Zimbabwe-America Tensions Spill into the UN Women’s Meeting?

Over 100 Zimbabweans failed to attend the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conference, scheduled for this week in New York, due to challenges in acquiring visas.

The CSW, an annual event that plays a critical role in promoting women’s rights on the international stage, began on the 11th with almost the entire Zimbabwean delegation absent.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Community ,Small and Medium Enterprises Development , Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa, was the only delegate in attendance, as she already had her own visa.

Expected attendees included the First Lady, Minister of Women’s Affairs, her deputy, the permanent secretary, female provincial ministers, representatives from other ministries, and the private sector, who were to represent Zimbabwe on women and girls’ issues.

According to a source who was supposed to be among the delegates at the conference, visas were supposed to be released a week ago, allowing people to travel the past weekend.

“All visas were supposed to be released a week ago so that we could travel this weekend, but they delayed issuing them to us,” the source explained.

The Zimbabwe delegation, which was listed on the United Nations website last week with scheduled side events, has been removed from the website, and the meetings they were supposed to host have been canceled.

However, sources monitoring the situation claimed that, the Americans are reading the riot act after the Zimbabwean government’s deportation of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) workers a few weeks ago.

It was reported that, four United States nationals contracted by the USAID were reportedly detained and deported by the Zimbabwean government.

Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, George Charamba, stated that the detainees were holding unsanctioned and covert meetings to inform Washington’s adversarial policy towards Zimbabwe.

The four individuals, Brenda Lee Pearson, Norma Kriger, Sarah Loan, and Loretta Bass, were reported to work for the United States government affiliate, Navanti Group. The team stated that its mission was to carry out a ‘democracy and governance assessment’ to help USAID design its local programs.

However, the team was deported on 17 February for allegedly seeking “a more effective method to effect regime change in the country,” as reported by the Sunday News.

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Echoing similar sentiments, another anonymous source stated that the United States’ denial of visas to Zimbabweans can be viewed as a retaliatory measure in response to the unjustified detention and deportations of its citizens.

“I think what happened is a diplomatic way for the United States to fight back and frustrate the Zimbabwean government. Being removed from the website is a clear statement that their participation is officially canceled,” explained the source.

These developments are coming in the heels of the refocused sanctions by the American government that are targeting 11 individuals among them President Emmerson Mnangagwa as well as three companies that are closely linked to business mogul, Kudakwashe Tagwirei.

The 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment, commenced on the 11th and will end on the 22nd of March under the priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.”

The question of whether the Zimbabwean delegation will be able to attend before the meeting ends this Friday remains unanswered.