ED in Tanzania for Magufuli inauguration

Farirai Machivenyika in Dar res Salaam, Tanzania
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is in Tanzania where he will join several other leaders at today’s inauguration of President John Magufuli following his re-election last week for a second five-year term.

The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Jamhuri Stadium in Tanzania’s administrative capital of Dodoma.

The President was yesterday seen off at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, Defence and War Veterans Affairs

Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Harare Provincial Affairs Minister Oliver Chidau, service chiefs and senior Government officials.

Cde Mnangagwa who is accompanied by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo, arrived at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam where he was met by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Major General Anselem Sanyatwe.

President Magufuli whose party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi has been in power since Tanzania attained independence from Britain in 1961, garnered 84 percent of the vote while his main challenger,

Mr Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party, came a distant second with 13 percent.

Observer Missions from Sadc and the East African Community commended Tanzanians for voting in a peaceful manner.

On Monday President Mnangagwa congratulated President Magufuli on his re-election.

Writing on his Twitter account to congratulate President Magufuli, President Mnangagwa said his victory would ensure continued co-operation between Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

“Congratulations to (President) Magufuli on his re-election victory as the President of Tanzania. I know that through increased trade and co-operation between our two nations, both of our peoples will prosper.”

Zimbabwe and Tanzania enjoy cordial relations that go back to the liberation struggle when the later housed liberation movements in the formative years of the war.

Over the years, the relations between the two countries have grown from strength-to-strength as their respective revolutionary parties have continued to co-operate, diplomatically and economically.