By Dylan Munashe Dzenga
On Monday, the Commonwealth Assessment Mission started by meeting with Government Ministers in the Munhumutapa Boardroom with the Zimbabwean delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Honorable Frederick Shava.
He was accompanied by Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Honorable Ziyambi Ziyambi, Minister of Home Affairs Honorable Kazembe Kazembe, Public Service Minister Paul Mavima, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and Minister of Information and Publicity Monica Mutsvangwa.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Honorable Shava welcomed the Commonwealth team and emphasized on Zimbabwe’s commitment to rejoining the Commonwealth.
He also went on to say that Zimbabwe was really looking forward to a fruitful engagement.
“The government has made significant strides in the reform agenda. These reforms were initiated to improve the lives of the Zimbabwean citizens in light of Vision 2030 and these reforms are homegrown,” he said
In his response, the leader of the Commonwealth team, Assistant Secretary General Professor Luis Franceschi emphasized that,” there is no perfect country in the world “ and the group was determined to engage Zimbabwe more openly.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 for breaching the Harare Declaration. In 2003, when the Commonwealth refused to lift the suspension, Zimbabwe, under the leadership of ex-President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, withdrew from the Commonwealth.
Since then, the Commonwealth has played a major part in trying to end the political impasse and return Zimbabwe to a state of normality.
Under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the second republic has been working towards reengaging with the rest of the world, which includes rejoining the Commonwealth as well so as to improve the lives of citizens.
Following the Commonwealth Secretariat mission to Zimbabwe from 12 – 17 November 2022, Assistant Secretary-General, Prof Luis Franceschi, has said:
“Zimbabwe has made impressive progress in its journey to re-join the Commonwealth family. This is encouraging and we hope that further progress will be made. This mission by the Commonwealth forms part of the broader membership process and we look forward to advancing this further.
“All the stakeholders we engaged with – the Government, opposition parties, Civil Society Organizations, religious leaders, and indeed the people of Zimbabwe – are supportive of Zimbabwe coming back to the family. We will work together towards that shared goal to ensure this process reaches its proper conclusion.”