adminMuchadura Dube
ON August 17, in the comfort of Gaborone International Convention Centre, President Mugabe handed over the instruments of office to the new Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Lieutenant –General (Retired) Seretse Khama Ian Khama, President of Botswana after a fruitful year for the regional body where new milestones were set.
President Mugabe’s rein witnessed a complete departure from a business as usual approach with a strong bias towards implementation of pronounced policy being the order of the day.
During President Mugabe’s year long chairmanship, the regional body adopted the SADC Revised Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2015-2020) which mainstreamed industrial development into the regional body’s master plan and prioritized the industrialization agenda.
President Mugabe’s thrust was on adding value to any raw material emerging from the land. For the Third World countries to at least cover or be at par with these First World countries, President Mugabe has insisted on the vigorous adoption and implementation of this practical approach of undertaking business. It is natural resources beneficiation which will enhance the SADC region’s individual countries’ economic performance and their individual competitiveness which will ultimately lead to the collective grouping’s economic boom.
The continued exportation of raw materials in their raw state will only buttress the old stereotype that Africa continues to be the looting theatre of ester while colonisers who have hardly any resources in their home countries. It is the visionary leadership and wisdom of President Mugabe which singled out value addition and beneficiation as the pillars that will drive the regional economy and inject the necessary momentum to compete in the cut -throat global competition.
SADC has transformed from the era of the Frontline States, then the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference to its current status. Initially, the regional grouping had a political thrust given that most of the countries were under the heinous imperialist yoke which later collapsed like a deck of cards with its last stronghold being the apartheid South Africa which also demised in 1994.
The regional group spearheaded the attainment of political independence with aplomb for the then colonized countries hence the economic struggle should be equally tackled with zeal. It will be perilous for the leadership and the citizenry to assume that the economic struggle will be a stroll in the park as those same global conglomerates who used their huge purse to politically destabilise the region stand ready, armed to the tooth to ruin any positive economic prospects of the region.
Naturally it will attract the Western world’s wrath since such a scenario will entail that, their continued pilferage of resources from the region which will extract more value when processed in their home countries will be a thing of the past. The beneficiation of resources locally will create employment opportunities for the populace in the region while triggering the shrinking of economic opportunities for the imperialist citizens which can cost the political lives of the current leadership in the Western world.
The adding of value to the region’s natural resources will diversify the economy hence more economic activity will lead to improved livelihoods for the people. It can only be a wise leader who proffers such a well thought out economic vision.
Did anyone notice the calmness and astuteness with which the Lesotho crisis was held? The mountainous kingdom had been gripped with a power tussle involving its then Prime Minister Thabane and the army.
President Mugabe with the help of the SADC Defence Troika managed to restore normalcy without much loss of human life. Even various pockets of rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo were warned that serious repercussions will befell them if they continue to terrorize the populace especially in the eastern part of this mineral rich country.
Given President Mugabe‘s rich legacy of peace and tranquility, it can only be befitting for the region to salute this African luminary who has withstood Western onslaught and diabolic machinations with distinction.
This fine African statesman has taught the current and future generations of leaders that there is nothing in the annals of true servant leadership which can outfox commitment to principles and steadfastness of a leader to the aspirations of his people. Zimbabweans are grateful to their leader’s resilience in the face of adversity which was engineered by the British and their American poodles in resistance to the land reform and the various empowerment schemes.
The region is already celebrating the astounding vision which President Mugabe has shown for the benefit of the current generation and indeed, posterity.
One is not only taken aback, but disgusted by the wild and gutter journalistic tendencies by one of the daily papers whose predictions are always gloom and doom for the country and region.
In its loss of wisdom, all things white are the only panacea for all the social ills bedeviling blacks. In their editorial policy, it is independent black leaders who have leadership frailties and to them all white leaders are messiahs from the heaven.
Such pathetic and myopic level of thinking has a negative ripple effect on the African dream of total economic emancipation.
If the Fourth Estate which is supposed to drive the people’s agenda is the source of despondency, then measures have to be taken for the people to be insulated from such devils.
Anyone who knows the character of leaders in the mould of President Mugabe will testify that there are not moved by such tomfoolery. President Mugabe’s vision for the region is indeed the panacea to the economic challenges confronting it.
Muchadura Dube is a Nyanga based farmer and political analyst
Online Reporter