Britain Dishes Out £5Million To Zimbabwe After Meeting Mnangagwa
3 February 2018
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By Farai D Hove| The United Kingdom has offloaded a £5million grant to Zimbabwe following a meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday.

The money, as ZimEye reveals, is however not for government use, but is meant to strengthen Zim civil societies so to ensure credible and fair 2018 elections.

Below was the UK government announcement:

The Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin visited Zimbabwe on Thursday 1 February and Friday 2 February, on her first overseas visit in her new role as joint Minister for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.

Minister Baldwin met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo to discuss the Zimbabwean government’s vision for domestic transformation and international engagement through comprehensive political and economic reforms. As a central plank of this, they discussed the importance of the elections later this year being peaceful, credible, free and fair. Minister Baldwin welcomed the President’s commitment to invite international observers from the EU and UN as well as SADC and AU.

Minister Baldwin met with Finance Minister Chinamasa and Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya to discuss the government’s plans for clearing debt and normalising relations with the International Financial Institutions. Minister Baldwin welcomed the government’s recommitment to the Lima plan and confirmed that the UK would continue to support the government’s reform agenda. Minister Baldwin also welcomed government plans to attract more investment into agriculture through ensuring land tenure and compensation are tackled.

Speaking at an event with prominent civil society actors, including human rights activists and elections experts, the Minister announced £5 million of new UK aid funding to support the strengthening of democratic electoral processes in the run up to and following the 2018 elections.

Minister Baldwin reflects on her visit to Zimbabwe


In a meeting with Zimbabwean business people and entrepreneurs, the Minister heard of the enormous potential of Zimbabwe and how some of the obstacles including the currency crisis can be overcome with the support of business.

Minister Baldwin visited two DFID projects to understand how UK aid is supporting some of the most marginalised in Zimbabwe. At a school for children with disabilities, the Minister was able to speak to students and teachers to see how UK support has helped enrich the children’s lives and give them skills for the future. The Minister also visited a DFID-funded shelter for survivors of sexual and gender based violence. She was able to learn more about the experiences of the women and how UK aid is helping marginalised women and girls to access counselling, shelter and legal aid.

Minister Baldwin said: “I am pleased that my first overseas trip as Minister has been to Zimbabwe. The historic events the country has experienced over the last few months have created an opportunity to strengthen UK-Zimbabwe relations as part of a wider process of international engagement.
“The upcoming elections are a major milestone for the people of Zimbabwe. When I met President Mnangagwa, I said my government welcomed his commitment to hold credible, peaceful, free and fair elections monitored by international observers.
“I have seen for myself that Zimbabwe is a country of enormous potential. With the right leadership, the right policy environment and a vibrant democracy and civil society, Zimbabwe can undergo the transformation it so richly deserves.”

0 Replies to “Britain Dishes Out £5Million To Zimbabwe After Meeting Mnangagwa”

  1. “Make Zimbabwe Great” has hit on the ONLY POSSIBLE solution that will take Zimbabweans out of oppression and into prosperity. Don’t be fooled by Western (or, indeed, Chinese) aid – neither are interested in us escaping oppression and poverty. Despite the rhetoric about sanctions, both heavily supported Mugabe to stay in power, and will do the same with ED. For every US$100 they give us in aid and loans, they take $640 out of Africa. That is a major reason why you cannot escape the economic shackles that enslave you. However, don’t take Russia and China as models because in both nations, their citizens are also oppressed and kept in far more poverty than they should be.

  2. The whiteman is clever…. fund democracy first…. I want to think Mnangagwa knowa what it means to bring UN observers in Zim?

    Kunofa munhu mu ballot box gwendo runo

  3. Western style democracy is no panacea to solving our problems. Of course there are individuals, political parties who benefit from the funds doled out by investors. However ehese constitute but a handful. Meaningful aid is imparting in people the right technologies and know how relating to manufacturing and industrial processes so they can produce goods and ervices for themselves and not have to spend scarce foreign currency resources importing things like machinery equipment and raw materials. With everyone employed having the basics of life I am sure the majority couldn’t careless who sits in the seat of leadership. Democracy Western style has failed dismally in Kenya, it is failing in South Africa (yes ask people from the opposition who attempt to campaign in ANC strongholds and receive beatings they will never forget). Here in Zimbabwe we do not even want Western style democracy. We mistakenly think that it is a locus to economic prosperity because that’s what we’ve been lied to. Human rights are the pillars that support Western style democracy. Now how many of us find palatable giving gays in this country the green light to do their stuff in public? Imagine at a soccer match in Harare or Bulawayo in which the Warriors are being thumped as usual and a man is sitting on the lap of another man, the two of them frolicking about. How many of us are prepared to say let them be, let them enjoy their rights that’s democracy. Lastly look at Russia. First country to send man into space. They have their own home grown democracy. Same as China. Time we grew our own type of democracy which works for us.

  4. ‘With the right policy and vibrant democracy environment and civil society’. ANOTHER SNUB. So the government in place right now of DAMBUDZO has no right policy?