adminFALLING on April 18, the Independence holiday is one of the most important days on our national calendar. This is so because this day, 36 years ago in 1980, occasioned the attainment of liberty and freedom for our country from the colonial rule of British settlers who had forcibly occupied our homeland since 1890.
On Monday, Zimbabwe turns 36, marking just over three-and-a-half decades of political independence from former colonial masters Britain. As we commemorate this year’s occasion, it is important that we remind and exhort each other of the need to go beyond mere flag independence, which we attained by freeing ourselves from colonial rule, and embrace economic independence as well.
Now is the time to ensure that we consolidate the gains made at independence as we assumed a new national identity through our Zimbabwe flag and turn them into economic emancipation. For mere political independence means very little if we cannot also liberate ourselves economically.
The country’s national heroes, living and dead, selflessly sacrificed their lives on the liberation war front to give us freedom from colonial bondage, which then gave birth to the independence we enjoy today, and now we must thrive to be free from continued economic enslavement. We are privileged that we already have political freedom, but it is high time we also secured economic liberation, for the former is a forerunner of the latter.
To ensure that our country has economic and financial freedom, our Government and those in leadership positions must formulate both policy and legislation that promote and place ownership and control of the economy in the hands of Zimbabweans. Promoting intra-Africa trade through industry alignment is one of the several means of achieving this end. This would ensure that African economies become self-reliant and experience a business boom in their commerce. As such, sustainable self-sufficiency of local economies will help repel neo-colonialist tendencies and any imperialist manoeuvres.
To that end, we highly commend President Mugabe for being a champion of economic independence through his unwavering stance on the need to empower local communities and indigenise the economy because if ownership and control of resources remain in the hands of imperialists they will seek to subtly steer the country on a neo-colonialist course.
From the agrarian reform, which sought to redistribute land to the previously marginalised black majority, to the indigenisation and empowerment drive, aimed at placing resources in the hands of locals, President Mugabe has done remarkably well to deconstruct colonial hangover and destroy its vestiges.
Advocating for the 51-49 percent ownership structure for multi-lateral institutions and local companies in Zimbabwe, which puts the majority of shares in indigenous people’s hands is a masterstroke that deserves to be heeded, supported and complied with.
President Mugabe has also spoken loudly on the need for resources beneficiation as being imperative if we are to prosper economically as a nation. Through the President’s wise leadership, Government has adopted a five-year economic recovery blueprint, Zim-Asset, whose Value Addition and Beneficiation cluster calls for maximum exploitation and utilisation of raw materials in order to immensely benefit the locals. This noble initiative seeks to ensure that we process our own resources and from that production we export finished products and earn the country some income, rather than be a market that imports.
As we commemorate Zimbabwe’s turning 36, as a nation we now have to go beyond mere flag independence and secure economic emancipation, which will see us become truly independent in the finest sense of the word.
Online Reporter