On the 12th of March, CGTN of China, invited Rutendo Matinyarare to 16th of March 2022 debate on the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe imposed by the United States, United Kingdom and EU. The debate was to be joined by David Musabayana, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Nelson Chamisa.

On the day of the interview, everyone tuned into the studio through ZOOM. Nelson Chamisa came into the interview late and even though he had been asked to ensure that he was in a place with good internet, the moment we got into the studio, he walked our of the building into his car thus weakening his network and reception

The CGTN crew called him to remind him that he needs to be in a place with a more stable internet, but he said he needed to attend a meeting and would be able to do the debate the next day.

The next day, Nelson Chamisa declined to have a debate with Rutendo Matinyarare and proposed a replacement in the form of Professor Ricky Mukonza of Tswane University. The Deputy Minister was then interviewed on his own while the debate was held between Professor Ricky Mukonza and Rutendo Matinyarare.

According to Professor Mukonza’s submissions in the debate, sanctions on Zimbabwe were imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States, EU and UK because of human rights abuses and electoral violence by the Zimbabwean government. The professor asserted that the sanctions were imposed to bring a change of behaviour in the Zimbabwean government.

Rutendo Matinyarare then pointed out to Professor Mukonza that the US, EU and UK, firstly, did not have authority and jurisdiction to impose sanctions on members of sovereign countries. More critically, the sanctions senders had not held any trials, they had not given the accused an opportunity to defend themselves and had not found any Zimbabwean guilty of human rights violations to permit them to punish the accused and to collectively punish the people of Zimbabwe with sanctions for alleged and untested human rights violations.

Rutendo went on to assert that the sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe, to collectively punish all Zimbabweans to force them to vote for the opposition or to bring about regime change, which is persecution of civilians for political ends and thus a crime against humanity.

He also went on to illustrate that US, EU and UK sanctions on Zimbabweans are illegal, collective punishment of all Zimbabweans and the so called targeted individuals, without trial. They were also illegal because they are an extraterritorial imposition of US, EU and UK law on a sovereign nation.