As a Zimbabwean based in the United Kingdom, Lord Collins’ recent visit to Harare felt not merely diplomatic, but deeply symbolic of a strategic opening long overdue. It marked the first cabinet-level visit to Zimbabwe by a British minister in over seven years—an interval that has seen not only shifting power dynamics across Africa but also an intensification of global competition for resources that Zimbabwe has in abundance. This visit, held in a spirit of constructive diplomacy, offers a rare opportunity to move beyond narratives of rupture and reframe UK–Zimbabwe relations through the lens of mutual economic opportunity and political maturity.
Lord Collins’ mission followed the UK government’s removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe Defence Industries and four Zimbabwean individuals, suggesting a reappraisal of the economic and diplomatic value of Zimbabwe to Britain’s post-Brexit African strategy. Contrary to the simplified perception that UK policy toward Zimbabwe has been exclusively rights-based, a closer reading of history reveals that these sanctions emerged at a moment not of political deviation, but of sovereign assertion. Specifically, Zimbabwe’s decision to fast-track land reform in 2000, after the UK publicly withdrew its commitment to support redistributive financing, triggered the breakdown.
At the centre of that diplomatic fracture was a letter from then UK Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short in 1997, which rejected any “special obligation” to fund land redistribution, despite the clear moral and political commitments made under the Lancaster House Agreement. This reversal by the Blair government did not take place in a vacuum—it undermined a carefully negotiated compact under which Zimbabwe had, for nearly two decades, pursued market-based land reform. The policy that followed in 2000 was an accelerated version of an objective already agreed upon, now pursued without external support. While that period included scenes of contestation, it must be understood not simply as policy failure, but as a manifestation of unresolved post-colonial economic imbalance.
Sanctions—both from the United Kingdom and more stringently from the United States through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA)—were not narrowly targeted. US sanctions, in particular, imposed macroeconomic constraints by directing representatives at the IMF and World Bank to block access to concessional finance and development support. Though framed in the language of promoting democracy, these measures effectively froze Zimbabwe out of international capital markets, contributing to inflationary pressures, sovereign debt accumulation, and underinvestment in infrastructure. The outcome was not governance reform but increased fiscal stress on ordinary Zimbabweans and a shift in Harare’s external alignment toward China and other non-Western partners.
Yet today, Zimbabwe is repositioning. Since 2017, it has pursued a formal policy of re-engagement with the international community. As part of that strategy, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has actively courted foreign investment and restored diplomatic links with regional and global actors. Following Lord Collins’ visit, Zimbabwe’s Acting Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu confirmed that President Mnangagwa reaffirmed Zimbabwe’s openness to renewed bilateral cooperation. “It was a very cordial discussion,” Minister Ndlovu said. “The President welcomed his guest with open arms and reassured him that Zimbabwe remains open for business.”
Significantly, Lord Collins also met with British businesspeople operating in Zimbabwe. As Ndlovu noted, “His desire is to see how they can be supported to invest more and to facilitate trade.” This is not peripheral. It speaks to the economic heart of diplomacy—commercial relationships that have outlasted political headwinds, and which now need institutional reinforcement.
For Britain, this moment is more than reputational repair. It is strategic recalibration. Zimbabwe is rich in lithium, platinum group metals, and rare earths—minerals that are foundational to the UK’s net zero and electric vehicle ambitions. Moreover, Zimbabwe sits at the core of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and is a gateway to regional logistics corridors, energy flows, and the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). If the UK is to build a viable, competitive African strategy post-Brexit, its economic diplomacy must include Zimbabwe—not as a concession but as a commercial imperative.
As a member of the diaspora, I believe this re-engagement can only be meaningful if it includes Zimbabweans abroad. The Zimbabwean community in the UK is one of the most economically active African diasporas. We are investors, remittance senders, policy analysts, and innovators. Yet we are often excluded from both the UK’s Africa policy design and Zimbabwe’s economic recovery frameworks. Diaspora capital—financial and social—should be viewed as a strategic asset. Whether through dual-listing platforms, fintech collaboration, or skills transfers in healthcare and climate innovation, the diaspora must be repositioned as a co-architect of bilateral engagement.
That said, progress will remain limited unless the broader sanctions environment shifts. The UK must use its diplomatic leverage to open a formal conversation with its US counterparts on the future of ZDERA. This is not an ideological request—it is a market-based one. The 2022 report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures found that such sanctions have disrupted public finance, weakened health and education systems, and discouraged even humanitarian and private capital from flowing into the country. If Britain is serious about supporting Zimbabwe’s economic transformation, it must support international financial access—not merely bilateral gestures.
Lord Collins’ visit has opened a door, but it is the architecture behind it that will determine its durability. The UK must approach Zimbabwe not as a risk to be managed, but as a partner to be empowered. This requires a clear shift—from prescriptive diplomacy to enabling frameworks; from donor-recipient logic to investor-investee collaboration; and from conditionality to reciprocity.
What stands before both countries is a chance to write a new chapter—one that learns from history, but is not bound by it. With the right instruments, the right tone, and the inclusion of the diaspora as a strategic partner, Britain and Zimbabwe can jointly design a future that delivers growth, credibility, and autonomy on both sides of the equation.
Written by Farai Ian Muvuti, the Chief Executive Officer of The Southern African Times, 2023 winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award by the South African Chamber of Commerce UK, an advisor on the board of the Africa Chamber of Commerce, and a contributor to Arise News, Al Jazeera, and the BBC.
