The sanctions debate: myths, exaggeration and denial

Earlier in 2016, to avoid falling foul of the US treasury, Standard Chartered ordered IDC to close its accounts with the bank.

“It seems our corporation must not be allowed to breathe because it’s perceived to be buttressing the economy,” Ndudzo told a parliamentary committee hearing.

Standard Chartered’s fears were not unfounded. In February, Barclays plc paid a $2.5 million settlement to the US Treasury after processing 159 transactions worth $3.4 million between 2008 and 2013. The transactions were mostly for its client IDC and its subsidiaries.

The US restrictions have been of some inconvenience to people not on the sanctions list. Until 2013, you could not use payments platform PayPal from Zimbabwe.

When you tried to access the system, you got the message: “Error 3028: You have accessed your account from a sanctioned country. Per international sanctions regulations, you are not authorized to access the PayPal system”.

PayPal has gradually eased the restrictions, but you still cannot receive money in Zimbabwe via PayPal. It is easy to argue that PayPal is worried more by the economics of doing business with Zimbabwe, but the fact is that the company did explicitly mention sanctions.

In 2011, a Zimbabwean couple in the UK had its transfer of $30 000 for a property in Chinhoyi blocked by the US, because the Chinhoyi town council’s bank, ZB Bank, is on the sanctions list.

Zimbabweans trying to do business with US often get caught up in the net. US companies are reluctant to deal with Zimbabweans, even those who are not connected to any of those on the sanctions list.

This was an issue raised by Zimbabwean techpreneur Takunda Chingonzo, during a public meeting with President Barack Obama in 2014: “In our work we got to a point where we needed to import a bit of technology from the United States. And so we were engaging in conversation with these US based businesses, and the response we got time and time again was that unfortunately we cannot do business with you because you are from Zimbabwe. I was shocked. This doesn’t make sense.”

Similar complaints were heard from at least one private citizen at a recent meeting, arranged by media house 263Chat, with the US ambassador to Zimbabwe.

It is however hard to gauge the extent of the impact on private businesses.

The US, however, insists there are no general sanctions on Zimbabwe and trade remains open between the two countries.

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