Online Reporter
Africa Moyo in MAPUTO, Mozambique
ZIMBABWE and Mozambique should continue working together to translate political independence into economic freedom for the benefit of citizens, Vice President Kembo Mohadi has said.
In an interview after paying a courtesy call on Mozambican Prime Minister Maria Benvinda Levy at her offices here yesterday, the VP said it was critical for the two sisterly republics to collaborate and improve the people’s lives.
“We met and we discussed quite a number of issues. Our bilaterals, that is our relationship, from the time of our liberation struggle; how Mozambique assisted Zimbabwe in its quest for independence and after, how we are cooperating, the cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
“We also spoke about what we should be doing to improve the lives of our people economically. We did emphasise that we got our political independence (and) we have our parliaments, we have our judiciaries, we also have our executives, but what we don’t have is economic independence.
“We, therefore, emphasised that the little resources we have should be beneficiated so that when we sell them to other countries, we get better prices so that we improve the livelihoods of our people.”
VP Mohadi said they also talked about the cooperation between Zimbabwe and Mozambique in areas like agriculture and education.
It was also emphasised in the meeting that the two countries should maintain peace and tranquillity to spur development.
“Without peace and tranquillity, there is no development. Development can only take place when there is peace and tranquillity,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Mozambique Dr Victor Matemadanda, Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Dr Omphile Marupi and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Deputy Minister Chido Sanyatwe, attended the courtesy call.
VP Mohadi is in Mozambique on the fourth leg of his tour of liberation war shrines in countries from which Zimbabwe’s freedom fighters launched the liberation war and defeated the colonisers, resulting in independence in 1980.
So far, VP Mohadi has been to Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and now Mozambique.
After the courtesy call, the VP left Maputo for Chimoio to start the assessment of shrines.
He arrived in Chimoio in the afternoon.
