Harare, (New Ziana) -Plans to repatriate the remains of 11 Zimbabweans that are in Britain are now at an advanced stage with discussions on the modalities being finalised, a Cabinet Minister said on Thursday.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said this after holding a closed door meeting with British ambassador to Zimbabwe Peter Vowels at his offices in the capital.
“I met with His Excellency, ambassador Peter Vowels the ambassador from Britain who was simply paying a courtesy visit. It’s his second time around he has been here before and we are happy to have him back,” said.
“So he paid a courtesy call so that we could discuss areas of potential cooperation and we spoke about a number of issues. We spoke about where we would cooperate in terms of immigration issues, and so far we are working very well.”
Kazembe said they also talked about the National Archives, adding the remains of Zimbabweans in Britain are a critical issue and Zimbabwe is happy that Britain had pledged to cooperate in having them repatriated back home.
He however did not give a timeframe, saying discussions on modalities to repatriate the remains are still going on.
Kazembe said Vowels is working closely with authorities in Zimbabwe and the acting executive director of the National Museums and Monuments, Darlington Munyikwa has since confirmed that work is going on well towards the repatriation.
“We also spoke about possible areas of cooperation with regards to policing. We are working with a few companies in the UK to see where we can work together in terms of technology development to improve our policing,” he said.
He said they had also discussed civil registry, focusing on the registration of citizens throughout the country as well as areas they feel they could partner to try and ensure that no one and no place is left behind.
“Basically those are the areas that we spoke about and we also spoke about the good relationship that is existing between the two countries and the trajectory that we have embarked on. You have noticed that the Second Republic, the relations between ourselves and the UK have tremendously improved which is quite refreshing and we would like to continue on that trajectory,” he explained.
Kazembe said the two visits to Britain by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the first such visits by a Zimbabwean leader in 25 years, showed the progressive nature of the relations between the two countries.
He said his office and the British government have agreed to work together to ensure that they end up with a mutually beneficial arrangements or agreements.
On his part, Vowels buttressed Kazembe’s words saying during their meeting they had an opportunity to speak about a wide range of issues affecting Zimbabwe – Britain relations.
“It was a great pleasure to meet Honourable Minister and we got an opportunity to talk about a wide range of issues that affects UK-Zimbabwe relationship and above all, we talked about how we are trying as UK to improve our relationship and work as genuine partners,” he said.
On the issue of repatriating the human remains, Vowels said it was very important to the British government as it will go a long way in addressing the colonial past whilst bringing closure to the matter.
New Ziana
