Mnangagwa spokesman says Commonwealth is a 'needless albatross'

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesman George Charamba says he would rather Zimbabwe quits the Commonwealth forever, even as the ruling Zanu PF party has been lobbying some members of the club of former British colonies to lift the country's suspension in place since 2002.

Insisting that he was expressing a personal opinion, Charamba said the Commonwealth was a "needless albatross," referring to demands for Zimbabwe to implement democratic reforms in order to qualify for membership.

"My personal view has always warned against renewed interest in the Commonwealth. It offers nothing to Zimbabwe besides needless and fastidious strictures," Charamba wrote on X.

Charamba said Zimbabwe was "fine as it is" without the Commonwealth from which it was suspended in 2002 over rights violations and violent farm seizures. Then President Robert Mugabe withdrew the country from the body a year later after the Commonwealth refused to lift the suspension unconditionally.

Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe in a military coup in 2017, declared rejoining the Commonwealth one of his priorities while projecting himself as a reformist, but he has steered the country deeper into tyranny.

Representatives of 56 countries, most with roots in Britain's empire, are attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that began in Samoa on Monday and ends on Saturday, with slavery and the threat of climate change emerging as major themes.

Zimbabwe's re-admission is not on the agenda, but African countries are expected to lobby for its exile to be lifted.

Zanu PF spokesman Chris Mutsvangwa met with Canada's ambassador Adler Aristilde this week and declared after the meeting: "We expressed our desire to rejoin the Commonwealth and our expectation is an influential Canada in the Commonwealth could also push for Zimbabwe's credentials so that we become a part of this club of friends which historically means a lot to us."

Manoah Esipisu, Kenya's High Commissioner to London for six years until May, told Politico: "African members have been a little impatient about what they see as unnecessary delays in this process (of readmitting Zimbabwe)."

Commonwealth nations are still awaiting a full report by Commonwealth observers on Zimbabwe's 2023 general election, which re-elected president Emmerson Mnangagwa amid claims of vote rigging and voter intimidation. Human Rights Watch said the poll was "characterised by repression of civil and political rights."

The report will be crucial in deciding Zimbabwe's fate. Zimbabwe's readmission must be backed by all countries for it to sail through.

A Commonwealth spokesman said "the report is in the final stages of publication and will be released imminently," adding: "We confirm that all necessary procedures have been followed."

Stuart Mole of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies said the treatment of the report had been "scandalous and in clear violation" of guidelines, as the requirement to publish in a timely way had been "blatantly ignored."