimbabwe’.
Price said: ‘Ahead of the 2023 elections, it is imperative to ensure Zimbabweans have the opportunity to vote in elections that are free from violence, repression, and electoral manipulation.
‘US sanctions do not target the Zimbabwean people, the country of Zimbabwe, or Zimbabwe’s banking sector.’
On Monday, 17 Zimbabweans were removed from the OFAC sanctions list.
‘Sanctions are not intended to be permanent but to incentivise changes in behaviour,’ Price said. ‘Each removal is based on a thorough review and is part of an ongoing effort to keep the sanctions programme current, focused, and relevant.
‘Maintaining the integrity of US sanctions is the driving principle behind a rigorous review process that evaluates every request for removal individually on its merits and applies consistent standards to all of them,’ he added.
