NO TO ILLEGAL SANCTIONS
The Chairman, Dr Vincent Hungwe, on behalf of the
Commissioners, the Secretariats of the Public Service the Defence Forces Service Commission, the Police Service Commission, Prisons and
Correctional Service Commission and the entire Civil Service joins His Excellency the President, Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the rest of the nation, SADC member states and the African Union in calling for the removal of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America and some European countries.
For the past 20 years, Zimbabwe has been subject to unilaterally-imposed sanctions that have been inhibiting progress and development in the nation and making lives difficult for the generality of the populace. Delivering public services has been hampered as a result of these sanctions, which have inflicted tremendous pain on the majority of public sector workers. Sanctions like these harm future generations, the economy, and people's access to healthcare, jobs and other essential services.
As Zimbabwe commemorates the SADC-initiated Anti-Sanctions Day on 25 October, we associate
ourselves with others calling out the restrictive measures. Notably, SADC and AU, as well as the subCommission, committee of the 77th session of the United Nations
General Assembly (UNGA) which very recently added its voice in condemning all unilateral embargoes illegally imposed outside the UN. Comprising 26 countries, the Third Committee of the UNGA noted that despite the challenges and hardships faced by developing nations, they continued to fall prey to unilateral coercive
measures. This flies in the face of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the UN and international
law, multilateralism and the basic norms of international relations.
As the Service Commissions we feel the pinch of the restrictive measures and decry the effects on our Public Service constituencies. Be that as it may, we continue to forge ahead with our national imperatives, noting though that the trajectory could be smoother and
faster were it not for sanctions. We denounce them with all the contempt they deserve and call on regimes responsible for installing them to remove them to enable our sovereign nation to develop itself without any externally-imposed impediments.