Chronicle Editor
Nduduzo Tshuma, Political Editor
THE 20th anniversary today of the death of one of the founding fathers of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, comes at a time the Government is making strides through various engagements to entrench unity in the country, an ideal cherished by the former Vice President.
On Friday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with chiefs from Matabeleland region at State House in Bulawayo to discuss a number of issues including traditional leaders taking a leading role in bringing closure to the Gukurahundi chapter.
After the meeting, President Mnangagwa described the meeting as an eye opener during which both parties committed to enforcing unity in the country.
“I think we had an open discussion and last but not least, we all pledge ourselves, Government and communities to unity,” said President Mnangagwa.
Highlighting the importance of unity at the meeting, Chiefs Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira said: “What’s more important is the issue of unity in the country. As a country, we can’t afford disunity, other countries have paid highly and when you see the experiences of other countries you see that it is important that we should work towards unity everywhere you are.”
The meeting with chiefs followed a similar engagement with the Matabeleland Collective, a coalition of civic and religious organisations from Matabeleland over similar issues. Critically, the meeting was attended by some organisations that had in the past been hostile to the Government but had a change of heart with the coming in of the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa.
Since his inauguration, President Mnangagwa has preached peace, love and unity among Zimbabweans and the inclusion of everyone in the development of the country.
Post the 2018 elections, President Mnangagwa also launched the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) whose objective is to bring unity among political players and chart the way forward for the country.
This was in line with the President’s call, after assuming office, for unity and common purpose towards restoring Zimbabwe to its former glory and beyond.
The platform is expected to engender a culture of peaceful engagement among Zimbabweans as a mechanism to deal with any issue that may affect the country.
The anniversary of Dr Nkomo’s death also comes at a time the country has lost yet another gallant son of the soil, Dr Dumiso Dabengwa, who died in May.
In an interview with Dr Dabengwa in 2015 on the eve of the 16th anniversary of Dr Nkomo’s death, he shared the late Vice President’s vision for the country in terms of development captured in his “green book” published in 1980 when the country attained its Independence.
Dr Dabengwa, in the interview, said Dr Nkomo’s vision was that everyone owning a piece of land farms on a commercial scale and peasant farming be done away with.
He said Dr Nkomo’s wish was that those experienced farmers, the whites and those who came from the native purchase areas should be able to train the peasant farmers and turn them into commercial farmers.
“This is why he went around as early as after the elections, persuading the white farmers in the country to give up their extra farms and to offer to the government some of the land where they had large farms such that they would be able to accommodate our indigenous people and be able to train them on farming,” said Dr Dabengwa.
He said Dr Nkomo also advocated for the empowerment of the black majority by making sure that they had a stake in industries and had control in productive sectors.
“He (Nkomo) looked at a number of other developmental strategies which he thought needed to be gone into. In agriculture for instance, this is why he went on to buy that huge farm, Nuanetsi Ranch and his main vision was that, that should be a farm that produces pedigree cattle whose bulls would be sent around to go and develop the indigenous herds of the people all over the country,” said Dr Dabengwa.
“There would be development of sugar fields alongside the Triangle sugar estates and we would get a number of capable black farmers who would be given certain hectarages of land and they would be able to produce. Nuanetsi Ranch would have its own sugar mill to produce a variety of other by products such as ethanol, syrup and all other by products of sugar cane.”
Dr Dabengwa said Dr Nkomo also made strides in empowering the black majority in the mining sector.
“He looked at mining and realised that most of the mines were owned at that time by multi-nationals. Indigenous miners did not have the qualifications and he decided to bring in people that would be prepared to train the blacks on modern mining methods.
“He brought in for instance the Russians who formed the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) to mine gold in the Penhalonga area and the idea was to get DTZ to use that experience that they had to open up more alluvial gold mines along our rivers which would be owned by black miners and they would be trained on exactly how to extract that gold along the river valleys.”
On coffee plantations, Dr Dabengwa said Dr Nkomo bought Vumba Coffee Estates where again DTZ started growing sugar for the purpose of producing it and broadening the coffee production to indigenous farmers around those areas along the Vumba mountains.
He said Dr Nkomo’s vision was to have coffee produced in Zimbabwe and exported to other countries.
Dr Dabengwa also made reference to the tomato canning projects initiated by Dr Nkomo in Norton and Esigodini.
“Dr Nkomo wanted development and his idea was to develop projects in all the provinces of Zimbabwe. In Mashonaland West, he had a timber project which he wanted undertaken,” said Dabengwa.
He said Dr Nkomo also had projects he wanted to implement in Mavuradona Mountains, Mt Darwin.
“On the Kariba Dam, he had an idea of a big tourist resort that would be developed not far from the Kariba Dam wall, about 30 or so kilometres west of the Dam Wall at a point which used to be called Wafa Wafa where the Zimbabwe Military Commandos were being trained.
“He wanted to develop the hard wood timber areas in the Tsholotsho, Lupane, Nkayi areas to Gokwe for production where the timber would not be exported as raw timber but the timber would be processed into planks which would be sold for the production of finished products such as door frames, window frames, flooring tiles etcetera and that would have created jobs for all the people in that region.”
“On the Kariba Dam, he had an idea of a big tourist resort that would be developed not far from the Kariba Dam wall, about 30 or so kilometres west of the Dam Wall at a point which used to be called Wafa Wafa where the Zimbabwe Military Commandos were being trained
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