A critical look at the revocation of US sanctions on Zimbabwe while maintaining ZDERA- By Jonathan Moyo

The revoked orders were used by the US as a convenient cover to corruptly channel and abuse hundreds of millions of US dollars, of which USD 26 million was pledged by Zdera, in the name of all sorts of regime-change initiatives for which, 21 years later, there’s between little and nothing to show, and therefore lots of money down the drain and hence nothing tangible to audit.

There are untold movie-like stories about how briefcase NGOs became the order of the day in Zimbabwe’s civil society over the last 21 years of the revoked Executive Orders, as getting easy money under the guise of dealing with Zimbabwe’s ‘national emergency’ declared by the US became a lucrative industry.

The fact that nothing is being said about this open and well known secret in Zimbabwe’s donor and civil society communities is yet another window into the duplicitous and hypocritical politics of the US government, which typically looks for corruption anywhere except under its own nose.

8. In so far as the sum and substance of the revoked US Executive Orders was the pursuit of regime change, about which there’s no doubt, it amounted to an onslaught on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty; such that those who associated with that regime change agenda or who were part of it, basically engaged in treachery against their motherland and thus have some serious introspection to do.
9. It is important to emphasize the following outcomes of the revocation Executive Order 13288, Executive Order 13391, or Executive Order 13469:

• While Biden’s statement that “all persons blocked solely pursuant to Executive Order 13288, Executive Order 13391, or Executive Order 13469 were removed on 4 March 2024 [(the authorities of the Zimbabwe Sanctions Programme) were removed on 4 March 2024 from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN)] List; the true position is of course that some were moved or transferred to another sanctions list, in that they were ‘transitioned’, to the ‘Magnitsky Global Sanctions Program’. Therefore, the US Zimbabwe sanctions programme remains, under a different basket.
• Given that Biden’s statement said “all property and interests in property blocked solely pursuant to the Zimbabwe Sanctions Programme was unblocked on 4 March 2024”’, it would be instructive, in fact necessary, to quantify the value of this unblocked property. How much was blocked?
• What was particularly most significant about Biden’s 4 Mach 2024 Executive terminating Executive Order 13288, Executive Order 13391 and Executive Order 13469 on the US ‘Emergency With Respect to the Situation in Zimbabwe’’ is that, at long last, OFAC will remove the Zimbabwe Sanctions Regulations ’31 CFR Part 541’ from the Code of Federal Regulations.

These are the destructive regulations that made the Zimbabwean economy to scream over the last 21 years.

Their removal is not a small thing by any stretch of the imagination as it will, among others positives, lower Zimbabwe’s sovereign risk and reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

10. Whether framed as a situation of a ‘national emergency in Zimbabwe threatening US Foreign or Security Interests’; or as a ‘Zimbabwe Sanctions Program’ or as ‘Transition’ to the ‘Magnitsky Global Sanctions Program’; the coercive US sanctions measures in the revoked Executive Orders 13288, 13391 and 13469 were a violation of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and a breach of international law.

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