Owen Ncube (Ncube) was Zimbabwe’s Minister of State Security from 2018 to 2022, during which time he ordered security services to identify, abduct, and mistreat individuals assessed to be supporters of a Zimbabwean opposition group. He was recently reappointed to government as the Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs. He is reported to lead a notoriously violent group that is alleged to be responsible for attacks and killings around Kwekwe, Zimbabwe.
Ncube was designated on March 11, 2020 pursuant to E.O. 13469 for being responsible for, or participating in, human rights abuses related to political repression in Zimbabwe. Ncube is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person that is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
