South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the West to remove its international sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe to enable the Southern African country recover from its current economic malaise.
Ramaphosa said this when he paid tribute to fallen former President Robert of Mugabe of Zimbabwe in Pietermaritzburg on Friday night.
“As (the ruling) African National Congress party we will always be on the side of Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe.
“It is for these reasons that we are publicly saying sanctions on Zimbabwe must be lifted now without fail,” the president said.
He said Mugabe’s anti-imperialist stance was precisely what made him a revolutionary.
“He (Mugabe) said the fate of Africa must never be determined anywhere besides the African soil. He (late leader) remained steadfast and had an unflinching commitment for what he stood for,” Ramaphosa recalled, adding that the ANC and Zimbabwe’s ruling party Zanu-PF would always be allies.
Ramaphosa attended the memorial at the Pietermaritzburg city hall to pay a moving tribute to Mugabe, whose ZANU-PF party worked closely with the South Africans in and out of the country during their struggle against apartheid.
The West imposed economic sanctions on neighbouring Zimbabwe in the early 2000 following Mugabe’s orders to take land away from the minority white farmers who owned a disproportionate share of the precious commodity, while leaving the indigenous and impoverished African majority with unproductive land.
The blood-letting that led to the change from whites to blacks angered the United States, UK and other Western countries – leading them to impose national and personal sanctions against Zimbabwe which has seen its economy fall into the doldrums.
NM/as/APA