President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s international re-engagement bid is set to bear fruits with the arrival of his Botswana counterpart, Mokgweetsi Masisi, with the two leaders expected to lead talks for a possible bailout of $500 million and one billion pula to Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Masisi landed in Harare yesterday evening and was welcomed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by Mnangagwa and his two Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi.<\/p>\n
Yesterday evening, Masisi\u2019s office denied that it had promised a bailout to the Mnangagwa administration, but said they are in talks under a bi-national commission on issues \u201cmutually beneficial to the peoples of the two countries\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mnangagwa last night hosted a State banquet in honour of the visiting Botswana leader. The two leaders will today jointly hold the inaugural Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission, conference.<\/p>\n
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, James Manzou said at least eight bilateral agreements would be signed today.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we have said already, eight memoranda of understanding and agreements, covering political and diplomatic, economic, social (and) defence and security sectors will be signed during this session,\u201d Manzou said.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, a meeting of Foreign Affairs and International Trade ministers was held in Harare ahead of the conference. Relations between Harare and Gaborone were frosty for close to a decade when Botswana\u2019s ex-President Ian Khama, who stepped down in 2018, routinely disapproved of former President Robert Mugabe being in power for too long.<\/p>\n
A military coup in 2017 forced Mugabe to resign, ending his 37-year rule.<\/p>\n
The loan will consist of $500 million for Zimbabwe\u2019s diamond industry and a further one billion pula fund for private companies.<\/p>\n
The visit by Masisi comes as South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa is also set to visit Harare next month.<\/p>\n
The leaders of both countries have recently called for Western sanctions, still in force on some Zimbabwean leaders and institutions, to be lifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s international re-engagement bid is set to bear fruits with the arrival of his Botswana counterpart, Mokgweetsi Masisi, with the two leaders expected to lead talks for a possible bailout of $500 million and one billion pula to Zimbabwe. Masisi landed in Harare yesterday evening and was welcomed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,35,12],"tags":[123,174,31,240],"class_list":{"0":"post-4734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-homepage-english","10":"category-policy","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-mnangagwa","14":"tag-money"},"yoast_head":"\n