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Freeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
Bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Australia continue to improve, as Australian investors are showing interest to take up opportunities mainly in the lucrative mining sector, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Australia, Joe Tapera Mhishi, has said.
Speaking during Independence Day celebrations attended by over 120 Zimbabweans living in Australia, Ambassador Mhishi said many companies from that country had invested in Zimbabwe in the past few months.
“Fellow Zimbabweans, I acknowledge the improvement in Australia-Zimbabwe bilateral relations,” said Ambassador Mhishi. “Australian investors continue to show appetite for carrying out mining sector exploratory activities in Zimbabwe.
“The most outstanding is investment in Zimbabwe by five ASX-listed Australian companies.”
Ambassador Mhishi said there was Invictus Energy involved in oil and gas exploration in Muzarabani, while Prospect Resources is prospecting for lithium, gold, copper and silver.
Latitude Consolidated is involved in lithium, with Zimplats already a giant in mining the Platinum Group of Metals, and Sigma working on vanadium, lithium and copper.
“There is room for more of Australia’s mining sector actors to join the great trek to Zimbabwe by global investors eyeing Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth endowment of more than 60 globally known and sought after minerals,” said Ambassador Mhishi.
“These include critical renewable energy minerals. The Embassy and Government of Zimbabwe also appreciate ongoing cooperation with Australia in the education sector. The Australian government, the State of Western Australia and the Murdoch University, have all resumed their traditional scholarship programmes for Zimbabweans.
“We equally appreciate ongoing development cooperation. In particular, in the area of scientific research in agriculture.”
Zimbabwe held its 43rd Independence Day national celebrations, for the first time in a rural district in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central Province.
It ran under the theme, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo”.
Ambassador Mhishi said the nexus between Independence and the theme lies in that a nation is independent to the extent that it is unfettered to do certain things that define the very existence of that nation or its people.
“Therein lies the significance of the date of 18 April,” he said. “Some might be asking, why 18 April specifically? 18 April because that is the date in 1980 on which the British flag, the Union Jack, representing British colonial rule of Zimbabwe, was finally pulled down.
“18 April is also the date on which the flag of a liberated and independent Zimbabwe was first hoisted in the country in 1980.
“Therefore, fellow Zimbabweans, on this day marking Zimbabwe’s Independence Day, we in Zimbabwe understand a dispensation that affords Zimbabwean people unfettered enjoyment of civil liberties. A dispensation that offers the people of Zimbabwe the freedom to chart, as an unfettered sovereign people, a national path to socio-economic development of their choice.”
Ambassador Mhishi said this year’s Independence Day theme responds to the national clarion calls of the last decade, which form part of independent Zimbabwe’s nation building philosophy.
The clarion calls of the last decade, he said, “you and me, we have a job to do”, and “peace begins with me, peace begins with you and peace begins with all of us as a national collective”.
Ambassador Mhishi said every Zimbabwean, never mind their present geographical location and age, had a role to play in building their country.
“Actors to build Zimbabwe also include the country’s industrious farmers, as they work hard to feed their families, the nation; and as they produce for the export market,” he said.
“Thanks to Zimbabwe’s successful land reform policy and programme, today, where 23 years ago the agriculture sector was dominated by some 4 500 commercial farmers who enjoyed racial economic privileges, Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector has 360 000 families who are proud landowners and who are pursuing commercial agriculture.
“Zimbabwe, courtesy of its education for all citizens’ policy adopted at attainment of independence, today boasts of a well-educated population that is the backbone of its ongoing economic recovery, growth and development.”
Zimbabwe’s diaspora is also critical in national development, especially through remittances, which average US$1 billion every year.
Others that have been working abroad have returned home on retirement and have set up thriving businesses that have employed many people.
A lot of Zimbabweans in the diaspora are also asking the Government for land so they start various projects, while others want to build schools and clinics, and also manufacturing companies.
Said Ambassador Mhishi: “You are bringing with you not only capital, but experience, advanced skills and technology. Fellow countrymen and women, as Zimbabweans we now fully understand and appreciate that we shall build Zimbabwe, brick by brick and stone upon stone.
“While it is surely correct that Zimbabwe will be built by Zimbabweans, we welcome the involvement and contribution of foreign investors, bilateral and multilateral development partners. To all these, in a very loud and clear voice, we say, “Zimbabwe is open for business’.”
The economy is already on a recovery path, he said, as the Government works flat out to attain an empowered upper middle class society by 2030.
Ambassador Mhishi said some highlights of economic successes in Zimbabwe included the rise in industrial capacity utilisation from a low of 35 percent in 2017 to above 65 percent now.
He said the manufacturing sector, buoyed by the now revived agriculture sector, is enjoying the domestic supply of some of its critical raw materials.
“Agriculture, always the main pillar of Zimbabwe’s economy, is recording fast recovery and growth,” said Ambassador Mhishi.
In its history — colonial and post-colonial — Zimbabwe has recorded a wheat surplus for the first time since the 1960s after nearly 380 000 tonnes were delivered by farmers.
In the last two agricultural seasons, Zimbabwe recorded surplus maize production and is presently stocking the grain as part of national strategic reserves.
From the 2022/2023 cropping season, the country is expecting 2,6 million tonnes of maize, when national requirements are about 2 million tonnes for both human consumption and stock feed.
Ambassador Mhishi said the mining sector, another pillar of Zimbabwe’s economy, not so long ago generated US$2,7 billion, but it jumped to US$5,6 billion last year, indicating a strong growth driven by the investor friendly policies introduced by the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa.
A target to turn the mining sector into a US$12 billion industry by the end of this year, was then set, and miners remain optimistic that it would be achieved.
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