European Union extends targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe

By Violet Gonda
16 February 2010

The European Union has extended targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe for a further period of 12 months, but has removed six individuals and nine companies from the list. The European Union said on Tuesday it chose to extend the measures because of ‘lack of progress in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008’.

Most of the people delisted, such as Vitalis Zvinavashe, Richard Hove and Joseph Msika, are deceased. Journalist Basildon Peta who has been in Brussels in the EU says out of the nine companies removed, most of them are public companies and not ZANU PF. They include Zimre Reinsurance Company, ZB Financial Holdings Ltd (Finhold) and the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe. The EU said there were no longer any grounds to keep them on the sanctions list.

Another company that has been delisted is the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. It is reported the Zimbabwean government has been urging the EU to remove this company from the sanctions list as it is trying to sell this company. One of the interested buyers is ArcelorMittal, the South African subsidiary of an Indian steelmaker, who recently voiced concerns about Zimbabwe’s new indigenisation regulation saying the law will be a significant obstacle.

But one of the companies that has been delisted is the controversial mining firm Oryx Diamonds Ltd (Oryx Natural Resources), which was allegedly linked to ZANU PF chef Emmerson Mnangagwa and was at one time said to have been used to exploit minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Peta said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been urging the EU to remove the sanctions to give impetus to the negotiations betweens the partners in the inclusive government.

Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have threatened that they will make no GPA ‘concessions’ until the sanctions have been removed. But Peta said those in ZANU PF deserved to be under targeted sanctions and pointed out that even if the restrictions had been removed there was no guarantee that the former ruling party would behave. He said the coalition government will remain fragile as Mugabe does not know how to share power and is succeeding in ‘neutralising’ the MDC.

More than 200 individuals linked to the Mugabe regime and 40 companies were targeted when the EU imposed the sanctions in 2004.

Full list of those delisted are:
PERSONS: no 3 Al Shanfari, Thamer Bin; no 39 Dabengwa, Dumiso; no 54 Hove, Richard; no 57 Jangara (a.k.a. Changara), Thomsen; no 113 Msika, Joseph W. ; no 203 Zvinavashe, Vitalis
ENTITIES: no 16 Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe; no 17 Intermarket Holdings Ltd; no 22 Oryx Diamonds Ltd (a.k.a. Oryx Natural Resources); no 27 Scotfin Ltd; no 33 ZB Financial Holdings Ltd (a.k.a. Finhold); no 34 ZB Holdings Ltd; no 37 Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (a.k.a. Zisco, Ziscosteel); no 39 Zimre Holdings Ltd; no 40 Zimre Reinsurance Company (PVT) Ltd .