By Elizabeth Sitotombe
THE remarkable achievements made by the Second Republic have not gone unnoticed.
On Saturday, June 10, His Excellency and First Secretary of the ruling ZANU PF President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with first-time voters who mainly consisted of youths drawn from the country’s 10 provinces at Mucheke Stadium in Masvingo.
It was an epic moment.
No-one forced them; no one cajoled them into going there like some people would have liked to suggest and yet they came in their numbers.
It was by free will, a decision birthed from sheer admiration of a man committed to improving the livelihoods of the people as noted through various projects being carried out across the country.
It is against this background that His Excellency’s second term in office is guaranteed.
Once again, the people have hope.
The Second Republic has delivered more than 7 000-life enhancing projects for all Zimbabweans.
According to the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira, Masvingo Province recorded over 800 000 first-time voters — the highest among all 10 provinces.
They unanimously declared their unwavering support to the Party and President Mnangagwa.
The conference was initiated by Young Women for Economic Development, a ZANU PF affiliate group.
The main opposition party has always had a misguided belief that they have the youths captured, but the spirit of resistance remains in our youths.
After all, the youths were the vanguard during the liberation struggle.
It is in recognition of this spirit that the Second Republic has spearheaded the increase of the youth quota.
The youths are the backbone of any society, hence the Government’s interest in their affairs and introduction of empowerment programmes meant to build tomorrow’s leaders.
Under the Second Republic, opportunities for youth to contribute to Vision 2030 are abundant.
Government has taken various steps to empower youths who constitute a larger percentage of the total population.
In line with the Second Republic’ s mainstream participation of youths in national programmes, His Excellency launched the Provincial Integrated Youths Skills Development Centres (PIYSDC) for the country’s 10 provinces where over 5 000 youths are to be recruited annually to be equipped with agriculture skills.
Over 500 hectares of land were set aside in every province for youths to be trained in various aspects of the agriculture sector.
The Youth Business Starter Packs were launched by Empower Bank in order to give the youths a chance to contribute to Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 of building a middle-income economy by 2030.
Empower Bank is a product of the Second Republic. That is meant for all youths regardless of political affiliation. The bank is owned by the Government of Zimbabwe and has, over the past few years, managed to offer loans to over 5 000 youths across the country, most of them who are in the agriculture sector.
The mining sector has seen a number of youths actively contributing to the nation’s mining targets.
The President called on the youths to actively contribute towards the realisation of Vision 2030.
“You the youth of today, first-time voters, must stand up and play your part towards realisation of Vision 2030 and the Zimbabwe we all want. Most of you here are first-time voters you were born in an environment of sanctions all your lives. Even under sanctions, we shall forever develop our country with the resources God gave us.”
The opposition CCC has failed to lure voters, especially first-time voters as well as those in the rural areas where their so-called Mgwazo Programme failed dismally.
So bad is the confusion within the party that candidates are yet to be named days after the Nomination Court has been opened.
Tensions have been building up and some have reached boiling point over the imposition of Tendai Biti and Rusty Markham who are vying for Harare East’s Parliamentary seat; Markham lost his Harare North Constituency during the delimitation process.
The opposition senior leader and Elite Maruva member, Biti, called those in support of his opponent snakes for siding with vasina mabvi.
The irony is lost on Biti who reveres the white skin to the point of betraying his own country.
Biti did not end there, he went on to call Markham a black mamba whose head must be crushed.
Such violent utterances are hardly surprising seeing how the CCC is known for breeding violence.
They bring nothing to the table except malice.
Political parties are warned against creating a hostile environment.
Word on the street is that Chamisa prefers Markham over Biti.
The CCC candidate selection process, which is clearly not going well, will be concluded this weekend after being extended again. Chamisa’s dictatorial tendencies have caused confusion within opposition ranks — clearly a split is looming.
Meanwhile, the journey to restoring Zimbabwe to its former glory continues, as the country strives towards a prosperous and empowered upper-middle income economy by 2030.
Construction of the E.D. Mnangagwa Law School in Kwekwe is taking shape.
The 158 million cubic metres Kunzvi dam is being constructed between Murehwa and Goromonzi districts in Mashonaland East. The dam will also supply water to Harare, Chitungwiza, Juru and Mwanza Growth points.
The improvement of road infrastructure continues with the construction of a 36km dual carriageway along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway from Chartergrade area to Harare’s city centre now at an advanced stage.
Zimbabwe’s milk production has increased from 79 million litres in 2021 to 91million litres to date as the Government supports the livestock sector and milk production value chain to meet national and export milk surplus.
Chimbindi Clinic in Chirumanzu District was built by Mvuma Rural District Council through use of devolution funds and is awaiting commissioning. The clinic consists of a maternity ward and staff quarters as well as a solar powered borehole.
Furthermore, Zimbabwe’s tobacco output surpassed the 2023 target after farmers delivered 231,5 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf.
Zimbabwe’s first earth-observation satellite, ZimSat-1, started collecting data from space after undergoing successful orbital stabilisation. The satellite, which is monitored from the Mazowe Earth Satellite Station, is now sending and receiving images of specific areas around Zimbabwe that can be used for various applications such as mineral exploration, environmental monitoring and crop health assessment.
Under the Presidential borehole scheme, all 10 provinces were given easy access to water, helping solve water problems and combating waterborne diseases in the country.
When His Excellency took office, he promised reforms; five years on, those reforms have started to materialise.
They are people-centred and high impact developmental programmes. Our hardships have been turned into one success story after another.
In light of the successful implementation of economic and political reforms under harrowing sanctions, another five years with His Excellency is on the cards.
