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Blessings Chidakwa  Herald Reporter

Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has denounced sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, saying indigenous companies are failing to use international payment systems as transactions are being blocked.

AAG worldwide president Mr Mike Chimombe said they were fully behind the decision by SADC to set aside October 25 as the SADC Anti-Sanctions Day.

“While the Western-imposed, illegal sanctions are said to be targeted, as AAG we have seen first-hand that the sanctions are adversely affecting the majority of our members.

“We are in total support of the decision that was adopted by SADC at its 39th uummit that was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 29, 2019 to call for the removal of the sanctions imposed against our country,” he said.

Mr Chimombe said the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe had to be removed without any conditions as they were unjustified.

“Sanctions are blunt instruments that often produce unintended and undesirable consequences. The imposition of the illegal sanctions badly affected the country’s profile and as a result, most companies from Zimbabwe are viewed as high risk. 

“This means the international community is afraid to lend any support to indigenous companies from Zimbabwe,” he said.

“Local businesspeople are suffering as they cannot access support from local financial institutions which have also been placed under sanctions.

“To make matters worse, some international financial institutions have been slapped with fines by some Western countries for trying to help Zimbabwean companies,” he added. Because of these negative factors, access to lines of credit had been blocked and indigenous companies had to live from hand-to-mouth with no external credit lines.

Lack of offshore lending had crippled the operations of many indigenous companies while Zimbabwean importers were being asked to pay cash upfront thereby squeezing their foreign currency reserves with some being forced to either close down or to downsize.

However, despite all the negative effects of the illegal sanctions, quite a number of indigenous companies had shown unmatched resilience as they have continued to soldier on.

Meanwhile, AAG, has dismissed as malicious, claims that some of its top members are going about name dropping to intimidate business rivals.

In a statement Mr Chimombe said investigations had shown that its members, particularly the person in charge of the indigenisation and economic empowerment department, had not been involved in name dropping.

“The AAG dismisses claims that one of its top executive members, Mr Scott Sakupwanya, who is in charge of indigenisation and economic empowerment department, is name dropping are malicious. 

“Mr Sakupwanya is being accused of terrorising Redwing Mine Company (RMC) workers and members of the local community in Penhalonga using the names of top officials. Following the accusations against Mr Sakupwanya, AAG sent a team to Penhalonga to investigate the authenticity of the accusations because we are against anyone who seeks to tarnish the image of the country’s leadership,” he said.

Mr Chimombe said investigations showed that Mr Sakupwanya and his staff under Betterbrands Mining Company were not terrorising anyone in Penhalonga. 

Mr Chimombe said quite to the contrary, Mr Sakupwanya was the single largest gold buyer for Fidelity Printers, who between January and June 2021, delivered 1 200 kg of gold out of the total 1 700 kg that were delivered to                                                                                    Fidelity.

AAG had since established that some businesspeople in Penhalonga were sponsoring skirmishes in the area with the hope that the local community would turn against Betterbrands Mining Company.