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Elita Chikwati-Features Editor
TODAY Zimbabweans celebrate the birth of a nationalist and decorated luminary of the liberation struggle, President Mnangagwa as he turns 80.
The President, who is also the First Secretary of Zanu PF, was born on September 15, 1942, in the district of Zvishavane.
A revolutionary reformist, who dedicated his life to the emancipation of the Zimbabwean people from a tender age, President Mnangagwa has made unprecedented strides in the social, economic and political arena since assuming office in 2017.
On his 78th birthday, the President said he was a satisfied man since he achieved both his aspirations and those of his parents, who wanted him to be a lawyer. He also took white settlers head-on for expropriating land and wealth from indigenous Zimbabweans.
The President always pays homage to his late parents, Mr Mafidhi and Mrs Mhurai Mnangagwa, who were both politically active, for inspiring him to become the servant leader he is today.
“My parents taught me differently. My father always wanted to have gone to school, become a lawyer and reply to whites in English.
“That is what he wanted, because he felt that when they speak in English and had to be translated he did not feel confident that the translation was correct. So he felt that I must go to school, become a lawyer and reply to whites in English.
“But for my mother, she was different. She wanted me to be a family person, be a farmer. She felt that there is nothing that keeps you solid as a family if you have a farm, cattle, goats and chickens. I have achieved both, for my father and mother,” he said.
The President is transforming the country through realistic policies that experts say will inevitably lead the country to the realisation of Vision 2030 aimed at achieving an upper-middle income economy by 2030.
The policies have seen an increase in infrastructural development, including road rehabilitation and construction of dams countrywide.
The New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden, which comprises Parliament and office complexes, among others, is also another key project completed in the Second Republic.
President Mnangagwa’s Second Republic has also seen an increase of youth participation in politics, business and decision making.
The establishment of the special purpose youth empowerment vehicles, such as the Empower Bank, is also evident of the President’s efforts to uplift livelihoods of the youth.
Commitment has also been shown towards the availing of land to the youth.
President Mnangagwa also launched Provincial Integrated Youths Skills Development Centres (PIYSDC) for the county’s 10 provinces where over 5 000 youths will be recruited at each centre annually before being equipped with agriculture skills.
Zanu PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu said President Mnangagwa has imprinted indelible marks that are by justice, unity and equality for all Zimbabweans.
Dr Mpofu said since his formative induction to leadership through the armed struggle at a tender age, the President forwent the treasonous risk of confronting the colonial regime in the pursuit of our independence.
The footsteps of his leadership path, Dr Mpofu said, underscores the creed of the country’s decolonisation triumph.
“Your Excellency, through this life anniversary, as Zanu PF we join the rest of the nation in commemorating the divine validation of your vocation. We also cherish your consistent ideological leaning to the decolonisation agenda and your meticulous reinvention of our liberation legacy as the Founding Father of the New Dispensation. Under the Second-Republic, we enjoy the tide of peace and reconciliation in our nation. However, through your leadership, we are confident in the wide prospects of national unity and cross-cutting solidarities of our people which transcend our artificial binary divides of race, ethnicity, gender and partisan affiliations,” he said.
The Zanu PF Women’s League also takes pride in the President’s footprints of unwavering loyalty to the decolonisation agenda as well as the post-colonial reconfiguration of the permanent national interests and the ideological integrity of the revolutionary Party, ZANU PF.
“Your Excellency, your life serves as an insignia of not only political democratisation, but it also epitomises the mainstreaming of the gender equality that we are enjoying as a modern, independent and democratic African state. Your ascendance to the Presidency has widened the vistas of depatriachising our politics, the economy and our general social livelihoods,” said ZANU PF Secretary for Women’s Affairs Cde Mabel Chinomona.
The Women’s League acknowledges that President Mnangagwa created equal opportunities for women in governance and leadership in general and more importantly in financial inclusion through the Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank.
President Mnangagwa is the third President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Second Executive President since the Constitutional amendments of 1987.
Mr Canaan Banana was the first ceremonial President from 1980 until 1987 when former President, Mr Robert Mugabe took over as the first Executive President after the Constitution was amended.
Taking oath of office, President Mnangagwa promised a new Zimbabwe in the Second Republic underpinned by servant leadership where corruption and unnecessary bureaucracy in service delivery will not be tolerated.
In the new Zimbabwe, he said, all citizens will be equal before the law and prosecution of corrupt cases will be done without fear or favour.
Online Reporter