By Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa
Defying all geopolitical obstacles, ZANU PF scored a land mark election victory in the national vote of August 2023.
The win sent a clear message of national unity and political stability as bedrocks of national economic development and assured progress towards Vision 2030 and the sure prospect of Middle Imcome Status.
The President and his party not only notched up pleasing scores in farming and agro-processing. Well deserved kudos go to our tobacco, wheat, cotton and blue berry farmers among many other winning contenders.
The President scored new highs in attracting world class capital to open up and exploit our treasure trove of mining riches of gold, iron ore, chrome ore, coke from thermal coal, lithium, plstimum group metals and diamonds.
To cap it all was the end of year announcement of the discovery of natural gas in Muzarabani and the tantalising prospects of liquid petroleum.
President Mnangagwa had a busy schedule cutting ribbons on a slew of large scale infrastructure projects.
The President of the Republic continues to hew onto his mantra ‘Zimbabwe Is Open for Business’.
The hallowed foreign policy of engagement and re-engagement reassured tried and tested partners. Concurrently it won over once die-hard detractors. Above all, it broke new ground with friends in the Global South. There indeed was a diplomatic flourish as President Mnangagwa graced the first ever Saudi Arabia-Africa Heads of State Summit in Riyadh.
Bilateral relations binding the twin economies of Mozambique and Zimbabwe are reaching out to ever closer cooperation in logistics, power and other domains. This positive trajectory bodes well for subregional SADC and the fledgling AfCTA trading blocs.
All these achievements coalesce into a glowing scoreboard. It advertises an economy several fold larger than the inherited post colonial, post settler Rhodesian entity of the previous four decades.
Evidently, the giant African rock python of Zimbabwe @Work has outgrown and is busy shedding off the old skin.
Even the once negative and taciturn Bretton Woods institutions of the World Bank-IMF are warming up to the brightening story of Zimbabwe. Musings are being whispered to re-base the Gross Domestic Product from $33 billion to $66 billion.
Why not? The frenetic consumer activity, the frenzied building boom, the SME sector mounting horde of gold attests to palpable doses of shared prosperity with President Mnangagwa on the grind.
A message of comfort. The ZANU PF party and its mass membership will stubbornly stick to and faithfully execute its historic mission of delivering progress and prosperity to the organized, structured, enlightened, forward-looking and hardworking people of Zimbabwe.
All obstacles will be cleared so as to overcome all challenges.
Vision 2030 and the Prospect of Middle Income Status is the ultimate homage to the Generation 1960-70s of the Samora Machel-Soweto ’76 Uprising.
Let it be said again. There is a sacred covenant at play here. The heoes and heroines of Chimurenga II selflessly sacrificed their only lives so Zimbabwe could rise again.
President Mnangagwa has slid his feet into the shoes of the legendary King Munhumutapa and the Great Zimbabwe Civilization.
There ain’t gonna be no stopping to this show.
Zimbabwe will continue to strive and thrive.
Thank you President EDM and your mighty ZANU PF party.
