adminHarare Bureau
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday outlined the priorities of a new Cabinet he will announce soon with civil servants salaries, revival of industry, employment creation through indigenisation, increased electricity generation, agriculture support and infrastructure development topping the list.
In his inauguration speech at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces pledged to reward the electorate and the nation with tangible results.
“I stand before you as now a sworn President of Zimbabwe. My mandate comes from the just-ended election which my party won resoundingly. But there are key truths that come with that victory, which come with honour. The peasant who cast his vote on 31 July, created my victory and thus made a portion of my Presidency.
I am at his service, I am his emissary and servant. He or she did not cast that precious vote in vain, did not repose it in us without expectations of a good, deserved return. Similarly, the unemployed youth who cast his vote did so amidst great expectations. He, too, moulded my Presidency.
He, too, claims it. It must work for him. It must deliver a reward to him. The woman – that larger half of mankind voted for me – a man! She has deep hopes that must be fulfilled. The businessperson, he or she too, voted for me, contributing a limb to my Presidency. He or she too has definite expectations founded on his or her role in society as a creator of wealth,” President Mugabe said.
He said farmers also had great expectations of him.
“The farmer – small, medium, big – voted for my party thereby assigning my Presidency. His vote was his input, he must now turn the soil, broadcast seed in the hope of plenty. I am the instrument of his dream. The self-employed, that small man and woman always struggling on the margins of the formal economy, he or she, too, has expectations, great expectations at that.
So, too, are those who did not vote for me, those who voted for other parties. They have hopes and expectations which must reside and repose in my Presidency,” President Mugabe said.
He rallied his troops saying it was time to work hard and bring the results for the people regardless of the evil illegal Western sanctions.
“We have been under sanctions for a decade and three years. Most likely we shall remain under these sanctions for much longer. But we have held our own.
Our will has been our principal resource. We have to raise ourselves by our bootstraps. Let me share with you my vision for the future, lay out for you the work that must be done,” President Mugabe said.
He said the mining sector would be the centrepiece of economic recovery and growth.
“It should generate growth spurts across sectors, reignite that economic miracle which must now happen. The sector has shown enormous potential, but we are far from seeing its optimum. We have barely scratched our worth, even in the sense of merely bringing above ground what we already know to be embedded in our rich soils.
We need to intensify the exploitation of existing deposits,” President Mugabe said.
He noted that more mineral deposits remained unknown and unexplored hence the need to explore new deposits and developing new green-field projects in the mining sector.
“Above all, we need to move purposefully towards beneficiation of our raw minerals. The scope is great and I call upon you all to summon your full will, to give your utmost. That is what will empower us, develop us, indeed create employment for our people,” President Mugabe said.
He reiterated that his Government would not divert from its indigenisation policy saying that was the reason why the people voted resoundingly for Zanu-PF.
“We dare not let our people down. We are aware the people of ill-will have cast aspersions on our hallowed policy of indigenisation and economic empowerment. Well, it is a set policy, our chosen path to full sovereignty.” President Mugabe said Zimbabweans could not be by-standers in the exploitation of their resources but must have a controlling share in all ventures and where possible go it alone.
“Genuine partners should find this acceptable.
We reject totally as skewed the economic principle which puts capital, technology or expertise before natural resources. It is a principle of imperialism, the source of unequal agreements which have been the bane of our ever exploited Africa. That is our reckoning here and we stand by it.
Unequal agreements are unacceptable; they reek of colonial and neo-colonial relations. But where an investor brings in his or her capital, technology, expertise and raw materials, we will not insist on the principle!” he said.
President Mugabe pledged full support for agriculture by the new Cabinet saying the previous one neglected the sector.
“We must become a food secure nation, and that means sensible agricultural support policies that recognize support to the farmer by way of inputs. No nation on earth does without such support. The new Cabinet will be expected to move with full speed in mobilizing adequate inputs,” he said.
The President said issues around electricity and irrigation must be tackled definitively to ensure food sufficiency.
“We have key power projects which are about to take off, and which, if completed, should augment internal power generation. All these are key enablers which must now kick in. There are many financing models which the new Government will explore including public-private-partnerships on the strength of which some projects have moved.”
Social challenges, President Mugabe said, must be tackled immediately citing water challenges in Bulawayo and other cities.
He said the country could not continue having erratic water supply in urban areas to avoid outbreak of diseases such as cholera.
President Mugabe also singled out the health sector saying it needed urgent attention through the provision of drugs and vital equipment as a matter of urgency.
He noted the rehabilitation of some of the country’s major roads such as the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway but underscored the need for their speed completion to ensure easy mobility of people, goods and services.
President Mugabe said the financial system and policy would need to be examined including the banking institutions and their supporting role to industry.
He said partly as a result of sanctions and because of regional manufacturing and trade dynamics, Zimbabwe had declined as a regional manufacturing centre.
“We are fast turning into one huge warehouse, a dumping ground for all manner of imports. Our cities and towns are dying, Bulawayo, for a longtime the industrial capital of Zimbabwe, has now become a sorry industrial scrap-yard. And this has been an indicative trend for all manufacturing centres in the country.
We have become a net importer of finished goods, while also being a net exporter of raw materials…Plans to resuscitate our ailing industries never took off largely because of internal contradictions during the era of the inclusive Government. That era is gone and we must now move purposefully,” President Mugabe said.
He promised civil servants better conditions of service. “Thank you civil servants, I promise better conditions. We do not make promises in vain,” he said.
On the diplomatic front, he said Zimbabwe would remain friendly and well deposed to all nations.
“We seek friendships. We seek partnerships. We seek to diversify our relations to encompass new, emerging regions of the world.
Principally, we continue to look East, hoping all those countries which had held back on fears of our unsettled situation here can now move forward to partner with us on clear parameters laid out in our policies.”
President Mugabe said Zimbabwe would not tolerate interference in its internal affairs.
“As our own case demonstrated, often it is local solutions which work best in curing problems that may arise within and between nations.
The current Western policy of sponsoring conflict in the Middle East must be condemned. As the desperate situation in Syria has shown, such a policy brings enormous grief to affected nations. We watch helplessly as small nations get wrecked by high-handed powers. We hold deep fears for Egypt, that great African country. We hope that peace can return to it soon, and hold for all time,” he said.
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