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United Nations Special Rapporteur, Mr Clement Voule is in the country and was expected to meet President Mnangagwa yesterday. 

Mr Voule was invited by the Government to make an independent assessment of the country’s achievement and challenges in relation to the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Mr Voule on Thursday met the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda to discuss a number of issues relating to the new dispensation’s commitment to political and economic reforms. 

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Adv Mudenda said the UN special rapporteur was in the country at the invitation of Government, a demonstration that the new dispensation is transparent and has nothing to hide. He said the area covered included an update on the political reforms that Parliament is undertaking, particularly electoral as well as economic reforms. 

Diplomats from several Western countries including the US have already expressed satisfaction with the scope of reforms that Government has embarked on to improve the country’s economic and political environment. 

This has seen among other achievements, the expansion of the democratic space as enshrined in the Constitution. Individuals and civil society groups are now openly expressing themselves.

The US ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Brian Nichols who was speaking on behalf of diplomats from the EU, the UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany that paid a courtesy call on Adv Mudenda in May this year, said the reforms were important in the country’s quest for development. 

Mr Nichols said the diplomats were impressed by the legislative reforms that are ongoing in Parliament. He said some of the reforms have been passed, others are being debated while some are at various formulation stages. “These reforms are very important for Zimbabwe as it develops, as it improves its democracy and as it moves forward with economic engagement,” said Mr Nichols. 

He said Adv Mudenda laid out the advances made in the electoral reform process and ongoing debate on engagement as well as the consultation process. The European Union (EU) has also acknowledged that Zimbabwe has made some progress towards the attainment of political and economic reforms. 

We do not want to pre-empt Mr Voule’s independent assessment of the situation on the ground but what is not in dispute is that a lot of ground has been covered in implementing both political and economic reforms.