‘Zim celebrates Uhuru as food-secure nation’

Sunday Mail Reporter

Zimbabwe will gather for Tuesday’s main Independence Day celebrations in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central Province, as a food-secure nation, as the goal “to banish hunger” is now well in sight due to massive investments in climate-proofed agriculture and “the sheer hard work of all our farmers”, President Mnangagwa has said.

However, Zimbabweans will need to put hands on deck to achieve the over-arching objective of transforming the country into an upper middle-income society by 2030.

In his weekly column for The Sunday Mail, the President said the country will also introduce “far-reaching reforms” in the mining industry to protect the country’s vast minerals and enhance growth of the sector for the benefit of current and future generations.

“As your President, my covenant with you has been to banish hunger from our land.

“That goal is now well in sight, what with the massive investments we continue to commit towards weather-proofed agriculture, and, of course, the sheer hard work of all our farmers, big and small. We congregate at Mt Pfura as a food-secure Nation; indeed, as an ambitious people already resetting targets towards higher agricultural ideals. These include a diversified agricultural base which is value-chain driven,” said President Mnangagwa.

In order to fully transform agriculture, the President has since released the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, from the distractions of constituency politics so that he solely focusses on “this one goal of transforming our agriculture for a food-secure nation for all times”.

“He will be a non-constituency Member of Parliament so he has enough time to live, think and dream agriculture only,” he said.

A richly endowed country such as Zimbabwe, he also added, has to be vigilant all the time.

“We need to be vigilant all the time, knowing full well that the unravelling global order is not always friendly to small but richly endowed countries like our own.

“Zimbabwe’s subsoil assets must prosper Zimbabweans and generations of Zimbabweans yet to come. We are already reviewing our mining policies, including policies governing royalties, so Zimbabwe benefits the most from its subsoil, finite endowments,” he said.

The country’s mineral resources must benefit Zimbabwe for a long time to come, he added.

“The second term of the Second Republic will see far-reaching decisions in the mining sector. Any partnerships we enter into on our finite, non-renewable resources, must put Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans first. Above all, our commitment to providing for generations to come, must go beyond mere pronouncements and platitudes; we must walk the talk, indeed show through stockpiles of strategic minerals and assets that we plan to provide for generations yet to come. Improvident policies have no place under the Second Republic.”

According to the President, it was fitting for this year’s main Independence Day celebrations to be held in Mt Darwin, which played a crucial role in country’s liberation.

“We go to Mt Pfura to overwrite this shameful colonial heritage; and to affirm, assert, reconnect with and proclaim our own heritage of National Struggle. Mt Pfura lies in Mashonaland Central, itself the last citadel of the Rozvi Empire before its demise. It is also the province of the decisive phase of our Second Chimurenga,” he said.

“Altena Farm attack in the Centenary district of Mashonaland Central, in December 1972, fell within that tradition of determined armed resistance, and announced its decisive phase. Soon after, and in practically all the provinces and districts of the then Rhodesia, the war of resistance would spread, to be characterised by many pitched battles as sons and daughters of this Land stood resolute, sparing no life or limb in a determined effort to free our motherland.”