Trump upholds US sanctions on Mnangagwa and allies
Brenna Matendere
Harare—Sanctions imposed by the USA on President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his wife Auxilia, nine members of his government as well as associates including controversial businessman Kuda Tagwirei and selected companies, will remain in place after the country’s incoming president Donald Trump did not revoke the designations when he reversed 78 executive orders from the outgoing administration of Joe Biden.
Trump only reversed Biden’s actions on Cuba and the West Bank.
Specifically, Trump revoked Biden’s Presidential Memorandum of 14 January 2025 (Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism).
He also rescinded Biden’s Executive Order 14115 of 1 February 2024 (Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank).
However, Trump left intact the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s designation of 11 individuals, including Mnangagwa, and three entities for their involvement in corruption or serious human rights abuses, pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which built upon the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The designations were made on 4 March 2024.
Tagwirei, was retained under the sanction list for “assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, the Government of Zimbabwe…”
Sandra Mpunga, Tagwirei’s wife, also remains under sanctions for her involvement in Tagwirei’s business activities.
Fossil Agro and Sakunda Holdings, two firms belonging to Tagwirei, have been retained, together with the director of Fossil Agro and long-time business partner of Tagwirei, Obey Chimuka, who sits on the board and serves as director of several Tagwirei-owned companies.
Zimbabwe’s first Vice-President, Constantino Chiwenga, who was designated for leading the security forces in the violent repression of political activists and civil society organisations will remain designated.
The others are Godwin Matanga (former police commissioner general), Stephen Mutamba (newly appointed police commissioner general), Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri (Defence minister), Owen Ncube (Midlands Minister of State), and Walter Tapfumaneyi (CIO deputy director general).
After Trump omitted Zimbabwe from the list of countries whose leaders had had their sanctions rescinded, President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) under his handle @jamwanda2 to vent his frustration.
“Zimbabwe is not among Trump’s priorities, the way Cuba, Panama, Mexico and Canada are, Zimbabwe remains constrained under another set of laws, with its chief executive, President ED Mnangagwa, still on sanctions. This, in effect, means Zimbabwe remains on US Sanctions,” he wrote.
A diplomatic source informed NewsHub that the latest development signifies that President Mnangagwa’s re-engagement drive with the US has failed, as sanctions will continue under Trump.
“What it means is that the new administration of Trump is still concerned with President Mnangagwa’s criminal network of government officials and businesspeople who are most responsible for corruption or human rights abuse against the people of Zimbabwe. The efforts by Harare therefore to re-engage Washington have failed.
“What we are seeing is continuation of use of US economic sanctions towards a clear and specific objective to stop corruption and human rights trampling using diplomacy and other tools of statecraft. Zimbabwe must, therefore, undertake key reforms to improve its record on human rights and good governance,” said the source.
One of the biggest ambitions President Mnangagwa harboured when he took power following a military coup in 2017 was to re-engage the USA and end its embargo on Harare.
This ambition saw his government spend a substantial sum of US$500,000 in 2019 on a lobbying deal aimed at canvassing for the removal of targeted Western sanctions.
However, that goal remains unachieved six years later.