The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
ZIMBABWE will harness the emerging goodwill after the recent peaceful, free, fair and credible elections to secure admission into the Commonwealth and push through the arrears clearance and debt resolution programme, President Mnangagwa has said.
Writing in his weekly column in The Sunday Mail, the President noted that last week’s visit by a group of investors from the United Kingdom and the coming in of the new UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Peter Vowles, “shows a seriousness of intent to restore our relations to normalcy”.
On the sidelines of this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the United States, President Mnangagwa also had the opportunity to engage the UK Minister for Development and Africa, Mr Andrew Mitchell.
“While at the United Nations General Assembly, I met Mister (Andrew) Mitchell, the British Minister for Africa. This was one more such meeting in a series. In that meeting, we both agreed we needed to normalise our bilateral relations, and to scale them up so both Zimbabwe and Britain can make up for the lost decades during our costly diplomatic standoff,” said President Mnangagwa.
“The coming of the new British ambassador so soon after our meeting in New York, and quite soon after his predecessor had left, bodes well for our relations, and shows a seriousness of intent to restore our relations to normalcy.
“Our recent harmonised elections, which were peaceful, democratic, free, fair and transparent, continue to send positive signals in both diplomatic and business markets around the globe. We need to harness this emerging goodwill to secure our readmission into the Commonwealth and for arrears clearance and debt resolution.”
The return of British investor Mr Algy Cluff, who led the delegation of UK investors, especially after he had previously divested from Zimbabwe, shows both the restoration of investor confidence and the impact of ease of doing business reforms, said the President.
“Mr Cluff embodies two contradictory lessons for our country, namely, that global capital is timid, sensitive and impatient; secondly, that with suitable reforms and incentives, Zimbabwe is a strong mining proposition quite capable of a strong showing globally,” he said.
“We must build on our unique mineral endowments and sound policies to grow our economy, and to create more jobs for our people, especially the youth.”
The President also said during the joint tour of the Beitbridge Border Post with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — an idea that was also broached during the two leaders’ meeting in New York — Pretoria had indicated that it was agreeable to Zimbabwe’s plans to build another bridge across Limpopo River to enhance traffic between the two countries.
“This is a project which Zimbabwe will wholly fund and execute, but it requires South Africa’s say-so so the proposed bridge is accorded landing rights on the South African side.”
Zimbabwe and South Africa are also working towards establishing a one-stop border post, in line with the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Government, he added, remained determined “to make Zimbabwe the model of a land-linked country and a sub-regional transport hub”.
