/ 27 January 2003

SA ‘not conviced’ Zimbabwe sanctions will work

Pretoria is not convinced European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe will produce the desired effect, South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.

”The EU must follow their own processes. Whether they will be useful is another matter,” Erwin told AFP on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He was speaking as EU foreign ministers in Brussels debated whether to waive a travel ban that would allow Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to attend a Franco-African summit in Paris next month.

The 15-member EU imposed a visa ban on the Zimbabwean leadership in February 2002 when violence flared in the run-up to a presidential poll that was widely condemned as rigged. – Sapa-AFP