Whilst in Zimbabwe on a visit, I tried to access my PayPal account and was unsuccessful. All I got after entering in my details was the following message:
Error 3028: You have accessed your account from a sanctioned country. Per international sanctions regulations, you are not authorized to access the PayPal system, For more information about your PayPal account status, contact complianceverification@paypal.com
I do not have any political affiliations in Zimbabwe but here I find myself being affected by the TARGETED sanctions. My understanding was that the sanctions were targeted towards certain individuals and that they would not have an effect on the general population. My little experience obviously goes to show that this is not the case.
A week or two after my arrival there was a newspaper article about a university student who tried to get her hands on demonstration software from ETAP Enterprises Solutions. Getting a hold of the demo disc entailed entering her address into a form which she did do. She was later told that they would not be able to provide her with the disc due to trade sanctions against Zimbabwe.
I am not on the sanctions list and the student mentioned above may not be either. That experience has been an inconvenience and I am sure that there are a lot more Zimbabweans with no political associations who have experienced similar. It has also made me think about what kind of effect it has had on individuals, businesses and institutions that have been denied access to products and services that they would have otherwise have had the right to access. My guess is that they would have had a major negative that would have led to them finding a roundabout way of getting something or going without it completely and having to deal with it.
If you take a look at some of the individuals on the sanctions list, they are living very opulently. Many a people in Zimbabwe may have been able to better their lives and those of others had there been no sanctions. It just makes me wonder whether there is a point to the sanctions and whether or not they have really worked?
Totally with you on this one! I manage a whole bunch of sites around the world, from Zimbabwe. I can’t touch Paypal though, as I found to my (and my clients) cost recently when I tried to access my UK Paypal account, and their ecommerce site management (which uses Paypal), and both were closed down! Paypal just ignore any requests from me to re-open or allow access, and they won’t justify their position either.
well, kind of funny, I’m not even from Zimbabwe, I just stayed two weeks here visiting my father who works for german development service and I just wanted to buy access to the Internet for my train from Frankfurt to Hamburg when I would get back to germany and it was the same, I was not allowed to use my paypal-account because I tried to reach it from Zimbabwe, guess I will have to do so, when I take a stop in Addis Abeba… let’s hope they don’t got any sanctions over there in Ethiopea^^
Being A Zimbabwean that I am and neither being affiliated with any political party nor targeted persons, I strongly feel this is rather unfair. There is a more than meets the eye; you might just as well say it’s a plot to bring the country to a stand still–meaning, if you can’t buy from within Zim, what’s the point of going there. If no one visits, then the country does not get foreign currency which in turn will bring it to a stand still. Hold that thought. There is business going on here in Zim, business between Zim-USA, Zim-UK and vice-versa. Money is changing hands irregardless of these so-called sanctions.
With that being said, what’s the big idea?
Hardly a week after I posted a comment pertaining the unfairness of PayPal’s participation in sanctioning it’s service in Zimbabwe, I went back to the site in a bid to prove to my wife, who wasn’t a believer that the so-called sanctions were also ‘PayPal-wide’.
I supplied my login details and anxiously waited for the infamous yellow sanction banner to appear, but alas! On my screen was a welcome message instead! I was prompted to supply answers to my secret questions, which I did, and the login was complete successfully! I logged out, and back in again reaping the same result. I did the same routine again this morning and PayPal didn’t disappoint.
I would like to thank PayPal for unsanctioning their good service in our country. I just hope the others who have the same mindset of sanctioning what affects everybody will follow suit.
Thank you.
Sanctions are targeted ofcourse-targeting the whole Zimbabwean population.They are a life danger to us.We dont need them ,they are EVIl.
The donor-funded-and-founded party is trying to use Sanctions for political gain for civilian pain.These people cannot lead those who are open-minded as we are,they are however unfortunate, I mean both the funded and the funders for wasting both their time and their funds.We are Zimbabweans and will not be moved by those’Loud sounding Nothings’
I realy feel frustrated by the evil effects of the economic embargo on Zimbabwe.Our country is very rich in minerals , wildlife and very good lands .It is from these the jelousy from the west emanated from.We are a united ,blessed and civilised people who cannot be moved by ‘wind’.