Zimbabwe claims the hostility shown by Western nations toward the country is putting off investments, frustrating the efforts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sway western governments in his country’s direction.
George Charamba, a spokesman for the president told reporters that it is the continued hostility of the West, the United States especially that seem to rattle the fears of potential investors.
The challenge brought forth by the main opposition to Mnangagwa’s election victory which has delayed his inauguration were scaring off foreign investors, says Charamba.
According to economists, for the southern African nation to revive its struggling economy, it, first of all, have to clear its arrears with western creditors and get into a financial restructuring programme with the state-lender of last resort, International Monetary Fund.
Charamba says Western states are preventing that from happening. He says Zimbabwe was in a safe place despite the bottlenecks as the country have a good working relationship with other governments of the SADC region and member states of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
President Mnangagwa’s victory is being contested in Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday by his opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa. Chamisa is accusing the country’s electoral commission of rigging the votes. Accusations which have been brushed off by ZEC, while defending its independence and integrity.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst