ZAPU leader, Dumiso Dabengwa has revealed that targeted
sanctions, which were imposed on him as one of the then Zanu PF top officials
and government ministers, before he pulled out to revive Zapu still haunt him.
Dabengwa said this was because he and his wife have been
denied United Kingdom visas, while funds sent to him from abroad through
Western Union always get frozen.
In an interview yesterday, Dabengwa said on April 19 he
submitted an application for a visa to the UK and handed over his passport at
the Harare processing centre as is the norm.
“A few days after that I received a letter from Pretoria,
South Africa, acknowledging a receipt of my application,” he said.
“But they were then saying they were aiming to process a
non-settlement application within 15 days and on the same date, my wife also
applied separately for a visa on invitation from our daughter in the UK.”
The former Home Affairs minister said the conference was
slated for May 12 and once he accepted that invitation, they sent him the
ticket believing he would get a visa.
“I did not get the visa until today, as I speak, this
morning, because I am due to go for a medical check-up in SA next week. I then
sent a request to have my passport returned because I did not have an
indication of when the visa would be processed,” Dabengwa said. “This was after
speaking with John Culley of British embassy in Harare asking why [there was] a
delay in the processing of my visa. He responded that maybe it is because my
name was on the sanctions list. But I said my name had been withdrawn from the
sanctions list in 2010. I travelled twice to the UK after my name was withdrawn
from the list.”
Dabengwa said the conference he had been invited to was to
compare notes with researchers in the UK on Gukurahundi operations.
“I was invited together with Moses Mzila Ndlovu and we
submitted applications for visas together. Mzila Ndlovu got his visa on May 9.
Both my visa and that of my wife have not been processed to this day and I have
requested the visa processing offices in Pretoria to return our passports and
forget about the Visas issue,” he said.
“They have not responded to my request. I sent the request
this morning (yesterday).”
Dabengwa said at one point, he was granted visa to UK after
his name was removed from the list when he left Zanu PF, but the embassies
cannot explain why his Western Union receipts get frozen.
“So I am virtually still on sanctions. I am the only
Zimbabwean plus (Robert) Mugabe, who is still on sanctions.” Newsday
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