Online Reporter
President Mnangagwa officially launched the national campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday.
As it always does, the General Assembly of the world body will, in June next year, by secret ballot choose the 10 non-permanent members to serve for two terms from 2027 to 2028. Our country and any other African nation which will win, will replace the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia which were elected as the continent’s representatives in June.
Other regions will pick theirs to make them 10 to later join the five permanent members of the UNSC — China, France, Russia, the US and the UK. For any decision to pass at that platform, it needs at least nine votes out of 15, provided none of the quintet exercises their veto powers.
“It is, therefore, with great honour that I officially launch Zimbabwe’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2027-2028 term. Our diplomatic legacy speaks for itself,” said the President when launching the bid.
“Our post-independence history is testament of our commitment to upholding principles, purposes and values enshrined in the United Nations Charter as well as the basic tenets of a rules-based international governance architecture.
“Our engagement with other nations has withstood triumphs and challenges. Zimbabwe remains a peace-loving nation, a defender of sovereignty and a champion of justice, fairness and prosperity for all.”
Zimbabwe’s campaign will run under the theme: “Advancing 21st Century Solutions for Global Peace and Security, through Multilateralism.”
Already, Harare has secured the backing of SADC, the African Union, China, Russia and Cuba, among other countries.
Given the support which the national bid has already garnered, we have no doubt that our country will return to the elite body for the third time in 46 years having been a member in 1983 and 1984 as well as 1991 and 1992.
The President’s gospel of peace will win it for us. Our country is one of the world’s most peaceful. By nature, Zimbabweans don’t fight anyone; they exude peace, love, dignity and industry wherever they are.
Our track record of peace-making and peacekeeping in multiple jurisdictions worldwide, among them Angola, Mozambique, Kosovo, Somalia, Liberia and so on, over the past 45 years speaks for itself.
More recently, during her tenure as SADC chair from August last year to last month, Harare played a central role in ending post-election conflict in Mozambique as well as silencing the guns in eastern DRC. President Mnangagwa was at the forefront of bringing SADC and the East African Community together to come up with ways to ensure peace returns to the DRC.
We will escalate that regional experience, that tradition after our election in June to the world stage.
We find the President’s remark that the country will also seek to promote peace by addressing the causes of conflict as a huge, fundamental position.
That is the best way to silence the guns and, much more importantly, the best way to ensure that no one fires one in the first place.
As Zimbabwe hits the campaign trail towards victory in the next nine months, we must assert that our, and Africa’s long-standing demand for the democratisation of the UN system by allocating Africa the sixth permanent seat on the UNSC still stands.
