THE innumerable successes that Zimba-bwe has scored on the international arena since November 2017 not only confirm the country’s status as a key global polit-ical economic player, as has previously been acknowledged by those of a progres-sive disposition, but finally paves the way for its unimpeded march towards fulfill-ing its potential.
As a result, and duly so, there has been a stampede by the rest of the world to be part of the process of dismantling the countless barricades that have been erected on the road to prosperity and to help themselves to a share of the mouth-watering pie.
And that compelling story speaks vol-umes of a country that has fought for its sovereignty and people’s rights without fear or favour.
The British and Americans — Zimba-bwe’s chief tormentors — have duly laid down their arms and are leading from the front, trying to outdo the Chinese, Rus-sians and Indans who have stood by the country through thick and thin and have been investing heavily in various sectors since 2000.
The story becomes even more captivat-ing.
This week, the Minister of Foreign Af-fairs and International Trade, Dr Freder-ick Shava, announced that Zimbabwe will host the Africa-NORDIC Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Summit next year.But that’s a story for another day. In about three months’ time, from August 17-18 to be more precise, Zimbabwe will host the SADC Heads of State and Government in Harare.

The story gets even better, with yet another major diplomatic coup beckoning for the Second Republic.
According to well-placed diplomat-ic sources, Zimbabwe will make its long-overdue return to the Common-wealth club of nations during its next summit in Samoa in October.
But the road to those successes has not been paved with gold.
After knocking on the world’s doors with its story of economic abuse by the unforgiving West whose historic loss of the means of production and land re-sulted in vicious attempts to isolate the country through a raft of illegal economic sanctions, Zimbabwe’s story has finally been completed with resounding success.

The West is now stampeding to mend ties with the country for a reason.
They, too, want a bite of the coveted cherry.
The lure of the country’s vast mineral base, abundant investment opportuni-ties, fertile land and everything has now proved too tantalising for the West to ignore.
This signals the death of both neo-colo-nialism and opposition politics in Harare and the SADC region.
While the ink is still wet on Harare’s remarkable, enduring story, there is no escaping the fact that the ill-advised halt-ing of that noble march by Western coun-tries since 2000, through sanctions, was a fatal mistake on their part.

For a country to emerge , barely on its feet, from an agonising 23 years under the yoke of a relentless onslaught by em-bittered Western countries entails much more than just rhetoric.
It takes resilience, tenacity and diplo-matic finesse, attributes that the Second Republic possesses in abundance and has executed with perfection.
It also requires a country and a people who are unflinching when it comes to fighting for and protecting their sovereign-ty.
Critically, this is a victory for the very democracy the opposition has been claim-ing to be ‘fighting’ for.
Zimbabwe is now embarking on an in-exorable march towards full exploitation of its resources without undue influence from the outside world. And that march is unstoppable.
Deputy Chief Secretary and Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba — whom we shall quote extensively — gives the world a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes engagement and re-engagement strategic planning and manoeuvring in his latest piece in his column @Jamwanda 2 on Saturday.“When President ED Mnangagwa announced the policy of engagement and re-engagement, not many understood or appreciated [it]. Certainly only his inner coterie was privy to the thinking and rag-ing debate preceding this policy,” wrote Charamba.
“I will allow you some limited peek. Initially, the thinking was re-engagement, which impliedly etched the geography of our diplomacy only around those coun-tries which had taken a position against Zimbabwe under the First Republic, and because of the iconic Land Reform Pro-gramme. It meant a diplomatic thrust focused on the West, primarily.”
Once that policy had been polished and refined, Zimbabwe will then embark on a crusade to demonstrate to the world how heinous the West’s hostile policy against the country was not only hurting the mass-es but inflicting irreparable damage across the SADC region and possibly beyond.

The first diplomatic success was scored in 2019 when SADC Heads of State and Government declared October 25 as the Anti-Sanctions Day for Zimbabweans, the region and the rest of the world to de-nounce Western-imposed illegal economic sanctions against the country.
Western countries, led by the US and Britain, imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe on December 21 2001 and Feb-ruary 18 2002 respectively.
It did not matter to them that the sanc-tions were in violation of international protocols.
Those sanctions have cost Zimbabwe more than US$50 billion in potential reve-nue while livelihoods have been disrupted, nay destroyed. Jobs have been lost while key infrastructure and sectors like health have been battered.

Within the country and outside, West-ern officials are under strict instructions to deny both the existence and impact of those sanctions.
While Britain and the EU have extended an olive branch to Harare by ‘loosening’ their ruinous embargo, the US — which has been openly hostile has in recent weeks — has seemingly softened its stance.
On March 4 2024 the Biden adminis-tration announced the partial lifting of the US sanctions but maintained ZDERA, the principal law governing the embargo.
In 2005, at a function at Africa Univer-sity, then US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, described ZDERA as the ‘cornerstone of the United States policy on

Zimbabwe’.
He claimed that ‘neither drought nor sanctions are the cause of Zimbabwe’s eco-nomic collapse’.
Ironically, Africa University had strug-gled to ship computers into the country due to those sanctions.
On March 4, the US also imposed sanc-tions on President Mnangagwa, his lead-ership and at least three companies which it claimed had links with the country’s leadership.
While it publicly maintains its hostile stance against the country, the US has been making frenetic overtures behind the scenes in a bid to mend relations with Harare.
Continues Charamba: “By the time the

August 2023 harmonised polls arrive, Zimbabwe’s Engagement and Re-En- gagement Policy is already on
a higher platitude, in fact in full swing, with hith- erto hostile States making overtures, both
directly and indirectly.
“The acme of the whole process, which largely unfolded unnoticed and well away from the public
glare, was the seemingly surprising rescinding of Executive Orders by Joe Biden, the current US
President.
Several behind-the-scenes overtures had preceded this decision, a decision which to many looked
sudden and unheralded.”
But what has triggered the sudden change in attitude and the ongoing Scram- ble for Zimbabwe?
The Presidential spokesman has the answer: “The act of placing accent on economic diplomacy as well as hunting in non-traditional woods, while restoring and stabilising relations with the West, provided a dramatic tonic.
“Chinese, Russian and Indian capital came in noticeably, to then gain confi-dence until it grew into an avalanche. Chinese capital especially, went on a mad run in almost all sectors, principally in mining. Exploration picked [up] pace and Zimbabwe found itself on the cusp of a mining boon it now enjoys.”
And then the path ahead became clear of the haziness that had enmeshed it.
Those who placed the barricades in the first place are now scrambling to get them out of the way.