The Sunday News
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Mohadi has implored the Matabeleland South Zanu-PF party leadership to come up with strategies that will bring economic development in the province as its natural resources were being under-utilised.
Speaking yesterday in Gwanda Town during a Provincial Co-ordinating Committee meeting, VP Mohadi said the province had to come up with a blueprint that would guide economic growth in the province.
He said the province was endowed with a lot of natural resources but it was lagging behind in development.
“I’m here to provoke your minds on what you are doing as the leadership in order to develop the province and to grow the economy. You have to put your heads together as leaders and come up with a vision and goals. As the leadership you have to lead people towards a certain destiny.
“As Government we have a vision to attain a middle-income economy by year 2030. By then our GDP would have grown to an extent that it can sustain people and livelihoods would have improved. If you have a vision you have to target specific interests. As a province you have to come up with a blueprint stating the resources that you have and their potential. We can discuss and present this document in Cabinet,” he said.
VP Mohadi said as the country had developed the devolution agenda each province was expected to be responsible for its own economic growth hence the need for strategies to be put in place.
He said in order for the province to record the economic growth, there was a need for leaders to be united and show team work. VP Mohadi said he had been apprised during a closed-door meeting that was held during the PCC meeting that there was a lot of disunity and heckling within the party. He said such squabbles would only stall development.
“We have to understand that the province belongs to us all and the success we record will be for us all. Our province is our child and we have to work for it, monitor it and nurture it until it’s matured. We have the necessary resources which we can exploit. As leaders let’s not have arrogance, bias and favouritism.
“I want you to sit as the leadership of the province and come up with a vision. Look at each and every district and see what it can offer in terms of the resources that it has. Come up with strategies to exploit the various water bodies you have through irrigation, look into pastures, identify strategies of exploiting the resources in the province such as minerals, livestock among others,” he said.
VP Mohadi said Government had allocated 10 more seats in parliament for youths. He urged the party leadership to properly groom the youths so that when they assumed leadership roles, they would have acquired the necessary skills.
He urged youths to be patient and not bulldoze their way into leadership or be used as pawns by opposition parties.
“Let’s leave the G40 mentality as we are just being used as pawns. Youths, can you be patient as we are in the process of grooming you so we know that we are bequeathing power to people that we have groomed. That is why we are saying you need to go through Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology as we want to inculcate the right mindset in you,” he said.
VP Mohadi said the Zanu-PF party had stood the test of time as the people of Zimbabwe had remained united since the inception of the struggle for independence.
Also speaking during the same meeting Zanu-PF Matabeleland South Province chairman, Cde Rabelani Choeni said the province had to start working now towards 2023 elections to ensure that President Mnangagwa retained his presidency.
He said the party had to secure all constituencies and council seats in the province.
Cde Choeni said there was also a need for the party to revamp its projects in the province.
He said VP Mohadi was set to hold a meeting to resolve conflicts within the party. —@DubeMatutu
