HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in London, United Kingdom Friday, ahead of King Charles III’s coronation this Saturday.
He is accompanied by Ministers Frederick Shava (Foreign Affairs), Mthuli Ncube (Finance) among some government officials.
Mnangagwa was welcomed at the London Stansted Airport by Zimbabwe ambassador to the UK Colonel (Rtd) Christian Katsande.
Soon after arrival, the Zimbabwean leader met with former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the one-time British premier whose government superintended over the imposition of sanctions against the Zanu PF led administration soon after the turn of the century.
Mnangagwa also took time to meet with some British businesspeople who are invested in Zimbabwe and those who want to invest in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean leader, who is still under a western travel embargo, is in London at the invitation of the reigning British Monarch.
Mnangagwa’s surprise invitation to a country he last visited decades ago has been opposed by British parliamentarians who demanded UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government to withdraw the invitation citing alleged human rights violations in the Southern African country.
In a letter written to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly that was signed by the chairperson of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Zimbabwe (APPG) in the House of Commons, Navendu Mishra, urged the UK government to advise Buckingham Palace to reconsider the invitation of the Zimbabwean leader.
President Mnangagwa last week said he was “excited” to receive an invite to attend the royal event on May 6.
He will be the first Zimbabwean leader to visit London in over two decades after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Harare over alleged human rights violations and electoral fraud during the rule of the late Robert Mugabe.
The United Kingdom is host to one of Zimbabwe’s biggest diaspora populations comprising mostly economic refugees hounded out of their country through economic decay under the Zanu PF administration.
The Zimbabwean ruler has also been accused of failing to guide the nation away from its hateful past under predecessor Mugabe as his administration continues to visit forms of abuses against opponents.
The UK and European Union embassies this week raised concerns over rights violations by the Zimbabwe incumbent following the conviction of opposition politicians Job Sikhala and Jacob Ngarivhume over crimes relating to their expressing strong opinions against state excesses using their Twitter handles.
