Mnangagwa says ordinary citizens are better at promoting the country than the government

I am aware that countries like Australia use their education and educational institutions to project themselves globally.

That must be quite easy for us to do or adapt in our circumstances. I, too, am aware that the sister Republic of Cuba uses its medical personnel and expertise in tropical diseases to project itself worldwide. We ourselves are a beneficiary of this Cuban large-heartedness.

Recently, the People’s Republic of China used its advances in developing vaccines against the Covid-19 pandemic to save the world at a time of callous vaccine nationalism. That gesture went a long way in stoking goodwill, and in building friendships with and for China. We did the same in our own small way here in SADC, when we shared our small Covid-19 vaccines stocks, and donated critical medical oxygen to sister African countries.

We also have a vast heritage of fauna, principally elephants, which continue to multiply beyond our carrying capacity as a country.

All this speaks to our good policies on wildlife conservation.

Have we considered what mileage our country could get by helping the world repopulate the elephant herd now that CITES does not allow trophy hunting and trophy selling? Are those huge mammals not a key resource in our engaging and re-engaging the world about us, starting with our Africa?

Then we have our unmatched heritage, led by our monuments. Recently, I was in Masvingo to launch a French-funded programme to rehabilitate the iconic walls of our Great Zimbabwe Monuments.

How many citizens of Africa, let alone of the world, have visited this world heritage site? What can it do for us as we seek to build and rebuild bridges worldwide? What tours can we facilitate in the spirit of engagement and re-engagement? Why have we sat on such timeless architectural splendour, without turning it into a formidable resource in negotiating with the world?

I want us to demystify the Policy of Engagement and Re-engagement; to de-centre it away from the State, so ordinary citizens find space and can play a part which complements what we do as Government.

And what a more opportune time to start rethinking engagement and re-engagement with citizens in mind than this week as SADC, our continent and the progressive world take a position against illegal, punitive sanctions we have suffered for more than two decades?

That programme, after all, is citizen-led and centred.

By President Emmerson Mnangagwa for the Sunday Mail

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