Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will travel in Glasgow, Scotland, at a United Nations (UN) conference on climate change next week along with an “inflated escort of more than 100 people,” of whom “more than 60 have nothing to do with climate change,” New Zimbabwe reported on Thursday.
A large UN delegation from President Mnangagwe will include his “family members, friends and young people from Zanu-PF who will enjoy a two-week stay in the UK at the expense of taxpayers [sic], ”States the online newspaper.
Zanu-PF, or Zimbabwe’s African National Union-Patriotic Front, is the far-left political party that has ruled Zimbabwe since the South African nation gained independence from Britain in 1980.
Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Center for Natural Resource Management (CNRG), criticized President Mnangagwe’s decision to treat his official state visit to Scotland next week as a family holiday. The UN Climate Change Conference, also known as “COP26”, is planned which will take place in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November.
“Zimbabwe is sending a delegation of more than 100 people to COP26 in Glasgow, some are already there while others are packing their suitcases,” Maguwu wrote in a statement on Twitter. published October 26.
“Of the more than 100 delegates, more than 60 have nothing to do with climate change,” he argued.
“Among the non-technical members that make up [the] most of the delegates are relatives and friends of strong officials responsible for selecting those attending the jamboree, ”Maguwu continued.
“Some technical staff could not travel to Scotland because the premises were occupied by non-technical tourists,” he claimed.
“The Zimbabwean delegation is said to be more than twice the size of South Africa, whose population is more than four times that of ours, while their economy is [one] a thousand times better and healthier than ours, ”Maguwu remarked.
“Our non-technical delegates, on the other hand, have found another reason to consume what we don’t have,” he complained.
“Zimbabwe will send a ‘strong delegation’ to [COP26] summit, ”John Bhasera, secretary of the Zimbabwean Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, confirmed to reporters on October 26.
The leader revealed on Tuesday that the upcoming trip to Scotland for President Mnangagwa will be a trip to the UK for the first time.
“I am looking forward to my first visit to the UK,” Mnangagwa told Zimbabwean reporters on October 26th.
“The COP26 Meeting of Nations is coming at an extraordinary time in world history,” he added.
President Mnangagwe’s trip to the UK for the UN summit is also “the only trip of a Zimbabwean leader in 25 years due to diplomatic disputes that arose during the chaotic land reform program [of the] early 2000s, ” New Zimbabwe recorded on Thursday.
government of Zimbabwe agreed July 3.5 to pay $ 3.5 billion to white farmers displaced by the country’s “land redistribution” campaign since the initiative began around 2000. The promise was largely a symbolic gesture because Zimbabwe – a heavily impoverished country, partly due to decades of “land redistribution” program – it did not have the promised funds.
“Since 2000, thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers have been forced to flee their land by violent state-backed mafias or evicted by dubious legal rulings to help black people who have been marginalized under British colonial rule,” Agence France-Presse (AFP ) reported in 2018. “Farms, however, were often allocated [then] Allies of President Robert Mugabe [with no knowledge of farming] and collapsed, leaving tens of thousands of rural workers out of work and the economy falling as food production fell.