FOREIGN Affairs deputy minister David Musabayana has said government is still locked in negotiations to re-join the Commonwealth group of nations.
Zimbabwe was first suspended from the Commonwealth in early December 2003, after the late former President Robert Mugabe was denounced for poll rigging and persecuting opponents.
Mugabe, who was also accused of fomenting the bloody and chaotic invasion of white-owned commercial farms in 2000, then opted out of the grouping saying: “That’s the end. We are no longer a member of the Commonwealth ... There is no return.”
While giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs on progress made by the Foreign Affairs ministry to implement the engagement and re-engagement policy espoused in National Development Strategy 1, Musabayana said re-engagement was on-going.
“Regarding our Commonwealth readmission, Zimbabwe continues to negotiate for its re-joining of the body which we have so much interest and commonality,” he said.
“I am happy to announce that the November 2022 Commonwealth assessment mission report was recently released to the Commonwealth countries. On account of the reforms that the government has implemented over the past five years, and also on the hint by the mission head, Prof Luis Franschesci that Zimbabwe is, indeed, ready to be re-admitted back into the Commonwealth; we remain committed to engage the Commonwealth.”
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On Zimbabwe joining the BRICS, an acronym for five leading emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Musabayana said the BRICS bandwagon continued to gather pace.
“Zimbabwe feels that time is ripe for it to be part of the inclusive-oriented development group. It is our considered view that Zimbabwe, which has also been on an upward trend economically, despite contending with contentious Western imposed illegal economic sanctions, has to join the BRICS. It is our hope that with support from our allies, Zimbabwe stands a better chance of joining the BRICS,” he said.
Musabayana added that they were satisfied with the good working relationship that now exists between the European Union and Zimbabwe.