Rupiah pledges Zambia's support to Zimbabwe

Rupiah pledges Zambia's support to Zimbabwe
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Thursday, April 30, 2009 3:03:31 PM

President Rupiah Banda has pledged Zambia’s extensive support to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery plans following the establishment of the inclusive government, despite the negative effects of the global economic crisis. And Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has assured “doubting Thomases” that the inclusive government in Zimbabwe will be a success.

In a speech prepared for delivery at a banquet hosted in his honour by President Mugabe at State House on Wednesday evening, President Banda commended Zimbabwe for its well articulated Short-term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP), aimed at turning round the country’s economy that has been in shambles for years.

“I wish to assure you that Zambia will support Zimbabwe’s efforts bilaterally, regionally and internationally, despite the negative effects of the global economic crisis. After all when it was our turn, you were not hesitant to help us,” he said.

“I wish to re-affirm Zambia’s commitment to contributing to STERP in order to assist our brothers and sisters.”

President Banda, who was welcomed to his “first home away from home” by President Mugabe, called for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in order to allow for smooth implementation of the economic recovery programme.

He said he was impressed that the leadership in Zimbabwe was strictly sticking to the political agreement signed between the political parties in the inclusive government, which he said would dispel doubts within the international community about the success of the unity government.

President Banda said he was satisfied that under the Joint Commission of Cooperation, Zambia and Zimbabwe had been able to implement poverty alleviation projects, one of which has been the One-Stop border post project at Chirundu border.

He said this project would reduce the cost of doing business as well as improve infrastructure at the border.

“We need to officially launch the Chirundu one-stop border post facilities later as soon as possible. The two countries should continue to cooperate and fully exploit their economic potentials,” he said.

He called for the two countries to coordinate their integration and development efforts under the Tripartite Framework, noting that the two countries had overlapping membership in COMESA and SADC.

Meanwhile, President Mugabe has said both the leadership and the people of Zimbabwe are united in their determination to have their political agreement work.

“I also wish to assure you that my party, ZANU-PF, is unrelenting in its commitment to the inclusive government. We may be experiencing a few teething problems in the process. This is normal in an arrangement of this nature. However, we have put mechanisms in place to deal with such problems and I am confident that these problems will soon be behind us,” he said.

President Mugabe, however, said the country’s efforts at turning round its economy would remain an exercise in futility if the illegal sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States remained in place.

“With the signing of the global political agreement and the formation of the inclusive government, one finds it difficult to understand the motivation of those who are still intent on punishing Zimbabwe,” he said.

He said the bonds that had tied Zambia and Zimbabwe together over a long time in the cultural, political and economic fields could best be described in the context of Siamese twins.

He said even the colonial powers who intended to make the Zambezi river a political barrier between the two peoples living on either bank of the river could not succeed in separating them. “They could not destroy the cultural and linguistic ties that existed between these people whom they wanted to trick into regarding each other as strangers. In defiance of this intended political separation, many Zambians came to settle on our side of the border just as many Zimbabweans also settled in Zambia,” he said.

“On the political front, our countries both became victims of Cecil John Rhodes’ grandiose colonial plans and were in the process christened into southern and northern Rhodesia. They were later on brought together under the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, or as the late Dr Kamuzu Banda used to call it ‘the stupid federation.’”

President Mugabe said the federation would have been a good example of regional integration if it had been constructed by the people of the countries concerned for their mutual benefit.

“Instead, this was a colonial imposition which was meant to ensure efficient exploitation of the three countries’ resources for the benefit of the colonising power. Worse still it was meant to choke our people’s aspirations for independence and sovereignty. The demise of this devilish colonial architecture under the pressure of the Nationalist Movements heralded the emergency of the new and independent states of Zambia and Malawi,” he said.

President Mugabe also said he was concerned at the slow pace of movement on United Nations reforms and insisted on the Ezulwini Consensus as the only fair and just solution towards the establishment of a democratic and representative Security Council.

On the proposed integration of African states into the United States of Africa, President Mugabe said he felt that Africa should move gradually and pragmatically towards the achievement of this goal.

“We should not hurry to build a house on sand. Doing so will shatter all dreams of the founding fathers of our continental organisation,” he said.

President Mugabe condemned the recent political upheaval in Madagascar in which its leader Marc Ravalomanana was deposed from power by army-backed Andriy Rajoelina in what SADC and the African Union have described as a “coup”.

The recent developments in Madagascar where a legitimately elected president was deposed from power are a cause for concern. It is our hope that SADC and the African Union will assist the people of Madagascar to return to a democratic dispensation,” he said.

“Similarly, in Lesotho, we are seriously concerned about a recent attempt to assassinate a democratically elected leader by a group of mercenaries.”

He congratulated South Africa’s president-in-waiting Jacob Zuma and the ANC on its overwhelming endorsement in the recent elections by the people of South Africa..

President Banda, his wife and children as well as Commerce minister Felix Mutati arrived at Harare International Airport at 1530 aboard a Zambia Air Force MA60 plane. He was met on arrival by President Mugabe, Vice President Joice Mujuru, some cabinet ministers as well as diplomats.

He held private talks with President Mugabe at State House before proceeding for a banquet hosted in his honour within the state House grounds.

He left Harare for Bulawayo this morning and was scheduled to officially open the 50th Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, he is expected to travel to his birth place in Gwanda, about 130 km south-east of Bulawayo.