- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, July 24 - 5Zimbabwean factory manager Sifelani Jabangwe is a survivor of the Mugabe years, overseeing a company that stayed in business through hyperinflation, the national currency being abandoned and an exodus of investors.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Now he hopes that next week's election will mark a turning point if the vote brings in a legitimate government that can relaunch the shattered economy after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year.
Jabangwe's company, James North Zimbabwe, is the country's largest producer of industrial protective wear and tarpaulins, specializing in protective gloves and shoes.
It has survived by exporting to neighboring Mozambique and Malawi as well as Kenya and Rwanda, as its client base in Zimbabwe shrunk in line with the declining economy.
Today it employs 150 people -- down from 400 about 15 years ago -- on the Southerton industrial area in the capital Harare, where derelict buildings overgrown with grass are more common than open businesses.
"The normalization of relations with the rest of the world is the key takeaway in these elections so that we are not seen as a pariah state any more," Jabangwe, who is also president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, told AFP on a tour of his factory.
"We have lost too much time with the politics. It's now time to develop the economy.
"When the rest of the economy is functioning and everyone has money to buy what they want, we also benefit."
Your Comment