UK Piles Pressure On ED Over Reforms
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special envoys, Harriet Mathews and Debbie Palmer, told reporters immediately after meeting with President Mnangagwa that they came to Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission.
Mathews, the director for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and Palmer, the director for West and Southern Africa in the Department for International Development (DFID), were accompanied by UK ambassador to Zimbabwe Melanie Robinson.
Matthews told reporters that they will report to Prime Minister Johnson what they discovered in Zimbabwe.
We are doing this on the political, economic and humanitarian front. The first issue of concern, I think, is a call for a real step towards change and for government to step up in terms of political and economic reforms.
The government also needs to step up and address issues to do with human rights abuses and corruption.
These remarks come when Zimbabwe is trying to mend relations with the Western state and allies who have asked the country to implement political and economic reforms as a prerequisite.
Zimbabwe is also pushing to be readmitted into the Commonwealth and the UK has a huge say in the matter.
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