Zimbabwe’s journey to economic rebirth and rejuvenation will never be achieved by relying on the visibly disintegrating global system, but by all citizens sharing the responsibility and burden to develop a prosperous nation, President Mnangagwa said.
Zimbabwe now requires “skilful navigation so we do not ram into dangerous global ecosystem of intricate, interlocking icebergs” as the country has to adjust to “this new normal of wars, militarisation, global pandemics, climate change and a broken international system”, the President added.
Writing in his “None But Ourselves” column in The Sunday Mail, President Mnangagwa said only grit, determination and moving away from antiquated production technologies will enable Zimbabwe to creatively use its resources “in order to raise ourselves by our bootstraps”.
In rebuilding Zimbabwe, the President added that conscious citizens should not “self-hate or self-deride” as those are “both pastimes of the negative press”.
“We must resolve to be self-reliant. That means accepting our full responsibility and burden to develop our country Zimbabwe. We cannot rely on the global which is disintegrating, in any event. Hence the mantra: Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo,” said President Mnangagwa.
Despite the choke of the Covid-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe has registered significant economic growth and progress through its infrastructure projects, capacitation of health care facilities and growing industrial capacity currently at 66 percent.
President Mnangagwa also said Government is working on new tools to deal with corporate profiteering, market indiscipline and is determined to “tackle this wanton abuse in the marketplace” to which Government has been blamed.
He said Government has now exhausted moral suasion as a way of bringing sanity in the market after disruptions caused by extortionate pricing of commodities.
“In respect of extortionate pricing, we have exhausted moral suasion as a way of causing sanity in the market. Indiscipline in the market is now so entrenched and even obstinate that it is increasingly becoming a political challenge to the whole establishment.
“New tools are now needed to deal with the problem. It is Government which gets blamed; it is Government which must tackle this wanton abuse in the marketplace. We are determined to do just that,” President Mnangagwa added.
The country’s Chief Executive said Zimbabwe is adopting, like its sibling India, a self-reliant mechanism to industrialise key economic sectors to increase the demand of goods needed locally with very little reliance on imports.
Like India that has the Self-Reliant India Programme and the Self-Reliance Movement, the equivalent that Zimbabwe has are Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo and None-But-Ourselves philosophies.
President Mnangagwa explained that though Zimbabwe and India have demographic differences and market sizes, he said the former can use SADC and Africa to offset that.
“Our national demand for goods and services is very healthy, and has even been felt across our borders. That means our internal market is significant and can be developed further. Our programme of innovative hubs in tertiary institutions already gives us a head-start in harnessing the national urge for innovation,” he said.