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Mnangagwa joins African Peer Review Mechanism

by Staff reporter
22 May 2019 at 15:56hrs | Views
The new dispensation has taken yet another giant move to open up to the international community, with Zimbabwe set to join the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

APRM is an organ under the African Union (AU), which looks at issues of governance, poverty reduction and had 22 countries joining at its inception.

APRM CEO, Professor Edward Maloka this morning paid a courtesy call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House, Harare, where he expressed readiness of his organisation to work with Zimbabwe.

"We are here at the invitation of His Excellency, the President. We met him in Addis Ababa and he invited us to come and work with a team here for Zimbabwe to join the APRM. I am glad that the President has taken this move which comes with extra obligations," he said.

Joining APRM comes with responsibilities and it is a sign that Zimbabwe has accepted to be reviewed, scrutinised and that it has nothing to hide.

"The APRM philosophy is that once you are a member, there are certain obligations and as part of those responsibilities, you open up to others to look at you. So you have a mirror, which is the APRM, and others can look at you and say you are not that beautiful, go and fix this and that, so it is responsibility, it is courage. To be a member of the APRM means that you are opening up your country to others, that is what the President was saying, that we can come in, the doors of the country are open. We write reports on countries and countries engage and talk freely about each other, you will soon have a report on Zimbabwe, which will be discussed by citizens and even people from other countries," he said.

Professor Maloka said they expect 54 countries to be members of the organisation soon.

Currently headquartered in South Africa, the APRM was viewed with skepticism over the years by some countries that feared that it could be manipulated by outsiders to demonise their countries.

Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa has met local business people led by the Chairperson of the Young President Organisation (YPO), Pascal Gerken at State House.

The meeting was also attended by members of YPO local chapter, and Ecocash CEO, Natalie Jabangwe.

The team spoke positively on Zimbabwe's engagement and re-engagement exercise and the enabling business environment created by the new dispensation.

Source - zbc