US policy is influenced by Congress. After Congress sent their legal advisor to speak to me (Rutendo Matinyarare) on the 19th of April 2021, I told her that their sanctions were persecuting civilians (a crime against humanity), and we (ZASM) would take this case to the ICJ.
Thirty-four days later, Congress Chairman of the subcommittee on human rights, health, and organization, Karen Bass, contacted our government to tell them that they would do an impact assessment of US sanctions on civilian access to healthcare and human rights.
Two months later, the subcommittee produced a report for Congress and the White House in which they informed that U.S. executive orders on Zimbabwe were affecting civilian access to healthcare and human rights.
As a consequence, Congress recommended that the U.S. President remove the executive order sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Two months later, under ZASM’s activism again, the UN Human Rights Council also came to Zimbabwe and did an impact assessment of US sanctions on Zim. The UN then also confirmed that U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe were illegal and causing human rights violations and suffering of civilians.
With that, four months later, we went to South African courts to get a declaratory order that the implementation of U.S. sanctions by banks in Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner (South Africa) was illegal. Biden and the banks both responded to these papers and Biden was seeking immunity which we challenged in our February 24, 2024 answering papers.
All the above converted the South African government to champion the regional and international fight against illegal US sanctions on Zimbabwe. We also made that government understand that these sanctions were called for and promoted by the opposition of Zimbabwe and so they denounced the Zimbabwe opposition (CCC) as a puppet of the west.
So, no matter what the opposition in Zimbabwe did, as long as there were sanctions on Zimbabwe, it would never have the support of the most powerful country in Africa (South Africa), and thus it would never get into another GNU or get power in Zimbabwe as it did under Mbeki.
This is part of the reason Chamisa lost heart and resigned, and the Americans are desperate to have an opposition with regional support, in Zim.
All these tactics were used tactfully to force the US President to change US policy and remove his illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.
That was the integrated strategy we used to force the hand of the U.S. government.
