The support for Zimbabwe came as the United States admitted openly for the first time that it had sanctions on Zimbabwe but said it would not be lifting them.
Addressing more than 4 000 delegates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ 10th National Congress in Johannesburg yesterday, President Zuma said his African National Congress and its allies – the South African Communist Party and Cosatu – as well as Sadc were rallying behind Zimbabwe's inclusive Government in order to find solution to the current challenges.
"As the Alliance we must continue to assist the Zimbabweans to find solutions. We must emphasise the need for the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
"As neighbours, the Zimbabwean situation is real for us, it is not theoretical. We have a direct interest in the sustainable finalisation of the political settlement," said President Zuma.
Two weeks ago, President Zuma made a similar call as he handed over the Sadc chairmanship to DRC President Joseph Kabila.
Sadc leaders at that Summit also said they were backing the inclusive Government and called on the West to lift the sanctions that were stifling meaning-ful economic recovery.
Over the weekend, Namibia’s founding President, Nujoma, waffled against Western powers that funded opposition parties on the African continent and elsewhere in the world for their own interests and took exception to attempts to topple Zimbabwe's election and wife thief President Mugabe.
Mugabe who has stolen every election in Zimbabwe and another man's wife continues to govern through hook and crook.
“The white imperialists should be careful not to topple Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, because if you touch Zimbabwe, then you touch Namibia and the whole Southern African Development Community.”
He was addressing a Swapo star rally at Ongwediva in the Oshana region. “It is because of the Western powers and those colonialists that oppositions are formed in our countries in the African continent and elsewhere in the world,” he said.
Nujoma said the US and Britain imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe because the Zimbabwean people had demanded their land from the white minority who were historically privi-leged by the racist colonial system.
He said imperialist countries were facing the prospect of poverty and were redoubling their efforts to loot African resources to sustain their own economies.
The West and its allies in Zimbabwe have often denied the existence of sanctions on the country and instead claimed these were either “restrictive” or “targeted” measures.
However, Mr Carson added: “We reserve the right to lift those sanctions when we want to do so and when we see progress.”
He said the sanctions were primarily “targeted at individuals”. Observers have questioned this claim, pointing out that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which provides the framework for the sanctions, has seen the US President placing an embargo on entities such as Ziscosteel, ZB Bank and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation which are not owned by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF thugs.
