CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) Parliamentary Chief Whip Edwin Mushoriwa says the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war has had a devastating effect on governance in Zimbabwe and other African countries.
Mushoriwa made the remarks after two research think-tanks ranked the country the worst in terms of governance, corruption and human rights violations.
The country got Grade “E” based on performance across key governance metrics including corruption, rule of law, Press freedom and political rights, according to a recent report by World Economics, a London-based research organisation.
An Afrobarometer report said democratic space under President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration continued to shrink, with less than 40% of the people in the country believing that there is still democracy.
Mushoriwa criticised global powers for concentrating their focus on wars, while disregarding escalating political and human rights abuses across the African continent.
“The international community is turning a blind eye to Africa, more specifically to countries where democracy is under threat, where human abuse is rampant and where electoral fraud is occurring,” he said.
Mushoriwa said African dictators had been emboldened by lack of global scrutiny as international attention remained fixated on the wars.
“I think it has now become the norm that African dictators naturally have actually been emboldened by the Russia-Ukraine war because no one now is paying attention to what they are doing but more importantly, especially when we then look at central Africa and western Africa, the presence of the Africa Corps (Wagner Group) generally is not a good thing on the African continent,” he said.
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