By Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa says he set to meet the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his travel to Glasgow, Scotland.
Mnangagwa leaves for Scotland, UK Sunday for the COP26 climate talks.
Addressing Zanu PF delegates at the annual people’s conference in Bindura Saturday he had been invited by Johnson for a one-on-one meeting during his visit.
“I should inform the conference that tomorrow morning, I travel to Glasgow, the United Kingdom after more than decades without Zimbabwean leadership going to the United Kingdom,” Mnangagwa said to a wild applause from conference delegates.
“I have been invited by Boris Johnson and he has indicated he might meet me in Glasgow for one-on-one as other leaders like the Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi) and others.
“I will be meeting them Monday and Tuesday. So, I will like to say we as government, we as Zanu PF have been vindicated by the report released by the UN special rapporteur (Alena Douhan),” he said.
Douhan ended her 10-day visit to Zimbabwe were she called for the immediate removal of sanctions imposed by the West and the US against the Zanu PF administration over 20 years ago.
“We should congratulate ourselves that we have never bin wrong and shall always continue being right,” Mnangagwa said.
Mnangagwa’s visit to COP26 has raised eyebrows following reports his entourage consists of over 100 hangers-on during the two-week visit.
This was revealed by Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) director Farai Maguwu.
The trip will be Mnangagwa’s first to the UK and the only one by a Zimbabwean state leader in 25 years due to a diplomatic tiff that arose during the chaotic land reform programme in the early 2000s.
“Our ‘sanctions-afflicted’ Zimbabwe is sending a delegation of more than 100 people to COP26 in Glasgow, some are already there whilst others are packing their bags. Of the 100 plus delegates, more than 60 have nothing to do with Climate Change,” Maguwu revealed in a series of Twitter posts.
“Among the non-technical members who constitute majority of the delegates are relatives and friends of powerful officials responsible for selecting those attending the jamboree. Some technical staff could not travel to Scotland because spaces had been taken by non-technical climate tourists,” he said.
