Organisers of a summit for African first ladies set for the United Kingdom next week have bowed to pressure from Zimbabweans living in that country and allegedly cancelled their invitation to Auxillia Mnangagwa to participate at the indaba.
Mnangagwa was
supposed to join other first ladies from the continent at the
First Ladies
African Impact & Resilience (Flair) Summit in London between June 16 and
18. Zimbabweans in the UK, who allege they were forced to flee home because of
Zanu PF policies, petitioned the organisers demanding that they withdraw her
invite, vowing to disrupt the event if she is allowed to attend.
A leading
British parliamentarian for Brent East, Dawn Butler had to withdraw from the
summit after Zimbabweans approached her office.
This forced the
organisers into an urgent crisis meeting where the decision to withdraw
Auxillia’s invitation was made, according to sources.
Presidential
spokesperson George Charamba yesterday said it was a lie that Auxillia’s
invitation was withdrawn.
Instead,
Charamba said Auxillia has a busy schedule ahead and had to turn down the
invite.
“You can be
invited, but you can also turn down an invite,” Charamba said.
“Her plate is
full; there are lots of programmes here.
“Sorry, you
wanted to build up some stories; you lost it; she has lots of programmes and
here she will be with communities in Zimbabwe.” Standard
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