Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Cletus Mushanawani in Tete, Mozambique

Zimbabwe’s national trade promotion and development body, ZimTrade, is this week facilitating the engagement of Zimbabwean companies with potential partners in Mozambique during the Outward Seller Mission to Tete.

The Outward Seller Mission will run from today until Friday and is aimed at exploring export opportunities in the mining province of Mozambique.

Last year, ZimTrade had a highly successful Outward Seller Mission in the city of Chiomio in Manica Province, Mozambique, where business worth more than US$1 million was realised.

In May, Zimbabwe made significant strides towards increasing trade with Mozambique, following the successful State visit to Zimbabwe by President Filipe Nyusi.

During the visit, several Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed to strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries.

ZimTrade signed an MOU with its Mozambican counterparts, with the aim of increasing trade relations and exploring trade potential.

The Second Republic’s economic diplomacy agenda, designed to unlock value from Zimbabwe’s good political relations with the rest of the world, continue to bear positive fruits with the country’s exports to Mozambique growing by 80 percent between January and April this year compared to the same period last year.

ZimTrade operations director, Similo Nkala said the focus on Tete was meant to unlock opportunities in areas proximity to Zimbabwe, which will make it easy for local companies to land products in the market.

“The Tete Province, being a mining town in proximity to Zimbabwe, offers lucrative opportunities for local companies to expand their trade in mining supplies and other sectors.

“As such this province presents huge trade opportunities and potential, which we intend to tap into during this outward trade mission, for increased business collaboration between Zimbabwe and Mozambique”, said Mr Nkala.

According to the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStat), trade between Zimbabwe and Mozambique had increased by 80,7 percent between January and April 2023 compared to the same period last year from US$58 million to US$106 million.

The growth in trade with Mozambique also points to successes recorded by the National Export Strategy, whose target also include diversifying export markets, which will help address challenges that may arise because of over reliance on South Africa.

Following the jump, Mozambique is now the countries’ fourth largest export market for Zimbabwe. With the upcoming African Continental Free Trade Area, the need for strategic partnerships has become even more crucial.

Indications are that with increased linkages between Zimbabwean exporters and buyers in Mozambique, facilitated by ZimTrade and partners, will help further grow trade between the two countries.

Over 15 Zimbabwean companies, drawn from sectors such as agriculture inputs and implements, mining and mining services, fast-moving consumer goods, as well as protective clothing, will also engage in business-to-business meetings with distributors, where focus will be on areas such as order quantities, specific product qualities, and market entry expectations.

The outward trade mission will be attended by officials from both countries and private sector players, including Secretary of State Tete Province, Mr Elisa Zacarias and Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Mozambique, Victor Matemadanda.

The event business meetings, and local companies will have the opportunity to visit some of Tete’s biggest suppliers in a bid to boost trade.

Yeukai Karengezeka

Court Correspondent

An Indian businessman yesterday appeared in court for threatening to kidnap his mechanic and taking away his US$3 300 on different occasions as a way of punishing him for failing to repair his vehicle.

He also threatened the mechanic that he would take him to India to have his kidney removed for sale so he could recover the value of his car which was still under repair.

Sankpal Shekhar Ashokrao (29 ) is facing three charges of kidnapping, theft, and unlawful conduct with a motor vehicle.

He was remanded out of custody to July 13.

The complainant in the matter is 22-year-old mechanic Panashe Karimusango who used to service Ashokrao’s Discovery 3 sports vehicle.

The State alleged that sometime between May and June 2023 at around 8pm and at stand number 08 Campbell Road, Karimusango was at work when Ashokrao arrived to collect his vehicle which he had been repairing since 2022.

Karimusango told him that he was yet to finish servicing the vehicle and Ashokrao became impatient and started dragging him into a motor vehicle which he came driving and forced him inside.

While inside, the court heard that Ashokrao punched Karimusango several times stating that he was taking him to Warren Park area before airlifting him to India for a kidney removal which he intended to sell in a bid to recover the monetary value of his Discovery 3 Sport motor vehicle which Karimusango had stripped and failed to repair.

Out of fear Karimusango bought his freedom after he offered him a residential stand situated in Dema and a Land Rover Sport motor vehicle.

On the second count, the State alleged  Ashokrao visited Karimusango demanding his motor vehicle. When  he was told to be patient Ashokrao forcefully searched the mechanic’s pockets and took away cash amounting to US$1 300.

He then drove away indicating that he was not done with Karimusango until he recovered the value of his vehicle.

Ashokrao came back for the third time and fished US$300 from his pocket and went away and on another day he took away US$1 700 which Karimusango had placed on the dashboard.

The total value stolen is US$3 300 and nothing was recovered.

On the last count, Karimusango went to his workplace driving a Land Rover motor vehicle that belonged to a customer and was on a road test when he was seen by Ashokrao.

He inquired about his vehicle which he was told was not yet ready and out of anger he took away the vehicle of the client and drove it away to Warren Park where resides.

Ashokrao kept it for two weeks and returned it after the owner of the vehicle demanded his motor vehicle from Karimusango.

Karimusango then filed a report to the police leading to Ashokrao’s arrest.

Levi Mukarati in ACCRA, Ghana
ZIMBABWE and Ghana have signed a historic general co-operation agreement to pave way for the establishment of a framework to underpin and formalise political and socio-economic relations between the two countries.

President Mnangagwa witnessed the signing of the agreement by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube and Ghana Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong in Accra yesterday.

The deal was inked on the sidelines of the African Development Bank 30th Annual Meetings which are underway here and also witnessed by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Ghana Kufa Chinoza and that country’s envoy to Harare, Ambassador Grant Ntrakwa.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister Sarpong described the event as historic saying despite the two countries having relations that date back more than 60 years, no formal agreements exist to escalate cooperation.

“This is a special day, it is the first time we are trying to formalise relations between Ghana and Zimbabwe,” he said.

“It will make us set up the areas we want to cooperate in. Once you have identified these areas, you can then go deep and define the venture cooperation that are going to happen in these areas.

“We will be looking into agriculture, tourism, aviation and so forth and they will be priority areas for the two countries. When we define these areas, it does not end there, we will need to follow through to make sure that what we have agreed to, we implement and ensure relations move to a higher level.

“Ghana and Zimbabwe we go way back 60 years or more. We should have been at a higher level of cooperation but we are not there and this is a starting point.”

Zimbabwe and Ghana founding Presidents from colonial rule Cdes Robert Mugabe and Kwame Nkrumah were bound by the same pan-Africanist ideology, with the former having married in the latter’s country.

Speaking to the media after the signing ceremony, Ambassador Chinoza said: “I am looking at this agreement as an important starting point. It should escalate to a joint permanent and bi-national cooperation agreement as time goes on, that is what we are aiming for.”

Zimbabwe has been building bridges for cooperation with various countries as part of the Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement drive.

This follows over two decades of isolation after the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions and pushed for Zimbabwe’s isolation from the international community for embarking on the Fast Track Land Reform programme.

The exercise was meant to address colonial injustices on the land where whites owned the majority of the arable land and ensure indigenous Zimbabweans access to the resource.

Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa returned home yesterday.