Zimbabwe’s Economic Meltdown: Are Sanctions Really to Blame?

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, Zimbabwe has been under sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union that have shaped Zimbabwe’s domestic politics as well as the country’s relations withWestern nations. The Zimbabwean government under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was inaugurated on November 24, 2017, blames the sanctions for the country’s economic meltdown—Zimbabwe is currently facing foreign currency and cash shortages, an inflation rate of 288.5 percent from October 2018 to October 2019, and excessive utility costs and low wages resulting in drastically decreased demand for goods and services. Most citizens are now subjected to extreme poverty. The Zimbabwean government has made multiple attempts to rally anti-sanctions sentiment, but sanctions have largely been maintained. The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) government’s first anti-sanctions campaign took place in 2011 when then-President Mugabe and his leadership launched the National Anti-Sanctions Petition Campaign rally in Harare on March 1, 2011. The main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by then-Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai