malvernmugadzikwa
National Focus
Dr Jenfan Muswere
WEEK IN and WEEK OUT the Second Republic is always fulfilling its governance covenant to the people of Zimbabwe.
This past week alone, an articulate account of national development priorities and commitments was delivered by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency President Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, during the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
While the constitutionality of the SONA needs to be emphasised, it is crucial to appreciate this rite in the context of democracy being a process of accountability and transparency.
From this gesture, it is clear that democracy is not about accumulating support through the ballot and not submitting back to the voters to declare policy promise fulfilments.
The SONA is symbolic of the President and his Cabinet’s subordination to the will of the people. The SONA must also be understood within the framework of a national chief steward presenting the dividends of his assigned tasks. The recent SONA is also a consistent reflection of the governance humility of the Executive to account to the Parliament.
When Parliament broke into song
After a comprehensive presentation, the entire House of Assembly, across the political divide, gave him a standing ovation. The Honourable Members of Parliament and Senate could not resist the temptation of expressing their collective heartfelt thrill to the submission by the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF).
The President’s trademark temperance absorbed the continuous applause as he went on to strike blow by blow. Fact after fact. Point after point.
His public confidence-building remarks embraced by Parliament highlighted the liquidity buffers and sufficient capital of the banking sector underpinning the value of our gold and eight-other-metals-backed ZiG currency. True to his reputation of delivering on his promises, the President assured the nation that food insecurity will be dealt with.
On public health, His Excellency committed Government support to the adequate financing of all health care facilities, as founded on the virtue that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
Therefore, optimal national health delivery remains a priority of the Second Republic. After his succinct delivery, Parliament broke into song.
This non-partisan ecstasy in the House of Assembly demonstrated the artificiality of our partisan binaries. This is courtesy of President Mnangagwa’s inclusive approach to statecraft and the irrefutable development trajectory he has nurtured since 2017.
No matter the partisan-incentivised hate towards him and the party he ably leads, (ZANU PF), it is difficult to hate the infrastructure developments he brought.
It is a daunting task to hate his role in transforming the economy and uniting the people of Zimbabwe beyond the warring binaries of our erstwhile toxicities.
A man of unparalleled probity and integrity, Retired Justice Selo Masole Nare, was appointed to lead the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC).
As espoused by the late President Samora Machel, the founding father of independent Mozambique, “ . . . for a nation to live, the tribe must die”; incongruences of ethnic essentialism have been substituted by a patriotic commonality asserted through a sincere pledge to devolution.
The President has been consulting all communities in Zimbabwe.
Subsequently, he has been receiving instructions from the people on how his party should govern.
The Munhumutupa Renaissance
Traditional leaders across the length and breadth of our country are midwifing this process with due diligence.
In so doing, President Mnangagwa has broken the colonially cosmetic construct of Executive bigotry. His leadership has demonstrated how the Executive should conform to the traditional leadership hierarchies of our nation’s foundation.
It is in this spirit that his leadership has been linked to the Munhumutapa Renaissance. His grassroots foregrounding is clearly predicated on the philosophy “Nyika Inovakwa Neve Vayo/Ilizwe Lakhiwa Ngabanikazi Balo”.
Our national development shepherd
In reaffirming his commitment to unity, Dr Mnangagwa, during the SONA, declared that our nation’s strength lies in unity in diversity, hence, social cohesion and our unitary State shall be jealously guarded and defended by his Government.
The President has further emphasised a pro-development inclusivity approach to the attainment of our national vision.
In his speech on the sidelines of the Chinhoyi University of Technology graduation ceremony, where he commissioned a modern student accommodation facility, the “Varsity Heights”, the President emphasised that the ongoing national infrastructure projects are demonstrating the efficacy of the Whole-of-Government approach,
public-private partnerships, collaborative planning and robust interventions in accelerating sustainable socio-economic development.
Throughout the various project cycles, the Government is ensuring strict adherence to the principle of value for money, as well as monitoring and evaluation.
His inherent ideological foregrounding to homegrown development solutions has been underscored by the support he has given to the local engineering sector, culminating in massive infrastructure developments since his assumption of the presidency. This past week, a decision was made to construct, upgrade, rehabilitate, widen and dualise sections of the Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road.
The rehabilitation and reconstruction of the road will enhance the movement of transit traffic.
This development will make the route the most preferred along the North- South Corridor, connecting Zimbabwe to South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.
The much-bemoaned Kwekwe-Nkayi-Lupane Road; Bulawayo-Nkayi Road; and Karoi-Binga-Cross Dete Road are respectively set to benefit from this massive project.
Over the years, these roads have been used by political grandstanders to peddle the anecdotal fallacy of Matabeleland’s marginalisation.
With this false marginalisation legacy being erased comes the realisation that under the Second Republic “No One and No Place is Left Behind”.
Dr Jenfan Muswere (MP Makoni West) is the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.
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