Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa says President Emmerson Mnangagwa will “resoundingly” win the 30 July elections so that he can secure a much-needed endorsement of his presidency and lure foreign investors to revive Zimbabwe’s battered economy.
“I’m very confident that our President, Mnangagwa, is going to win resoundingly. ZANU-PF also is going to win resoundingly,” he told the French news agency AFP.
“We thank the former President for sticking it out in order to resolve the land question. We paid a price, and the price was that the economy collapsed,” he said.
“Now the task before President Mnangagwa is to recover the economy and that is what he is doing now by re-engaging not just economically, but also politically, so that we normalise political relations.”
Chinamasa says Mnangagwa who took over from President Robert Mugabe in November last year and is completing his term had got off to a good start.
“I projected 4.5 percent growth and I consider that conservative in the light of the measures that we have taken,” he said.
“It is very clear that we are going to achieve at least six percent growth this year because much of the environment which investors were complaining about has been corrected.
“We find ourselves completely overwhelmed by the business delegations which have been visiting us. Some of them have already materialised into concrete and substantial investments, some will mature as we go along.”
Chinamasa said Zimbabwe needed capital and not aid.
“We don’t want aid, we don’t want donations,” he said. “What we want is access to capital — if we can get that overnight, you will see miracles being performed. As we re-engage, that is… our expectation, to have access to capital. If we have that, this country will lift up.”
Mnangagwa is facing 22 other candidates is what appears to be one of the freest and most peaceful elections.
The main opposition has, however, complained that the elections supervisory body, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is favouring the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
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