Western countries, which had traditionally supplied military equipment to Zimbabwe, including fighter jets and vehicles, stopped in 2000 after imposing sanctions on ex-president Robert Mugabe’s government over accusations of human rights abuses.
Chris Mutsvangwa, Mnangagwa’s special advisor, later told reporters that Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defence was in talks with Russia over the procurement of military hardware. He did not provide details.
A Russian consortium including arms conglomerate Rostec in 2014 partnered a Zimbabwean group to develop a $3 billion platinum operation near the capital but the project had stalled.
Lavrov’s visit is expected to revive the mining venture, which is one of the single biggest investments the southern African nation has seen since independence in 1980.
“We have laid particular emphasis on implementation of the joint project of exploring the Darwendale platinum deposit, the largest in the world and which is currently operated by a joint venture between Zimbabwe and Russia,” Lavrov said.
Zimbabwe has the second largest known deposits of platinum after South Africa and the Darwendale project is considered to be the largest single deposit.
Mnangagwa is desperate to attract foreign investors to kickstart the economy and has promised reforms to safeguard investments.
To be honest dont know much about SL modern history outside of Blood Diamond.
