The government of Zimbabwe said that its desire to re-engage Western Powers does not give them to licence to interfere with the country’s internal affairs.
In an interview with Newsday’s senior reporter Blessed Mhlanga, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Ndavaningi Nick Mangwana reminded the United States of America that it came close to impeaching President Donald Trump for colluding with a foreign power, Russia. He said:
Reengagement is a journey and not a destination. Of course, when on any journey one may encounter some setbacks where the terrain is not even.
One may even encounter bandits who throw stumbling blocks on the way, but it does not stop the journey. It may take a little longer than envisaged to reach the destination, but a setback is not an abandonment of a journey.
Re-engagement speaks to diplomatic interactions and a consistent and concerted effort interacts on areas of mutual interest and benefit. It also speaks to efforts to find each other in areas where we have differences.
We are not always going to agree with our re-engagement partners and on those areas we disagree we are not going to shy away from pronouncing ourselves.
We have already done so where we felt certain powers have been too intrusive and interfering in our domestic politics.
This a power that was close to impeaching their own leader when they felt that he had worked with another foreign power to interfere in its own domestic processes.
What is not good for the goose is surely not good for the gander.
The Zimbabwean government has over the years hit out at the US for allegedly interfering in its domestic affairs through supporting opposition political parties as well as sponsoring civil society organisations and NGOs for a regime change agenda.