Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has stated that the country’s economy is set to become stable through measures that have been implemented and more that will be taken shortly.
President Mnangagwa wrote in his weekly column that Zimbabwe’s $17 billion debt and arrears must be resolved to enable the country to move forward unencumbered.
He also said that Zimbabwe has the capacity to develop on the strength of its own resources, rejecting the notion of Africa as “a new frontier” for foreign interests. Mnangagwa added that Africa must be completely insulated from undue foreign interference and that all races are equal. He stated that Africa should be free to decide its own policies and development trajectory, rejecting coercive diplomacy.
In his column in The Sunday Mail, President Mnangagwa stated that during his visit to Egypt for the Africa Development Bank meetings, African countries agreed that the continent must free itself from external debt. He said:
We are determined to find resolution to this albatross which has been weighing us down. Above all, determined to pursue a development trajectory which is debt-free so we augment our sovereignty and options.
We see tangible goodwill among creditors to carry us through. Alongside a raft of initiatives we have taken, and are set to take shortly, I foresee a stable and sustainably growing economy, anchored on her resources and a stable currency of her own.
President Mnangagwa’s comments are made in the context of significant price hikes that have been attributed to misguided economic policies that are failing to address underlying structural issues.
President Mnangagwa believes that Agenda 63 rests on the strength and ingenuity of the African population and focuses on a country-to-country, subregion-to-subregion African nexus.
The President added that Africa must claim, define, and assert its own century and be completely insulated from undue foreign interference and coercion as all races are equal. In this regard, Africa should be free to decide its own policies, partnerships, values, and development trajectory.
Mnangagwa also emphasised the importance of silencing guns on the continent and urged the African Union’s Peace and Security Council to redouble its efforts for peace in Sudan.