The Sunday News
A number of African countries Zimbabwe included are classified as resource rich with those resources being minerals such as gold, copper and diamonds. Despite having such an array of wealth, most African countries are still regarded as poor and that has been attributed to the failure to take charge of those resources especially in their raw form as the continent continues to ship its resources to Western countries for processing.
However, we believe it is time now for the African people to wake up and smell the coffee and take charge of their resources. The period of being errand boys is over. The human capital is abundant especially here in Zimbabwe and we believe President Mugabe might have had this in mind when on Thursday while addressing Zimbabwean students based in Algeria, he called on them to create employment for themselves in line with the country’s indigenisation and empowerment policy.
President Mugabe said the Government built many schools soon after independence for people to attain basic education and it was now time for students to attain specialised training.
“We’ve attained a high level of education, but not the levels we need for specialised training relating to the needs of development. It’s no longer the digging of gold or planting of seeds. We need to go beyond that now. We need to process the minerals — iron ore to steel, cotton to cloth – value addition and beneficiation, the core of Zim Asset,” President Mugabe said.
“We need to make Zimbabwe our own politically, yes it’s our own, but who is managing our mines, our industry? Who are the owners? We were once workers, engineers, miners, metallurgists working for Lonrho and Rio Tinto.
“What we intend to achieve now is ownership of our resources and value add them. Let’s not add value to benefit foreign firms. When you qualify here don’t work for somebody, but for yourself. The firms must be yours,” said the President to huge applause from the students.
We believe the President, a veteran nationalist, visionary and astute politician as well as a Pan Africanist, was spot on when he made those remarks. It is time that our people should change their mindset and roll up their sleeves and come up with programmes that will propel their lives to greater heights.
We believe there is no excuse for continuing to moan about lack of employment opportunities when we have an array of natural capital at our disposal. This is because natural capital, which is commonly known as natural resources underpin many economic activities in a number of ways.
As a country, we should take heed of the call by President Mugabe and make sure that we make use of our extractive resources such as minerals. Instead of giving a disproportionate share of our resources’ value to foreign companies, we should invoke the entrepreneurial spirit of our people. However, what should be noted is that the Government should also play a part by assisting the locals to start their enterprises by providing loans and other related needs that will make it easier for our people to start their businesses.
But it should be noted that the Zimbabwean Government through its progressive and people friendly policies has already come up with a number of empowerment programmes. What is left is for Zimbabweans to cast aside doubts and believe in themselves in shaping the economy of this beautiful country.
The resources that we have as a country are a blessing not a curse, so let us make use of these skills to drive this country forward.
