bad hair days don't stand a chance. to do. in the military. for. what seems to work. we're going to leave for the future. e.w. dot com we're going to go through the total to give you insight. into. the we believe that we are on the corruption program the raising fears of you have got a lot about highest levels of government why not just investigate. further. we have what the ted painful decision to the decide the economy more than 2 years ago zimbabwe and its longtime rulings and party appear to be turning a corner when emerson and mangled what took office and promised

a break from nearly 4 decades of robert mugabe's brutal authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement but hopes for a quick recovery have been dashed the country now faces the worst economic and humanitarian crisis in a decade and critics question the political will to stamp out rampant corruption and human rights abuses my guest this week is involve ways minister of foreign affairs and international trade see both more you as a former army chief he was also the face of the military coup that propelled among god what to power was involved way ever be able to see genuine political and economic reform. foreign minister cboe seen so much oil welcome to conflict zone thank you. you were

the face of the military overthrow of robert mugabe back in 2017 as a commander you got on television in your uniform to assure the public of a stable transition back then you were the heroes of the hour now you have an economy close to collapse with fuel food electricity shortages where is the hope in zimbabwe right now world thank you very much cetera yes the change in 27. and the advent of the current government which is the 2nd dispensation was as a result of a lot of issues but among those was the issue of the economy and the disappeared the public took over an economy which had been in distress for many is for different reasons some of the business could be sanctions and then some

of the reasons could be that management but this me say that there was hope and there's still hope. because we have. painful decisions to the 5 big quantum me from where it was these political decisions are the ones which appear as if they're making people lose hope but in reality. getting teams right and i want to talk about you mentioned sanctions you mentioned management those are certainly issues that we're going to address but right now the i.m.f. is saying that you're in an economic and humanitarian crisis the worst economic crisis in more than a decade against that backdrop i'd like to talk about the priorities of your government right now because you have recently made headlines for splurging millions to purchase top of the range vehicles for nearly 50 ambassadors across the globe while the state is failing to pay civil servants

a living wage how can you justify such a spending spree when millions are facing hunger. no the whole issue. is is is is best on the fundamentals this economy has got very strong fundamentals if that strong about sentiment those done what was that before and only the issues which we obviously forming at the moment in his fire as the economy's concerned is the. currency it has been the cottons which has caused inflation but as you are well with the auction system but mr foreign minister just to bring it back we see issue because ultimately you purchased these vehicles and just to give our viewers a bit of context they were between $40.00 and $50000.00 per view a call when we're talking about the average civil servant this is the middle class

in your economy they are making the equivalent of $1.00 an $0.80 a day and you're purchasing $40.00 to $50000.00 vehicles on you not out of tune with the priorities of the needs of your population with that money have been better spent elsewhere not our most sure said i would say it was talking about. the variables which the one thing for the your limits very primitive we have had to ensure that our own deployments. are more well. and that was quite a serious issue when we took over because the conditions of our diplomats extend was. because they were moving with as they were moving with. something which is not. appropriate for a deployment which is assigned for admission and therefore by variables for the

deployments was quite one of those measures which would turkey to address the situation of our diplomats but foreign minister you had made it look good boy it doesn't look good in an economy where we're 63 percent of the population live below the poverty line yeah but whatever the cost of those variables was not to necessarily the issue which is caused the economy to be way tease the quantum it has been like this we are changing we are forming again we are undertaking specific key decisions which are oriented to the economy and it among them is the double as they should of the extent of it but we're also doing a lot of other economic reforms which ensures that even the investment development community is free to come in within the hour months of open for business

let's talk a little bit more about that mantra and those reforms that you have been making in order to get the economy back on track because as you mentioned you promised that the economy would be open for business i'd like to begin on the economic front with your currency reforms because a really big source of tension right now has been the reintroduction of your local currency. last year after a decade of official use of the u.s. dollar very quickly that local currency rapidly lost value of 10 prices rocketing raising fears of renewed hyper inflation but you have been. quoted as saying the following that the return of the zimbabwean dollar is basically stabilizing the economy from what it was. is that really a message that's appropriate to send to the people of your country when the price of almost everything has ballooned a loaf of bread can essentially gobble up a few expansion settle the scenario which is happening on the ground

is that this economy had norm wanted out of policy. way of fixing it it only had to fiske of the fiscal side and therefore the to work on systems of success in the economy both the fiscal and the monetary policy had to be. adjusted and that's why we head to introduce our own currency and our own currency is critical for our own people in terms of. planning and in terms of expenditure yes we are facing challenges because of the changes we had to do in place and the did challenges have been that our currency was not stable and therefore we had to have been documented shows such measures which are to stubble as all but i mean this year with introduce the.

foreign minister i just want to follow up with you and ask you because to address some of this criticism though in the way that you rolled out this currency because we have a condom is saying that you rushed to reintroduce it without the backing of a foreign currency the i.m.f. cites missteps in foreign exchange and monetary reforms that have failed to restore confidence chatham house also saying that it has had limited results do you have any regrets not a whole in fact. it is appropriate and it was an appropriate decision that we introduce to our currency so that. you can side with foreign exchange operations and the that has been the desire of this government so we are not necessarily trying to eliminate remember we have been in this period for some time before all this. did

up when there was a shortage is when there were issues a lot of issues which would put outside the control independent of the. authorities because of that it was important that we introduce our currency in our currency which is ok supposed to. be a us dollar just briefly foreign minister i'd like to ask you because you mentioned in the beginning of our conversation that one of one of the ills that is affecting your economy is sanctions we've actually had your president saying that their impact on our daily lives is a measurable that the consequences are dire but are they really because. or is there just your government just continuing to perpetuate a false narrative here as a convenient scapegoat the united states for example says they only have $141.00

individuals or come come pany is singled out in your country right now in a country of 16000000. not at all sara do all government of sanctions it to this country has caused this serious and intended consequences of all is called it a weapon of mass destruction because this is a dead out which exists now is. to study islam and to act on zimbabwe specifically that it shall not access in external support from either the i.m.f. world bank or other international financial institutions and the because of that its means that the risk of. perceived risk of this country whenever there is that hinging aspect of a sanction means it is higher it deters investors would lead to coming to this

country despite the fed that is a mole was open for business which has been propagated by president muscle now governor and therefore we believe that these sanctions are now either live and it is fire is the situation isn't by with its content but there are causing untold sufferings not probably to the if you live but particularly to the. must population of the people and that's not is refuted by the european union and we are not in the united states however i would just like to ask you because you're continuing with that with this narrative and by blaming the west for your country's problems aren't you actually shooting yourself in the foot i mean you mentioned that you need foreign capital because the truth is you need very engaged in order to improve your economy which is saddled with billions of dollars in debt at the advent of the 7 the public prism the government clearly articulated us foreign

policy objectives and that was reengagement engagement basically you are saying we must. be a friend to everyone and that we must be and they need to know one and that zimbabwe was open for business and all objective of that process was to ensure that we are members of the family of nations who can and who can. allow the companies but to get to from the west to come in and invest in zimbabwe and the west is encouraging and that has been the objectives and our drive to ensure that company is from the u.s. from the european union from all of these countries from germany should come into the bubble so that they can be able to invest in the opportunities that i have the say that zimbabwe is probably presenting.

the best vest with the but you need to promote investment which emerges for the movers in the international community however now that is. that investment for many international partners one of the precursors for that is the fact that many want you to tackle corruption in your country on july 11th president and he once again he declared war on corruption as he did in 2017 post his takeover speech and in his inaugural speech after the 28000 election so i would like to ask you why should zimbabweans and the international community believe that these are more than just shallow phrases i mean they're phrases that have been around for a while these are not just phrases. the president do when he. particularly made used at the moment when the under crowd today was clear and in terms of

direction in which we're talking depth of corruption and they're called up is something which we are at to more and more just. something which is the radical and you're aware that already. 2 cabinet ministers have been trained and though it is not on the original call of the board how is it not their radical mr foreign minister when you've had when you've had more than 2 years in office and several of arrests have been made but there have been no convictions to date no convictions to date and even the president acknowledges that there is a so-called catch and release system in place. this is d w news live from berlin we are interrupting our normal programming to bring you this breaking news that joe biden has been elected president of the united states after days of watching and waiting to secure is an awesome votes in the crucial

state of pennsylvania to secure victory and we'll get the latest from washington d.c. . i'm claire richardson a welcome to the program and our very special coverage of this breaking news democratic candidate joe biden has won the u.s. presidential election after sealing victory in the battleground state of pennsylvania major u.s. t.v. networks and the associated press have called the race in his favor the 20 electoral votes of biden won in pennsylvania have allowed him to surpass the 270 votes needed to win at the election according to projections by the associated press he has received 284 electoral votes to republican president donald trump's 214. well joining me in the studio is stacey begins from the d.w.

u.s. election team so you see now it's official joe biden is president of the united states what can we expect to come next well let's just try to take it and for a moment this is very exciting and we've been waiting for several days to get a result but let's just make no mistake this has been historic run joe biden seemed like an unlikely candidate he was the oldest in the defeat of democrats the. extremely white and old and people are like oh we don't want this we want something new progressive but here he is who is the man who fits the moment the man who's been talking about unity bringing the country together engaging in the international community he is the man for the moment and we've seen an end to the to the negative rhetoric and the perth for all the vision of the country this is where we're headed is that you say he's an unlikely candidate but in many ways he was also kind of seen as a democratic insider going into this race and it felt in some ways like we were almost seeing a repeat of 2016 where the polls had him really firmly ahead in the days coming up

to this election as they had for hillary clinton back then we're expecting to see perhaps a landslide repudiation of donald trump's presidency but we are now 4 days after the election it really came down to the wire didn't and yeah i mean it just goes to show a couple of things 1st of all the nation is very divided these 2 candidates donald trump and president elect joe biden could not be more diametrically opposed and you know donald trump got what 70000 some 70000000 votes donald. and joe biden $74000000.00 so it was close and so now it's up to joe biden as president to bring everyone together and now we get to see how he goes about doing that i mean yes people like to make comparisons to 2016 but let's be clear when trump was running against hillary clinton both of them had extremely low favor ability. people like joe biden and so he's going to have to use his character people voted for that and

run take stay true to his platform to move the country forward so do you think that that likability as you call it is going to be something that will allow them allow him to reach across the aisle to republicans and to trump voters you know who are very badly wanted to see donald trump win this election and become president for a 2nd term we see we'll see i hope so i think that character matters and the fact that he made fun of joe biden this whole election talking about how he's been in congress for 40 years but you make connections with people and most people on either side of the aisle say the joe biden is a man who you he stands by his word he's a man of strong character and strong conviction and part of reaching out to other people and advancing agendas is being somebody that people can trust i don't think most people trusted donald trump he was able to bully his way to get and to threaten people in order to get his way but he didn't really connect with people on

the other side of the aisle and this is something that joe biden has promised he will do and throughout his entire career if past is prologue this is something that is part of who he is so yeah and i think it is fair to say that the country is more divided than we've ever seen i want to get some reaction from the united states and bring in our correspondent sumi so much gonda who is standing by for us in washington d.c. sumi what is the latest where you are in washington. well as stacey said this really is an historic moment you know over the last few days this excruciating wait if you will for the outcome here a decisive outcome we've been kind of inching towards this moment of being able to officially called joe biden president elect the 46th president of the u.s. and also to call harris the vice president elect let's not forget her in this she would be she's now the. first black woman to take this position and what got us here of the last day or 2 is that we have been watching these vote tallies in the

state of pennsylvania and just before this this was called for joe biden we saw that that tally for his lead in the state of pennsylvania a wind up to around 30000 votes and what that tells us is that he has definitively won this election the president trump essentially cannot catch up to that lead in the state and so the reactions you see here is on one hand already some relief if you look at some of the the comments on twitter so far and also anticipation because we don't know what we're going to hear from president trump he is not at the white house right now i should say he headed out earlier in the morning to virginia to his golf course where he is at the moment and so we are waiting to see his reaction but. the right wing media outlet here fox news has also from what i've seen call the selection for joe biden so it'll be very interesting to see what the 1st reactions are from president trump just this morning he was again casting doubt upon mail and voting so we'll have to see what we hear from him and see me say he's

been casting doubt upon the mail in voting that's something he's been doing for the months leading up to the election and it's something that became increasingly clear as those mail in votes were tallied and it appeared that increasingly favor joe biden in those crucial swing states on election night itself the situation appeared to heavily favor president trump as the early votes were coming in why have those states now tipped to president biden president elect biden let's say right there so . right clearly this all comes down to how people voted the way that they vote this year because of the pandemic we saw a record number of people cast their ballots by mail so ahead of the election in a state like pennsylvania the one that we're focusing on right now that has been decisive in this outcome we saw a number of people cast their ballots by mail and the majority of those were democrats and the reason for that is quite clear joe biden and his team encouraged his supporters to go out and cast a ballot in any way that they felt was safe and secure this pandemic on the i have

other hand on election day november 3rd we saw this rush of people go to the polls to vote in person and the majority of those voters were republicans and their president trump had repeatedly said in the lead up to this election that he believed mail in voting is fraudulent and so the majority of supporters did not want to cast their ballots that way and that is why in the key battleground states like again pennsylvania on election night it looked like those votes that were cast in person that day as they were tallied that president trump was in the lead of pennsylvania was a state where election workers could not actually open the on the lopes to those mail in ballots until election day and start counting and with so many ballots having arrived it took them some time to count them and that is why it looked at 1st like president trump was in the lead and then joe biden caught up and then overtook him and this is what president trump has been claiming has is fraud but there is no proof of that at all this is simply the legally a lawful way a lot of votes that have been cast that are now being counted that clearly show

that joe biden is clearly in the lead in as one all right so he's always going to thank you very much for that analysis will be coming back to you throughout the evening for more analysis i'm sure but i want to cross now to pennsylvania that he states that has to in favor of a joe biden to our correspondent stephanie simons who is standing by on what's the mood like there. well of sitting right in front of the building where they actually happened this is where it happens this is where the last batch of about 3000 those words were released they were counted they were put in the system and that put joe biden statistically here because this is math this is statistically over the top why all the networks did call biden this now president elect because they. they say which clearly shows that biden naps about 80 to 85 percent in this city in this county here philadelphia county and that puts him on deniability over the top because trump even if you win 6060 percent of any other vote coming in now cannot

win it he can not keep up the numbers so there you go president elect joe biden the 40 states president of the united states what happened here is we set up this location and get ready for a live shot here cars are driving by right and left they film us we film them at the hong celebratory honking all around town so to speak and this is where we are right now. and you've been there for a few days on the ground in addition to that celebrate i honk and i had a chance to talk to voters there about how they expected this vote to turn out. yeah the last few days this was not a divided talent it was the larger crowds were clearly. role count they got their get on king live television. one second. all right i think a. little bit. makes it makes you understanding you and

talking a little bit easier if they pass on little bit anyhow so we talked a lot of people and also the last few days of course and the overwhelming majority of them were expecting clearly expecting that biden pulls through here with this mail in ballot vote there are still a few 1000 votes to be counted those are provisionary votes and those are those votes my colleagues from c.n.n. called problem child votes they call them like they see it really. a wrong signature on the wrong envelope or something a little wrong with this they will be still counted it's not that they're stopping now just because networks and agencies called joe biden is the next president elect but again statistically he's over the top he made it trump has no chance of winning this anymore even if he gets arizona or any other state now it's over it's done and people here were quite quite secure in their opinion and in their take of that this is will be the outcome of course there were the trump supporters who are

actually scheduled to have a protest now in harrisburg the capital of philadelphia starting in 5 minutes they steal the vote anti or again steal the vote protest let's see how this will turn out for what else can we expect as today progresses in addition to those protests you just mentioned. i think we will also see more celebrations beyond honking. here in philadelphia and maybe in other cities and. in pennsylvania to there i don't think that the trump supporters or the trump lee until and base will stop protesting and making their voices heard here harrisburg anywhere else probably but you will also expect and i have to expect more data released again just because we are now saying the next president of the united states will be joe biden number 46 in the historic account and president

elect joe biden now over the top that doesn't mean that those states here and those counties here in pennsylvania here in philadelphia but also georgia will go into a recount as we know this will still happen arizona. will be still counting the voter and so on all those states which were not called or are not called yet in are still busy counting they will release data throughout the day throughout the next few days and so will philadelphia do this too all right stephan simons there for us in pennsylvania that key state that has just tipped the election in favor of joe biden to become the next president of the united states going across now over to our correspondent all of result who is absent in wilmington delaware which is the hometown of joe biden all of our great to see you there what has the reaction been from the biden team. well there's so much celebration here unfolding as we speak we're here at the joe biden's headquarters and the people

have been waiting your for days for this very moment of course joe biden himself is the 3rd time he ran for president he will be the oldest president in american history but of course it's now clear that he 2 won this election we're waiting for a big celebration here tonight fireworks are set up there is going to be a victory speech delivered by joe biden and the but they have said nevertheless there's also a lot of problems joe biden inherits were nearing record numbers of the coronavirus crisis there are lots of reforms to be done in this country and it's not even clear if joe biden can move ahead with those reforms because we don't know whether or not he will win the senate and that is of course crucial soul celebration on the one hand side but a lot of lots of questions also to be answered as we're moving on with the remaining votes for the senate over that's true as you say i think that senate race perhaps hasn't had as much international attention because the presidential election is so complicated to begin with the democrats have been hoping to win it back to make it easier for president elect joe biden it to get his policies through

congress be that on climate change beat out on immigration and it's not looking like it's going to go in that direction to say we're going to see joe biden come out tonight what can we expect him to say in his victory speech. well he will certainly try to be the unifier that's what he's promised to be that's what he ran for in the 1st place and we will hear a completely different tone than from donald trump who was essentially feeding off division and off hatred that he spread during his presidency and how you see the cars coming in here you hear them honking as well so honking all over the place here in joe biden's hometown of wilmington well then later tonight he will certainly repeat parts of what we already heard yesterday that was not a victory speech per se but he also tried already to outline his policy goals which is of course as you mentioned climate change it's education it's health care so a lot of big big goals that he set for some but again it's crucial to see whether

or not he will be able to move on with those or if he has to rely on executive orders just as many presidents before him did including of course donna.