New UK ambassador to Zimbabwe will arrive after elections

By News24.com

• Peter Vowles has been appointed as UK’s ambassador to Zimbabwe.
• He will arrive in the country after the August general elections.
• Zimbabwe has applied for a return to the Commonwealth.

The UK’s new ambassador to Zimbabwe, Peter Vowles, will arrive in the country after the general elections on 23 August.

Vowles takes over from Melanie Robinson, who arrived in Zimbabwe in January 2019.

According to the UK government’s press release, Vowles will be in Zimbabwe as of September.

He was “delighted to be appointed as the next British Ambassador to Zimbabwe”.

Vowles was a teacher in Zimbabwe between 1992 and 1993.

He was also in the country from 1996 to 1999, under the Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW), as a policy and programme manager.

SPW places young people at the forefront of change and development by sending international volunteers overseas to work with young people in rural communities.

At the turn of the century, Vowles returned to the UK after a four-year stint in Bangladesh, a year in Afghanistan, three years in India, and a return to Africa for a stint in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

After three years in the DRC, he was posted to Kenya.

His last foreign posting was in Myanmar.

Since then, he has served as a director in the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Last month, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa broke a 23-year-old diplomatic standoff with the UK when he attended the coronation of King Charles III.

Zimbabwe, under Mnangagwa, has applied to be readmitted to the Commonwealth.

A smooth running of the elections could work in Zimbabwe’s favour.