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Mnangagwa in Zambia for bilateral talks

Friday January 19 2018
Mnangagwa

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. He made a one-day official trip to Zambia on January 19, 2018. FILE PHOTO | PHILIMON BULAWAYO | REUTERS

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with his Zambian counterpart Edgar Lungu at State House in Lusaka on Friday.

The two leaders agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation and security between the two southern African neighbours.

According to a statement from State House, they agreed to enhance collaboration especially in their joint projects including the Chirundu one-stop border post and the 1,626MW Kariba Dam managed by the Zambezi River Authority, on behalf of the two countries.

President Mnangagwa’s Lusaka visit is part of a regional SADC bloc tour to brief the member states on political developments in Zimbabwe.

But for the 75-year-old leader who came into power last November after a surprise military takeover that ended Robert Mugabe’s nearly four decades reign, the visit to Zambia was also a “homecoming”.

The President wrote in the State House visitors’ book: “I feel I have come back home after about 40 years… [the] country that has made me who I am today.”

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Mnangagwa’s family fled to Zambia in the 1950s during the repression years of the white minority rule. While in college, he joined Zambia’s Independence party UNIP. He was later recruited to join the Zimbabwe liberation struggle movement from there.

Zambia is the fifth official trip for President Mnangagwa to the Southern African Development Community’s 15-member states.

The president has visited South Africa, Angola, Namibia and Mozambique.

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