One year and one month after the filing of our #ZASMvsUSAandSAbanks case in the Joburg High Court, the US government has finally responded to our papers, stating that it seeks to claim immunity from South African courts, despite the US forcing SA-based companies to ignore SA laws and institute US law and sanctions without trial in South Africa.

According to the US government, international law and custom provide the US President with immunity from prosecution, even when he deliberately flaunts South African law, after the same President pushed for Putin to be charged with war crimes in the ICC for invading Ukraine.

What is interesting is that the US President is citing international law after he has abrogated international law and human rights law by imposing illegal unilateral sanctions on Zimbabwe to collectively punish innocent civilians of that country to deprive them of their basic human rights to banking services, water, healthcare, education, food, and development so as to force them to vote for Zimbabwe’s opposition.

Furthermore, the US President’s executive order sanctions prohibit any entity in the world, including South African entities, from trading with the Zimbabwean government, its companies, any entity that does business with them, private Zimbabwean banks, and the 144 people on their sanctions list, or else they face jail in the USA, confiscation of assets, secondary sanctions like #Sakunda, or penalties like Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank which have subsequently closed their offices in Zimbabwe. #ZASMvsSABanks and #ZASMvsUSA