The Sunday News
Khumbula Vodloza Sibanda
DESPITE efforts by some opposition political parties and their Western handlers to destabilise this nation, through operations aimed at discrediting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule, he has kept his eye on the ball, to achieve an Upper Middle-Income Status by 2030.
This according to the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) Report will ensure electoral victory for the revolutionary party and President Mnangagwa in 2023. Much to the chagrin of the country’s detractors the EIU predicts “We expect Mr Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF to win”.
The EIU, is a British-based company credited as a specialist source of information on business, economic and political trends, government regulations and corporate practice world-wide predicts that in 2021, Zimbabwe will witness a consistent inflation fall that by 2023 it will be 5,8 percent and by the same year, real GDP growth will be 4,5 percent from a negative of -15,5 percent in 2020 and domestic confidence in our local currency will gradually rebuild facilitating a movement away from the US dollar.
“From 2022 onwards the economic crisis will slowly abate, driven by improvements in energy production and in agriculture and mining output. This will improve Zimbabwe’s foreign-reserves position, supporting the currency and moderating inflation,” the Report predicted.
These predictions resonate with President Mnangagwa’s vision of self-reliance as the country anchors its economic revival on agriculture and mining. In his inauguration speech in November of 2018, the President opened the nation’s doors inviting investors from across the globe to come and invest in the different economic sectors.
The call was met with a lot of interest from investors, pledging to invest in mining, farming, tourism and infrastructural development, to mention a few business opportunities that this country has to offer. The opportunity for this country to garner investors was watered down by the United States of America and their allies using their puppet the MDC-Alliance to discredit Zimbabwe in the face of global investors utilising their “kudira jecha,” mantra to spoil the broth.
They took every opportunity to draw negative attention on the country at every global, regional and continental gathering, the UNGA, Sadc and African Union. Though the uptake of investment opportunities by investors has been impacted negatively by the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been a constraining factor on the President’s vision; instead it has encouraged the President to look within; domestic resources mobilisation. Projects that had been stalled by lack of investors such as the Harare-Beitbridge Road have been taken up by our own skilled local engineers and they are doing a wonderful job, that road has made tremendous improvement since Government took over its refurbishment.
The Harare-Chirundu Road is also making progress using our own local engineers and resources. The saying local is lekker rings true. Recently, the President toured the coal and coking projects in Hwange District where he commissioned the South Mining Project, there he emphasised that the country’s progress must start from within and from what we have at hand. He mentioned our vast mineral resources in mining and fertile lands for agriculture as our highest foreign currency earners, together with tourism and others; adding that we are also blessed with abundant skilled human resources to work the land.
The President has emphasised that for the country to gain self-sustenance there are currently two key sectors that need primary focus the first being agriculture for food security and secondly, the mining sector that has demonstrated that by 2030 Zimbabwe will be self-sufficient in energy generation and production, a situation that will significantly reduce the import bill.
Currently, the country is working toward the attainment of a US$12 billion mining journey by the year 2023.
The President reiterated that as much as the mining sector is increasing and producing results, it alone cannot develop the country, other sectors such as agriculture are key. VP Constantino Chiwenga is currently supervising Smart Agriculture to support farmers with mechanisation and modernisation from Belarus and Spain. Government recently introduced the Pfumvudza concept, an idea that is going to ensure household and national food self-sufficiency by overseeing the intensification of crop production through concentration of resources on a small land unit using optimum management.
The President’s vision is for the nation to become food secure, have enough electricity and fuel in the country in order to achieve a middle-income economy and change the lives of the people of Zimbabwe. For this to be attained the President has emphasised on every Zimbabwean playing their part toward building and not destroying our nation.
Vision 2030 also entails that the people have decent housing, water and sanitation, this project has been in the heart of the President who has been faced with a housing backlog of 1,3 million. To achieve proper and affordable housing the President has directed his Ministry of Local Government to ensure that bogus land developers are weeded out from acquiring land for housing through proper vetting of the capabilities of individual developers to develop the land by building roads, sewer and water reticulation pipes. A directive to formalise improper settlements has been issued as Government works toward restoring sanity to the housing industry. Meanwhile, Government is making efforts to develop the rural settlements to match the standards of the urban cities by providing them with the same provisions such as electricity, sewer and water facilities in order to cut down on people flocking to and crowding urban cities in search of those amenities.
The report by the EIU is a green light for investors who are constantly looking for lucrative and stable environments to invest in. However, no matter how lucrative the prospects are investors will not come into a political unstable environment. This is the reason why the US Embassy in Harare and its proxy the MDC-Alliance are all over the place, trying so hard to create an unsteady environment in Zimbabwe.
The planned 31 July protests are the recent machinations to destabilise the country with their perpetual pursuance of regime change. If the predictions by the EIU are to be attained the people of Zimbabwe should put an end to self-destruct activities. The USA and the United Kingdom cannot be allowed to use us to destroy each and subsequently our inheritance. People need to wise up and see the bigger picture. #31July is just that, an effort to undermine our leadership, sovereignty and country, let’s not allow it.
President Mnangagwa’s concerted efforts to revive the country’s economy are no fluke as evidenced by the positive predictions in the EIU Report. Zimbabwe has great potential, if outsiders can see it, why are Zimbabweans allowing themselves to be used to destroy it. Food for thought.
