SA reiterates call for lifting of sanctions

NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise has reiterated South Africa’s stand on the lifting of targeted economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.

In October, National Council of Provinces Chairperson Amos Masondo tabled a motion at the 3rd Ordinary Session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), held in Midrand, urging members of the PAP to demand the immediate lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

At the 46th Plenary Assembly Session of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum, Josefina Perpétua Pitra Diakite – an MP from Angola, tabled a motion calling for the lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

Supporting Diakite’s motion, Modise said: “We stand as South Africa to say to our brothers, our sisters, our neighbours – in fact our family, because we have intermarried, that your pain is our pain. Without South Africa standing up and joining up with other neighbours, the economic progress of the region will be retarded. The issues of child mortality, of hunger, will continue to besiege the region.”

In her motion, Diakite said Angola was deeply concerned that these “economic sanctions had negatively affected people’s livelihoods, economic development and access to health, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable population, including young girls, women, children, the disabled and the elderly people.”

“The economic sanctions are a violation of the human, economic and social rights of the people of Zimbabwe and have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to leverage the economy and boost the living standards of the Zimbabwean people.”