Commonwealth team concludes Zim assessment

HARARE - After a four-day visit to Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth assessment team concluded their field survey on the country's readmission to the group on Wednesday.

In his concluding remarks, team leader and Commonwealth assistant secretary-general Luis Franceschi said Zimbabwe has made impressive progress in aligning its constitution with the Commonwealth Charter. "The conclusion that we got from everybody that we met is yes, Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe want to be part of the Commonwealth and family of 56 nations," Franceschi said, adding that the re-admission process has four stages with no time limit, and Zimbabwe is in the first stage. “Zimbabwe should be part of the Commonwealth. We are traveling the same road, hand in hand,” said Franceschi.

Zimbabwe “has moved very fast, and there is huge commitment” to meeting demands such as democratic reforms, he told reporters in the capital, Harare, Wednesday.

Zimbabwe officially withdrew from the Commonwealth, a group of mainly former British colonies, in 2003 over governance issues, but applied for re-admission in 2018 after president Emmerson Mnangagwa took over power.

During the visit, the team met Mnangagwa and held wide consultations with various stake holders, including government ministers, ruling partyand opposition leaders, civil society members, religious leaders, faith-based groups and members of the media.

Readmission into the group hinges on Zimbabwe fulfilling “several rigorous steps” to ensure adherence to principles such as peace and democracy, said the Commonwealth in a statement last week. Main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa that democratic reforms and credible elections should be the benchmark for Zimbabwe's readmission.

This is the Commonwealth's third assessment visit to Zimbabwe since 2019.