COMMONWEALTH READMISSION PROCESS TOO SLOW: CDE CHINAMASA
3 min read
By Margaret Kamba
ZANU PF Acting Secretary for Administration and Secretary for Finance Cde Patrick Chinamasa says the Commonwealth readmission process for Zimbabwe is too slow.
This he said after a briefing with the visiting Commonwealth team at the Party Headquarters this Tuesday.
Cde Chinamasa noted that while the reapplication process is guided by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s principle of being a friend to all and an enemy to none, there is need for those who imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to meet the country halfway.
“ZANU PF supports fully the application for readmission into the Commonwealth. We do so because as our President has always said on many occasions, we want to be a friend to all and an enemy to none. That is what motivates our application for readmission,” Cde Chinamasa said.
“We have been a valuable member of the club in the past from 1980 until 2003.
“Our observation is that the process is too slow and that the benchmarking is skewed against Zimbabwe. It is too high and biased against us.”
Cde Chinamasa noted that Zimbabwe’s move to assert its sovereignty over its land resulted in a bilateral issue between the country and it’s former coloniser who is itself a member of the club. He added that the countries which imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe must know that Zimbabwe wants to be friends with them and they should be able to remove the sanctions in order to engage as equals.
Visiting Commonwealth Assistant Secretary General Professor Luis Franschesci noted that the Mission is happy with what it has seen.
“It has been a great pleasure to be here today to be with Comrades from ZANU PF. We as the Mission for the Commonwealth are here at the invitation of the President of Zimbabwe.
We are happy with what we have seen and have met with Government stakeholders, Civic society, Party, opposition, diplomatic quo and media,” Prof Franschesci said.
“It is true there is no perfect country in the world. What the Heads of State want is engagement and there’s great improvement in opening up of more opportunities.”
He added that the Commonwealth is a big family with which Zimbabwe can share many opportunities.
The four-stage process has witnessed the application made in 2018 undergo various stages of scrutiny, informal assessment and engagement with stakeholders before the process is finished.
The 56 members of the Commonwealth will then go through the report compiled before a final decision is made.
The rhetoric around electoral reforms, the rule of law, human rights violations have constantly been a trump card used by the opposition and its sponsors at every opportune time while fake abductions have also been used to discredit the country. However the commitment by the government has witnessed the formation of Political Actors Dialogue POLAD as efforts to address some of the raised concerns.
Many programmes in agriculture, mining, tourism among others have been put in place to help improve the lives of the ordinary people despite the countrybeing under sanctions.
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