Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Day gets special SADC treatment, Zim civil servants take to the streets

• SADC was set to discuss the DRC crisis, a Mozambique standby force mission and Zimbabwe's elections on Wednesday.
• Instead, it commemorated Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Day with a call for their immediate removal.
• The US and EU sanctions were put in place at the turn of the century due to human rights abuses, corruption, and a disregard for democracy.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) pushed back its virtual extraordinary summit on Wednesday to allow the region to commemorate Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Day.

The summit had been due to talk about the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the SADC Standby Force mission in Mozambique's oil-rich Cabo Delgado province, and the 23 August elections in Zimbabwe.

At the last summit in May, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi requested SADC to send a force to help fight insurgents in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu.

The UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is due to leave the country by the end of the year, and the gap will be filled by SADC and East African Community forces.

Instability in the DRC is likely to affect the smooth running of the general elections slated for 20 December.

READ | Zimbabwe held fair elections, it's time to lift sanctions, Mnangagwa tells world leaders at UN

The elections in Zimbabwe, according to the SADC Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM), fell below regional and international basic standards.

The SEOM's final report was tabled with SADC, and it is due for review.

During the summit, it was expected the contested elections in Zimbabwe would come under the spotlight.

In July, SADC extended its standby force mission in Mozambique by a year, and the current cycle will end in mid-2024.

The security situation in Cabo Delgado has relatively improved, with huge numbers of displaced people returning home as the rebuilding process in the province gets underway.

TotalEnergies has also announced it could return to operating in the province by the end of next year.

Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Day

In Zimbabwe, the government organised civil servants to march against the sanctions that were imposed by the US and European Union at the turn of the century due to human rights violations, corruption, and political violence.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Zimbabwe's Ministry of Information and Publicity said thousands of government workers took to the streets in the capital city.

"Today, thousands of civil servants marched in the Harare CBD [central business district], demonstrating against the illegal sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe by the United States of America and other Western nations," read the post.

The chairperson of SADC, Angolan President João Lourenço, said in a statement the region "reaffirms its unwavering solidarity" with Zimbabwe.

He added SADC was calling for the removal of sanctions because, by extension, they affected the whole region.

Lourenço said:

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs added: "On the occasion of the 5th Anti-Sanctions Day, we join African countries to call for illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted."

According to the US, the sanctions target those who violated human rights, undercut democratic institutions, or encourage corruption.

Last year, 17 people were removed from the targeted sanctions as they were determined to no longer pose a threat to Zimbabwe's democratic institutions and processes.

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