Andrew
Over the past couple of years, the world has been in the throes of interlocking existential crises.
We all thought Covid-19 would not end before ending us, but we survived, albeit barely, as the scars of the pandemic are still open and sore, if not festering.
Our friends in the Global North, whose health systems were disproportionately stretched and roiled by the pandemic, are now recruiting health professionals from the South at an obscene and industrial scale that has never been seen in decades.
Most tellingly, every other person knows of a relative, friend and acquaintance who has been part of this mass exodus.
And the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, after Russia launched its special military operation on February 24 this year, also added a dangerous dimension and layer to the omnicrisis that confronts humanity and engulfs the world.
What made it worse is that the two belligerents — Russia and Ukraine — were, and still are, the breadbasket of the world, and disturbances in that part of the world inevitably and inexorably mean disruptions in global food supplies.
We should bear in mind that the two countries account for 30 percent of global wheat exports. They also produce 50 percent of the world’s sunflower seed, as well as contributing 75 percent of sunflower oil exports, a critical raw material in the manufacture of cooking oil, itself an indispensable ingredient in local cuisine. It cannot be called Zimbabwean food if it does not have a generous dash of cooking oil.
So, the decision that was subsequently made by the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom to sanction Russia — which is also one of the world’s major suppliers of natural gas, oil, coal and fertilisers — was likely to have deep-seated ominous ramifications on the world. It was clearly a decision that was akin to cutting the nose to spite the face.
By last month, Europe was smarting from double-digit inflation for the second month in a row. And parts of Europe might be in for a bitter winter period due to energy supply constraints and soaring prices.
This is a grim tale of the malaise that currently afflicts the world.
Last week, Bishop Lazi chronicled how we have latched from one crisis to the other over the past five years, from a record drought season (2018/2019), Cyclone Idai (March 2019), Covid-19 (since 2020) and now the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
All this has combined to create a perfect storm that we have keenly felt through the anguish of rolling power blackouts.
Had it not been for the global lockdowns imposed to keep the coronavirus at bay, the Hwange Power Station Expansion Project would have been completed a long time ago, thereby helping to temper loss of capacity at the Kariba Power Station due to low water levels.
It would not have been as painful as it currently is. But it is what it is.
Omens of greater destruction
The Bishop would have wished to be a bearer of good news but the world is still in peril.
In his homily during mass at the Vatican (Italy) on Sunday, Pope Francis unsurprisingly had an eerie foreboding, describing the current period as “a complicated and difficult time for the inhabitants of the New World” and “a bitter period, full of the roar of war, of growing injustices, famines, poverty, suffering”.
“And, although this horizon seems bleak and disconcerting, with omens of even greater destruction and desolation, His divine love and His coming down to us tell us that this, too, is a propitious time of salvation,” said the Pope.
Barely two days after his uncharacteristic warning, heavy rains pummelled Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and killed more than 150 people.
The following day, on Wednesday, a deluge hit Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, considered the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
These are signs of the times.
The Bible has told us about this before.
2 Timothy 3:1-9 says: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
“They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”
However, despite all this global turmoil, what remains largely unremarked is Zimbabwe’s tremendous ability to buck the trend and determinedly march towards a prosperous future that it has set for itself.
At a time when the world was fretting about potential wheat shortages, we managed to produce a record harvest.
By the end of last week, a cumulative 375 131 tonnes of the cereal had been reaped from 78 068 hectares, or 97 percent of the planted area, which is 15 000 tonnes more than our annual requirements. It is the most wheat that has been produced ever since commercial production began in the 1960s. What is probably most symbolic and significant is the fact that among the swelling ranks of the cadreship of new farmers are small-scale communal folk who were deliberately supported by Government.
They have since both bested the output of white former commercial farmers and burst the myth that black farmers were inherently incapable of producing the crop for the sustenance of African societies.
Our record haul of the cereal also eclipses the pitiable production under the dollarised era of the Inclusive Government, which some considered the country’s golden era in the recent past.
Well, you might need to consider that, during the 2009-2013 period, wheat production actually precipitously declined to a laughable 48 000 tonnes, 41 000 tonnes, 53 000 tonnes, 34 000 tonnes and 39 000 tonnes, respectively, as we had morphed into a predominantly consumptive economy.
However, conversely, since the seismic and tectonic political shift in 2017, production has been progressively climbing from 158 000 tonnes in 2017 to more than 375 000 tonnes currently, ensuring wheat self-sufficiency for the country.
It is a remarkable and incredible feat, particularly in a world that is in a state of flux, and more so, when global food security is threatened more than ever before.
Glittering performance
The same encouraging and outstanding performance is being replicated in the mining sector, where gold deliveries had topped 33,3 tonnes by last month, 1,7 tonnes shy of the targeted 35 tonnes.
Achieving the target would also mean equalling the record realised in 2018, a year after the advent of the Second Republic.
All this is not fortuitous, but is the result of the propitious environment that has been meticulously nurtured over the past five years to make the so-called ever-shy and ever-trepidatious investors feel safe and secure in our teapot-shaped Republic.
The gold that we are now producing dwarfs what we mined between 2009 and 2013 (4,9 tonnes 9,1 tonnes, 12,8 tonnes, 14,7 tonnes and 14 tonnes, in that order) when we all thought all was going well and good.
In fact, from 2017 onwards, deliveries of the yellow metal have been above 24 tonnes.
More assertive and optimistic investors are putting their money in mining.
On October 20 last year — Eureka Gold Mine in Guruve, Mashonaland Central —reopened 20 years after it had closed. The reopening of the mine came after Dallaglio Investments ploughed more than US$60 million in the venture. Rednor Mine in Mudzi was officially opened in June this year following the injection of US$35 million.
Caledonia, which owns Blanket Mine in Gwanda, recently commissioned its US$60 million Central Shaft, which will not only increase the life of the mine to 2034 but also increase production from 1,5 tonnes to 2,3 tonnes per annum. Serious money has also been finding its way into lithium mines and ventures, as an increasingly fretful world spooked by climate change gravitates towards cleaner renewable energy sources, which are principally dependent on lithium-ion batteries.
Within the past 12 months alone, investors, predominantly Chinese, have poured in excess of US$600 million to acquire interests in Bikita Minerals (US$180 million), Arcadia Lithium (US$343 million), Sabi Star Mine (US$76 million) and Zulu Lithium (US$35 million).
They will also be shelling out an additional US$600 million — US$200 million in Bikita, US$300 million in Arcadia and US$130 million in Sabi — to bring the projects to production and ramp up throughput.
Cumulatively, this implies total investments of more than US$1,3 billion.
Need we also mention the various multi-billion-dollar projects in steel, coal and platinum that are coming on stream?
Overall, as a result of all these investments, Treasury expects our exports to rise to another record of US$7,4 billion by year-end, up from US$6,4 billion last year, representing a growth of over US$1 billion over the past 12 months.
Incredible!
Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told us last week that our economy grew by an impressive 8,5 percent in 2021 and is forecast to gain 3,5 percent this year.
Remember, the ruling ZANU PF’s 2018 Manifesto clearly indicated that agriculture and mining were going to be the bootstraps that we were going to use to pull ourselves up, especially in the wake of the continued unilateral coercive measures by the US, Europe and UK.
As Bishop Lazi recently said, at an extremely challenging time for the world, history will record that we did not only survive but continued to make transformative investments to increase the hectarage under irrigation, modernise our roads to make them world-class, build dams to give our people potable water and cascade services and resources to communities, particularly those that were lagging behind.
We have even successfully launched a satellite into space. This is a beautiful story of the triumph of hope and determination over adversity.
Epic battle
These signs of progress in agriculture, mining and various other spheres show that our revolution, which delivered political freedom and independence in 1980, is well on its way to deliver the much-expected but elusive economic independence and prosperity.
So, the regeneration of this generational movement through the political transition in 2017 stands vindicated insofar as it represents a turning point in repurposing and reconfiguring our revolution to delivering the promise of a free and prosperous Zimbabwe.
Successes of the past five years will, therefore, give our revolution the much-needed political heft and wherewithal to decisively vanquish the now-radarless remnants of counter-revolutionary forces that foolishly and naively think next year’s elections will give them political salvation.
The Bishop fears for them.
If only they knew what they are up against.
The ZANU PF that will step into the ring next year is unlike any other that has contested elections since the turn of the millennium, when the West midwifed the MDC after the Land Reform Programme.
It is a ZANU PF that is more confident and assertive; it is a ZANU PF that has regained its mojo, swagger and groove.
Do not say the Bishop did not tell you.
However, in the next couple of weeks, the Bishop will be going to the mountain to pray for more revelations for the New Year.
But for now, as the Pope said on Sunday, “although this horizon seems bleak and disconcerting, with omens of even greater destruction and desolation . . . this, too, is a propitious time of salvation”.
Wishing you a fantastic Unity Day, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Adios!
Bishop out!
Online Reporter