“LET us be proud of who we are. We don’t promote enmity with anybody, we are friends to all and enemy to none. That is our philosophy, but in the process, we don’t lose who we are. Stand up and be yourselves. We do not live in isolation but we must relate with respect.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa made these remarks while addressing the 10th Africa CEO Roundtable Conference in Victoria Falls last week when he urged Zimbabweans to protect their country’s national interest.
National interest is simply a sovereign State’s goals and ambitions pursued by Government for, and on behalf of, the people.
Zimbabwe’s national interest draws from a brutal and protracted struggle for independence.
It is clearly defined as enshrined in the aims, ideals and values of that epic struggle which has delivered not only freedom but the much needed redressing of colonial imbalances.
The focal point of that war — the land — as well as the innumerable economic empowerment initiatives that have been pursued and implemented by Government for the benefit of the masses have, unfortunately, become a source of both agony and pride for the country and its people.
Agony in that those programmes incurred the wrath of the West which has been doing its utmost best to reverse these gains.
Pride for the simple reason that, not only have these interventions capacitated the masses to own and control the land, their resources and means of production, they have also bolstered their resolve to protect and defend their country at all costs.
Added to that has been the disappointing fact that where those programmes, together with the West’s fight against the country’s prosperity, are supposed to bring the people together, they have, instead, created a country of distinct divisions, with the West’s intrusive hand visible in the scheme of things.
Yet these programmes have been all-embracing despite leaders of the opposition who have benefitted from the same telling their clueless supporters to reject them.
As such, Zimbabweans, said President Mnangagwa, should draw from their tenacity, be proud of their country and celebrate its ability to repel pressure from outsiders and their local cohorts who have been trying to achieve regime change through illegal means in the intervening period.
Despite having to contend with an aggressive West and a desperately naïve opposition, the country has remained resolute, chalking an impressive economic revival and development trajectory that has been duly endorsed by the globe.
But that continuously interrupted march towards prosperity can only be fully consummated when its people converge on the national interest and embrace the true meaning of independence.
Our reality, however, disappointingly points towards the other direction where heinous manoeuvres by outsiders are ingenuously celebrated as the pursuit for so-called democracy by certain inept characters within the opposition circles.
These characters, hopelessly out of sorts as they are, in fact take pride in aiding and abetting the West’s futile project, touting themselves as ‘champions of democracy’.
Theirs has been a doomed mission right from the onset.
Progressive Zimbabweans have grabbed the many opportunities that have been availed to them by their Government.
Already, industry has achieved its target of having a US$8 billion industrial and commercial sector following Government’s engagement with the private sector in 2018 when it came up with a robust Industrial and Commercial Sector Roadmap (2018-2023).
The roadmap initially targeted to increase the growth of industry to US$8 billion from US$6 billion.
The major contributors have been food and drink, tobacco, cotton and leather, timber, furniture, pharmaceuticals as well as paper and packaging.
Capacity utilisation has been on an upward trend and now stands at 53,2 percent.
The recent Labour Force Survey shows that the manufacturing sector has created about 270 000 jobs while locally produced goods occupy 80 percent of shelf-space in wholesalers and retailers from 53 percent in 2018.
The manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP has increased by 44,9 percent from US$15,54 billion (2009-2017) to US$22,51 billion (2018- 2022).
Exports have gone up from US$207,35 million in 2020 to US$448,7 million in 2023.
In all this, let us not forget the immense contribution of the Chinese in keeping Zimbabwe afloat.
They have been the friend we need, the friend we desire and deserve in our efforts to keep Harare going. In short, the all-weather friend.
Their contribution to virtually all economic sectors has not gone, and cannot go, unnoticed.
Presently, the biggest buyers of tobacco, mainly from resettled black farmers, their support has been the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s spirited fight against the West.
“China is committed to strengthening agricultural investment and co-operation with Zimbabwe,” said Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding at the launch of the Zvimba Farmers’ Cooperative Club in Mashonaland Province last week.
“Chinese companies keep entering the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe. China’s Tian Ze Tobacco Company has been carrying out contract farming and exporting more than US$700 million tobacco to China annually.”
The tobacco sector epitomises the success of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme.
Statistics by Tobacco and Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) shows that between 1980 and 1990 tobacco was grown by an average of 1 400 farmers rising to 4 400 between 1990 and 2000.
The number went up by 485 percent to 25 922 during the period 2001 and 2010.
It surged a further 285 percent to 100 000 in the period 2011 and 2020 before the number climbed by 35 percent to 135 000 between 2021 and 2023.
In addition, the area planted rose from 76 017 hectares in 2001 to 116 454 in 2023.
The figures get interesting.
Tobacco sales increased from 203 million kilogrammes in 2001 to 296 million kilogrammes in 2023 with earnings rising by 152 percent from US$356 million in 2010 to US$897 million in 2023.
The country seeks to achieve a US$5 billion tobacco industry by 2025 under its Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan.
But naysayers have not laid down their arms.
And President Mnangagwa has a message for them: “We in Government feel very proud of our people. We are under sanctions. Why are we under sanctions? It is because we decided to have our own land united with its own people. Other countries who have their land united with themselves imposed sanctions on us.
“Now under those sanctions imposed by those who do not want us to be ourselves, we have come so far, and we have milestones of development which we have achieved since the imposition of sanctions 24 years ago.
“Let us be proud of who we are. We don’t promote enmity with anybody, we are friends to all and enemy to none. That is our philosophy, but in the process, we don’t lose who we are. Stand up and be yourselves. We do not live in isolation but we must relate with respect.”
He went on:
“Britain, although it is a small island, the British are very proud that they are British. Why are you not proud to be Zimbabwean despite the fact that we are a small economy? Why should we look down upon ourselves?
“So, we must remain compact as Zimbabwe and no-one will destroy us.”
And compact we will remain, celebrating to the end of time being Zimbabwean!
