Chronicle Editor
Nduduzo Tshuma, Zimpapers Elections Desk
BOTSWANA’S stance on Zimbabwe at the recent US-Africa Business Summit in Gaborone is a bold statement that African leaders will not bend to the whims of the global superpowers at the expense of the continent’s interests.
The four-day summit, co-hosted by the Botswana government and Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), started last Tuesday and ended on Friday bringing together 1 000 participants at the continent’s largest annual gathering of US and African leaders and senior government officials, private sector executives, international investors, and multilateral stakeholders.
President Mnangagwa travelled to Botswana last Tuesday where he joined fellow African Heads of State at the official opening of the summit the following day presided over by President Masisi.
Speaking to the media on his return last Wednesday evening, President Mnangagwa revealed that President Masisi insisted that as long as the summit was in Africa and Zimbabwe being a neighbour of Botswana, the Sadc regional group was united and would not accept any discrimination.
“At the end, the American leadership came to talk to me and said ‘well, we hope that relations as we go on will improve’ and I said as far as I am concerned, the people of Zimbabwe have no quarrel with America even the people of America have no quarrel with the people of Zimbabwe but the administration, the American administration is the one that has problems with us,” said President Mnangagwa last Wednesday.
“As far as we are concerned, we find that we are running our country as we want, not to run our country in order to please the Americans and we must run our country to meet the demands and expectations of our own people. That is the policy we shall follow.”
Botswana and Zimbabwe have over the years, dating back to the liberation struggle, enjoyed good relations save for the term of former President Ian Khama.
After President Masisi’s ascendancy to power, relations with Botswana blossomed once again with the two countries scaling up ties.
President Masisi has also, on different platforms, called for the lifting of ruinous sanctions against Zimbabwe imposed after the land reform programme to reconcile the land with the majority of black people.
Addressing Zanu-PF supporters at a star rally in Zaka, Masvingo Province on Sunday, President Mnangagwa said not only has the US relentlessly maintained illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe but was against the country’s participation at the summit.
“Last week there was the US Africa Business Forum held in Botswana. The President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is my younger brother, invited me but advised me that the US had expressed reservations about my attendance. But Masisi invited me notwithstanding their reservations and I went there. There was a place where we were staying so the Americans left in protest about my presence there.
“We must be proud of who we are and we must be respected. We will not accept to be treated as second-class citizens. We are equal to every single member of the United Nations.”
In the end, President Mnangagwa not only attended the summit but had business executives from across the world eating from his palm at a high-level dialogue on enhancing Africa’s value in agricultural value chains after the official opening.
People had to be turned away after Session Room Two, the venue of the dialogue, was filled up and there was hardly space left even to stand as businesspeople from the US and other parts of the world came to listen to President Mnangagwa and his Mozambican counterpart Filipe Nyusi.
In his presentation, the President was given more than his initially prescribed time as he shared how Zimbabwe has achieved food security at both household and national level.
The land, the very source of Zimbabwe’s sanctions after the land reform, is being well utilised that the country recorded a surplus in last year’s winter wheat harvest and three years of successive grain surplus.
President Mnangagwa assured invited investors from the United States and the rest of the world to partner with the Government in unlocking vast investment opportunities across economic value chains, saying his administration has made necessary economic reforms to guarantee the safety of investments.
The President added that Zimbabwe has put in place a cocktail of measures to enhance the smooth flow of global capital in and out of the country.
In order to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, President Mnangagwa said his Government was focused on establishing more water bodies in all areas with arable land to ensure vibrant irrigation of crops throughout the year.
He said Zimbabwe was ready to offer land and water bodies to potential investors as part of incentives to attract investment.
After the dialogue and as if to prove to the world that he was standing by his decision to stand with Zimbabwe, President Masisi had a private bilateral meeting with President Mnangagwa.
After the meeting, President Masisi and his Zimbabwean counterpart marveled at a refrigerator invented by a local university student before gifting him with one.
He also gave another to President Nyusi before the three Presidents went for lunch after which Presidents Mnangagwa and Nyusi held another bilateral meeting.
As President Mnangagwa returned home after the engagements, what was clear was that Africa would no longer accept being treated as second-class global citizens.
Online Reporter