Online Reporter
Victoria Ruzvidzo-Editor’s Brief
A FEW weeks ago, I went to Türkiye to attend the Antalya Diplomatic Forum 2025, an amazing global platform for socio-economic transformation.
As I boarded the plane to Antalya from Istanbul, one of the flight attendants saw my passport and remarked: “Zimbabwe! Wow!” I said yes. He was so excited to see someone from Zimbabwe and gestured that he held the country in high regard.
I did not get the opportunity to ask if he had been here before or what excited him so much about this country, as his face really lit up.
He was visibly and positively bowled over that he had met a Zimbabwean in person, and he stood there in awe.
The interaction lasted a few minutes, but it got me thinking all the way to Antalya about how Zimbabwe is regarded so highly abroad.
I have been to many countries where, right from taxi drivers to hotel staff, people get so excited when I tell them I am from Zimbabwe.
We are trending as a country, and it has been like that for some time. We just need to ride on this to bring more investors and tourists to this unique destination of ours.
We need to know ourselves first and appreciate who and what we are. Moments of self-reflection yield key insights.
There is need to fully comprehend what makes us Zimbabweans and that which distinguishes us from other nationalities.
Our history, tradition, culture, heritage, achievements, virtues, and strengths coalesce to form what makes us Zimbabweans. A sufficient appreciation of these will enable us to love ourselves, as indeed we must.
Pride and passion emanate from such an understanding.
The world is interconnected and intertwined, and as we relate to it in our various spheres and pursuits, we put our best foot forward, confidently and diligently, knowing we are truly at home with ourselves.
We learn from the behavioural sciences that positive and healthy self-esteem is one of the greatest possessions anyone can ever have.
For as long as there is belief, all becomes possible; it even transcends academic qualifications because the belief in oneself means anything and everything is attainable, facilitating infinite learning and unending accomplishments.
It behoves every Zimbabwean to do their part.
There is so much we can achieve if we work as a unit.
His Excellency, President Mnangagwa, is running his voice hoarse, so to speak, spreading the ‘leaving no one and no place behind’ mantra.
It is deliberate and intentional. It is strategic and tactical; it is inclusive, providing a basis for sustainable growth while concurrently consolidating diversification.
In this national narrative, there is no room for retrogressive and myopic elements bent on sowing seeds of division and taking the wind out of the sails.
Contemporary management principles and practices emphasise the importance of collaboration, cooperation, and coherence; hence the need for us as Zimbabweans to live up to the good name we have created abroad.
As Zimbabweans, we should be singularly focused on the attainment of our National Vision 2030.
An upper middle-income status is not only plausible but desirable. Its fundamental principles run through virtually every fabric of Zimbabwean society.
Its impact will reverberate across the globe, so much so that the flight attendant at the Istanbul airport will know even better what Zimbabweans are truly made of, and this is no hyperbole.
Pessimists who would have us believe this is a pie in the sky will be put to shame.
Come to think of it, we have always had prophets of doom in our midst, those who incessantly told us that our agriculture was dead. Is it now?
The tobacco output figures emphatically inform us to the contrary. They told us too that mining would not do well. Really? Gold output hit 36,48 tonnes last year, with small-scale miners contributing 65 percent of total output.
Last year began with gold per ounce at US$2 025. By December, it had soared to a staggering US$2 771.
The milestones we have achieved are incontestable, and we should take pride in them.
Only a few days ago, President Mnangagwa commissioned the Trabablas Interchange, a massive and strategic project not just for Zimbabwe but for the region as well.
Such achievements compel us to work even harder and to systematically execute the National Development Strategy 2, as NDS 1 comes to a close at the end of this year.
We know that Cabinet approved the roadmap for NDS 2 in September last year, and the Draft NDS 2 will be presented to Cabinet for approval in November, setting the stage for its timeous implementation (2026-2030).
These strategies are primarily designed to uplift the standard of living, eradicate poverty, ensure inclusivity, drive economic growth, ensure sustainable practices, and ascertain development, predicated on technological development, innovation, entrepreneurship, and industrialisation, among others.
These find their genesis in redefining, reimagining, and recalibrating what it means to be Zimbabwean, such that we scale even the greater heights we have always been capable of.
The Lions Club is an internationally recognised and funded entity.
Its regional unit has countries assigned particular roles in the execution of its mandate based on their strengths. Zimbabwe has been assigned to provide leadership, as the club deemed it our key strength.
This is only one of a plethora of examples.
I was watching a South African news channel the other day, and the subject was university education in SA.
On the panel was a South African varsity student who commented that they should aim to improve the quality of some of their institutions, as he had first-hand experience of being beaten hands down by Zimbabwean students in some competitions.
He insisted that Zim students were in a class of their own and that the SA students could simply not compete against them. While this may have been anecdotal, it finds replication in many places and spheres; no wonder the high regard we are held in.
Yet we have not been complacent. In efforts to improve our education, at least 8,000 more teachers are set to be recruited this year to improve the teacher-pupil ratio, while the Government is working on building 2 800 more schools this year.
Zimbabweans distinguish themselves in many spheres.
A quick example that comes to mind is Dr Divine Ndhlukula, who has won multiple international awards, flying the national flag high.
She has been invited to address high-powered delegations at international conferences, again doing Zimbabwe proud. Her book, Entrepreneurial Success: Insights on Growing Business in a Fluid Economy, has remarkable insights and is a must-read for those with entrepreneurial proclivities.
So as we talk about brand Zimbabwe, a key pillar in our national aspirations, it is thus only strategic that we leverage the perception the world has of our country and its citizenry as we devise, execute, monitor, and evaluate strategies that will augment our presence on the international stage.
Opportunities abound for Zimbabwe to grow its brand while immensely benefiting the economy in the process.
There is much to be said for the African Continental Free Trade Area, spawning tremendous opportunities as it does.
Tourism is one growth area with almost infinite possibilities for our country.
All sectors of the economy are pregnant with opportunities that can give us a trillion-dollar GDP any day.
It can be done!
When we collaborate and cooperate, when we sufficiently appreciate our identity and capacity, and when we cease to major on the minors, we become more capable of achieving phenomenal milestones.
I would love to meet that flight attendant again to boast of more milestones we would have achieved.
In God I Trust!
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dyton mupawaenda