The following is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s address to chiefs in Gweru yesterday.

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Ndini ndakukokayi kuti tisangane. Zvanga zvakanaka ndezvekuti ini ndifambire mambo mumwe nemumwe kana kuti nduna imwe neimwe, mambo mumwe nemumwe kumba kwake ndichiti ndozvavepo.

Zvino pandakaudzwa kuti muri (kuma)280, ndikaenda kuna mambo mumwe nemumwe once a week, zvinotora makore matatu ndisati ndapedza kuti ini mwana wenyu ndini ndavapo.

Saka takazova nezano rekuti ndokukumbirayi mese kuti tiungane.

Mungangoita zvekunzwa kuti pakaita transitional period yakaita kuti baba vedu, the Founding Father of our nation and our revolutionary icon, of our armed revolution, baba vaMugabe, varesigner.

Central Committee yeZanu-PF ikandidzorera pahuVice-President hweZanu-PF.

Pashure pazvo, baba varesigner, vaMugabe, murayiro wedu weConstitution yeZimbabwe, kana President vakaresigner, musangano une vanhu vakawanda, vane majority muParliament, vanofanira kunomineta mumwe wavo kuti atore chinzvimbo chehuPresident sezvo party iyoyo ndiyo inenge ine majority muParliament.

Saka Central Committee yeZanu-PF ikadoma ini kuti ndive President; kunyorera kuna vaSpeaker kuti ndivo vatava navo.

As a result of that ndikazogadzwa musi wa24 November gore rapera.

Asi muna December, takazoita Congress yedu yanga yakagara yakarongwa nechakare nemusangano pandakazosarudzwa kuita President weZanu-PF.

Zvaitika izvozvo, hongu, tinoziva kuti madzimambo munenge muchizviziva, asi munenge musina kuturirwa kuti ndizvo zvaitika.

Saka ndakafunga kuti zvingava zvakanaka kuti ini somwana wenyu ndiuye kwamuri saana baba kuti mungangonzwa nemakuhwa.

Ichokwadi kuti ndini ndava President; ndichikuudzayi saana baba kuti ini mwana wenyu ndozvavapo izvo. Saka ndakakumbira kuti tisangane.

Hongu, mungati aiwazve, kana isu tiri anababa. Dai watifambira, iwe wauya kumba kwedu, kwenyu kuti ndizotaura izvozvo.

Sekutaura kwandaita, nekuwanda kwamakaita, makore mana ndichingotenderera ndisati ndapedza. Saka mundiregerere kuti ndakuunganidzayi kuti ndikutaurireyi izvozvi zvavapo munyika yedu ino yeZimbabwe.

Ndinoziva chose kuti hakuna nyika isina vene vayo kana pakati pedu pane mumwe anoziva dunhu risina mwene. Ndiudzeyi. Hapana.

Nyika imwe neimwe, dunhu rimwe nerimwe rine vene varo.

Zvino iwe ukanzi wava mambo, mutungamiri wenyika, unoziva kuti matunhu ane vene vawo wawava kutonga. Zvinenge zvakakodzera kuti uudze varidzi vematunhu, varidzi venyika kuti ndozvavepo izvi.

Nemiwo matunhu enyu moti takaudziwa, takashumiwa tiwane kufamba rwendo rwedu zvakanaka tichiziva kuti taudzana.

Shoko rechipiri nderekuti gore rapera, ndofunga ndemuna October, madzimambo ose makasangana naformer President vaMugabe kuBulawayo.

Ndakakokwawo; ndainge ndiripo ini neumwe wangu former Vice-President vaPhelekezela Mphoko. Tainge tiripo pakaitwa hurukuro dzakati dzameyi.

Pakava nezvivimbiso zvakapihwa ipapo nenguva iyoyo nevaiva President, vaMugabe, nevaiva Minister, vaKasukuwere, vakanga varipo panguva iyoyo.

Zvamakanga machema kuti mupihwe, zvino ndakafunga kuti vamwe vangu ava zvavaane moyo wekuti transition yaitirweyi nekuti zviya zvinhu hazvisati zvauya, dai yakatombomira titange tawana mota.

Saka ndati tiudzane kuti aiwa, zvinoitika zvinhu izvi. Zvine vanoronga. Hongu, isu sevanhu tine kuronga kwatinenge tichiita, asi toti kana Mwari achida, ngazvizadzikiswe.

Shoko iroro randichatanga kubata ndooguru redzimotokari. Pane zvimwe zvichemo zvakapihwa, zvamakapa kunaformer President, sezvo ndakanga ndiripo ndozviziva. Zvimwe ndanga ndagara ndichizviziva nekuti vaCharumbira vanogara vachingondinetsa nezvimwe zvichemo ndichingoti endayi munochema kwazvinofanira kuchemegwa, but vaingouya kwandiri.

Panyaya yedzimotokari, pakapinda nyaya dzataurwa naVice-President vaChiwenga saka zvimwe zvinhu hazvina kunge zvaakufamba pamusaka penyaya idzodzo dzakanga dzaakuitika mumusangano nemuHurumende.

Ndobva papinda nyaya yezororo yefestive season.

Makambani emuno muZimbabwe nekuSouth Africa akanga avhara.

Mamwe ndofunga achatanga kuvhurwa musi wa15 svondo rinouya. Ndokuti mabasa atange kushandwa.

Saka kuti zvinhu zvimwe zvizadziswe zvamakanga makavimbiswa maererano nezvekufambisa, hazvina kukwanisa kuti zvingaitike makambani akavharwa.

Chechipiri, tainge tisingazive kuti mari yacho yaibva kupi, asi tikati sechinhu chakavimbiswa neHurumende, ngachibva chazadziswa. Ndikafunga kuti ndikamirira kuti mota dzitengwe dzikwane imi mumoyo menyu nyangwe musina kududza, munenge muchingoti kapwere aka kanopinda pachigaro chakadayi kotadza kuziva kuti nyika ine varidzi vayo?

Hamuchataura nyaya dzemota, maakutotaura kuti ini handikuyeukeyi kuti muriko.

Saka tikafunga kuti kunyangwe dzisati dzatengwa, dzakwana, regai tisangane, asi pane dzangadzatengwa iye zvino izvi, dzainge dzaiva dzasvika; I think i52 dzaive dzasvika.

I think next week kunosvika dzimwe 26, next week kuchisvika dzimwe saizvozvo.

Ndagara pasi naMinister wedu weLocal Government naGovernor wedu tikagara pasi naMinister of Finance tikawirirana kuti tizadzise chichemo ichocho kuti umwe neumwe ave nemotokari yake tisati tasvika kuma elections.

Kusarudzo munenge mavanadzo makwana.

Saka idzodzi idzi dziripo idzi, ndakabvunza Minister kuti tombomirira kuti dzikwane here kana monobvunza vatungamiriri vamadzishe namadzimambo vanova Mambo Charumbira na Mambo Khumalo vari pano.

Saka vakawirirana vakati aiwa idzodzi dziripo ngadzimbogoverwa, dzimwe dzikauya masvondo maviri matatu dzoendeswa zve, ndinofunga kuti panext-round dzinenge dzakawanda kupfura dzatauya nadzo.

Tichapa 48 chete nhasi kumadzimambo, kunosara four, saka ndisati ndaenda mberi ndoda kuti zvarongwa nevaronga pa 48 tinopa 6 pa province tozopa futi pane dzinoteveera.

Ndokumbira kuti Minister of Local Government vaMoyo vataure province by province, six vanzi vadziwane nhasi, vatichapa ma key acho nemota yacho nhasi, kana uina driver wobva wadriver wobva wainda kana usina unosiya hako wozoti kana wavana driver wozouya wozotora.

Taurai 48 vacho Cde July Moyo; patichakupa ndinenge ndiriko, umwe nemumwe ndichapa ndega.

Zimbabwe iri muSADC region tine hushamwari nedzimwe nyika, tiri 15 countries muSADC saka nemachinda angu maVice-Presidents takaona zvakakodzera kuti tiende kunotsanangura the new order ini ndichinoonawo maseniors angu, vakuru kwandiri maPresidents kuSADC.

Saka pari zvino ndaenda kuviri, ndakatanga nekuSouth Africa kwaPresident Jacob Zuma, ndivo President and chairperson weSADC iko zvino, zuro taiva kuLuanda tichionana naPresident Lourenco vekuAngola varivo chair we organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

NeMonday ndinenge ndichinoona President Gneingob wekuNamibia nechitatu ndinenge ndichinoona President Nyusi weku Mozambique then ndozonoona President wekuZambia and then 12 and 13 ndoinda kuBotswana uko inenge ichitova State visit tichitaura navo kuti ndizvo zvava kuno kuZimbabwe.

KuAngola vakafara kuti zvinhu zvakafamba zvakanaka murunyararo chaizvo plus ndakavavimbisa kuti isu samaZimbabweans tine mukuru wedu, tichamuchengeta, vaMugabe tichavachengeta the best we can nekuti ndibaba vedu.

Pane nyaya dze mafishing permits dzataurwa, asi ndaudzwa kuti mapermits aya kana uri mambo anopihwa for free, asi pane renewal paevery year muchibhadhara mari, saka ndataura navaCharumbira kuti ndichatura neveMinistry, Mai Muchinguri, kuti kana mapermits ari kuna mambo haangarambi hawo achipihwa for free ogara akadaro.

Apo tichataura naMai Muchinguri.

Then masimudza nyaya yekuti madzimambo ada kuti avhote kuma rural district councils, ndodzimwe dzekuzoti kana ndazogara pasi neChiefs Council nema Ministers ano administer Act yacho varipo tigotaura kuti zvinokwanisika here kana kuti hazvikwanisike mowana mhinduro ipapo.

VaCharumbira kuda ndivo vataura zita kuda ndiani vakumbira kuti kuve neChiefs Council offices at national level; ini handione kuti zvakaoma.

Asi tichataura naMinister veLocal Government kuti obviously hatingavi neChiefs Council isina painowanikwa.

Inofanirwa kuwanikwa pane address; izvo ndofunga zvinofanirwa kuti zvigadzirwe.

Pane vataura nyaya dzeZisco ne Shabanie mines, zviri kugadzirwa; zvose izvozvo inyaya dziri mundima pa100 days.

Pa100 days ndofunga dzese dziri mbiri dzinofanirwa kunge dzaakushanda.

Kune vataura nyaya yeChild Marriages Bill, Minister vedu veJustice vari kuti vane nyaya yacho.

Zvokuti ndafara nekuti madzimambo mataura nyaya yacho iyoyo nokuti tava nemurairo yekuti hatidi kuti vana vadukwane varoore kana kuroorwa pasi pe18 years.

Saka mutemo wacho uri kugadzirwa ndofunga uchapinda kuParliament pasina nguva yareba.

Minister vakandiudza kuti vari kugadzira Bill racho iroro kuti ribve rauya kuParliament.

Mataura nyaya yeLand Commission Bill, yakapasa kuLower House ikapasa kuSenate yavakwa President, kwangu kuti ndichiipasisa handisati ndaipasisa nokuti chichemo chakauya kwandiri nava Charumbira navaKhumalo.

Vakapa chichemo chakakora saka handisati ndapasisa Bill iroro; kuri signer handisati ndari signer saka harisati rava mutemo.

Ndakamirira kuti ndiwane mukana wokuti ivo vari vaviri naMinister of Justice naMinister of Local Government tisangane nokuti pamutemo uripo iko zvino izvi, pandakangobvunza kuti zvakamira sei ndakaudzwa kuti Constitution yedu inotinetsei kuti tiite zvavanokumbira saka tine mweya wokuti hatingaigadziri here iyoyo Constitution kuti ibvume zvatinoda saka inyaya yandati nditaure, handi sayine dzamara tapedza kutaura nyaya iyoyo. Ndomaererano neizvozvo.

Samadzimambo, pahondo yedu yerusununguko, makava nendima yenyu yamaiita yepolitical awareness kumatunhu amaigara – moral and spiritual support yamaitipa.

Sokutaura kwamaita kuti isu tiri muhondo tainge tisinga siyane netsika dzedu dzepasi chagare, taibvunza matunhu ataive, taibvunza matunhu kuti makamira sei tofamba sei?

Imwe yemabasa amunoita semadzimbo ndoyatoti social guidance and you are also muchirungu safety nets zvokubatsira mumhuri dzamugere nadzo kumaruwa kwamuri.

Samadzimambo kana Hurumende isati yasvika, ava Mai Kagonye vasati vasvika kuzobatsira, imi mune matoziva kuti pane mhuri yaita nzara, kana kuti pane mhuri yaita njodzi.

Zvinenge zvakakodzera kuti nyaya yakarongwa yeZunde raMambo itsigire izvozvo.

Saka tinenge tichikumbira kuti Minister venyu vamhanye nendima iyoyo ini ndoitsigira.

Bumbiro remutemo redu rinotaura kuti local communities, nharaunda, dzine kodzero yekuwana cheuviri munzvimbo dzavagere, kumaresources emunzvimbo dzamugere, zviri mubumbiro remutemo izvozvo.

Saka kunofanira kuwana nzira, of course kune anonzi maShare Ownership Schemes kumatunhu mamwe; mamwewo haana, tinofanira kuwana zvatinoita ipapo seHurumende.

Macommunities ose awane chaanowana chouviri munzvimbo dzavagere.

SeHurumende itsva tine shungu dzekuti izvozvo zvibudirire tichawana maitiro atichaita kuti zvibudirire. Uyezve semadzimambo munoshanda murimuma Rural District Councils.

Hongu maDistrict Councils aya ane vana vechidiki, vana venyu vakafunda mabasa anenge achidiwa imomo, asi imi mune ndima yenyu muma Rural District Councils yekubatsira ruzivo netsika zvinofanira kuti zvitevedzwe munzvimbo imomo.

Uye imi munoteererwa nevanhu vamugere navo, maSabhuku nemaSadunhu enyu.

Iye zvino haticharambi tichiita magariro nemarimiro akare tava kuita marimiro emazuva ano.

Saka madzimambo anokwanisa kuti abatsire panyaya iyoyo kuti panzvimbo yatigere tisaita marimiro anokanganisa environment.

Ibasa ramunenge muinaro iroro muchibatsira.

Hongu kune mainfrastructure anodiwa, rural electrification inodiwa, ticharamba tichienda nayo mberi depending on the availability yemaresources asi programme yemagetsi yaticharamba tichisumudzira countrywide, yakambosimuka chaizvo chaizvo nyacho yekuisa magetsi kumaruwa asi yakabva yamboita sekumira pamusaka pemaresources kuHurumende.

Gore rapfuura iro takauya neCommand Agriculture; ndini ndaifamba nayo hatina province yatisina kuita, takaita maprovince ose, madzimambo mazhinji takasangana.

Takawana goho rakanaka gore rapera iri zvekuti chibage chinodiwa pagore tinacho, chibage chinodiwa kustrategic grain reserve tinacho uye tine chimwe chekuraudzira chasara parutivi, excess tinayo.

Zvekuti tikafunga kutengesa tinokwanisa kutengesa ichocho.

Gore rino iri, nyaya ye Command Agriculture yanga yapinda njodzi saka muchiona yanonoka gore rino iri, injodzi yanga yauya ichibva kune vanga vasingadi kuti Command Agriculture ibudirire.

Zvino ndangariro iyoyo yatova yazuro nekuti ivavo havasisina simba rekuti vaimise.

Nhamo yakaitika ndeyekuti mwaka haumire kuti zvinhu zvigadzirisike, mwaka wakaenda mberi mvura ichinaya, zvokuti dai makangamapihwa zvinhu uku politics zvinhu zvisina kugadzirisika.

Asi zvinhu zvagadzirisika iye zvino manje saka tovimba kuti zvinhu zvichadzoka pazvanga zviri kana kuti pari nani nokuti ini saPresident ndotsigira Command Agriculture ne Command Fisheries.

SeHurumende zvakare, tine programme yekututsira irrigation, kuda makanzwa vaChinamasa vachitaura nyaya ye irrigation.

Takawirirana navaChinamasa kuisa mari parutivi, yakaiswa pabudget, yekuti district rimwe ne rimwe each season or each year inofanira kuwana 2000 hectares dze irrigation.

Madistricts mangani? 60 districts.

Saka zvobvira kuti pagore tinofanira kuwana 120 000 hectares under irrigation. Tichiti each district ngaiwane at least 2 000 hectares.

Kana province ichinge yati haisisina mukana, tino shifter mahecters iwayo kuenda kune imwe province kututsira pane 2000 iwayo.

Asi at the end of the day tine programme ne mari yekuti pagore tiite 120 000 hectares dze irrigation throughout the country.

Tikaita izvozvo, after a few years patinosvika ku 300 000 hactares under irrigation or more tinenge tava guaranteed kuti mvura ikanaya kana kuti ikasanaya ne irrigation we will still be able to produce in excess of more than 2 million metric tonnes of grain.

That guarantees food security munyika medu.

Toenda kunyaya yamataura in the administration of justice, kuti imi kana mukatonga nyaya dzenyu munozodanwa futi kumberi kuti makatonga sei.

Nyaya idzodzo mozodzi raiser kuna Vice-President or President weCouncil, pamusangano wedu we Chiefs’ Council, Minister veJustice vanenge varipo, kuti chichemo chenyu chakamira sei, tingachigadzira sei chichemo ichocho chemacourts.

Asi pamunenge muchitonga nyaya idzi tinoda yavanoti muchirungu intergrity, honesty, fairness, ne justice – ndozvatinoda kwamuri madzimambo, pasava ne corruption.

Pasava nefavouritsm ne nepotism kwete.

Tionda kuti kutonga kwamunenge muchiita kuve kutonga kwakanaka.

Maita chimwe chichemo chekuti dai kwavakwa maChief’s court.

Hongu pachiNdebele it’s easier, because its father to son, father to son. Tikavaka court kwa vaMaduna, the next Maduna Chief will be there, same court, vachishandisa court iyoyo.

Asi tikavaka kwavaMusarurwa next Chief vacho vanenge vava pamwe.

Mumwe musi havachakwanisi kuuya pane iyi.

Asi mukawana maitiro sekufunga kwangu, ngapawane Chief’s court iri permanent, hazvinei nekuti Chief aenda paimba ipi, anouya kuzotongera ipapo.

Kana mukawirirana naMinister wenyu, Minister wenyu again is responsible for public works and phsyical planning; mukawirirana then we can begin doing that for you.

Tine Bill, tinoda, we are pursuing and fostering in the nation peace runyararo, love kudanana nokuwirirana, unity kubatana.

Non-violence, munyika, runyararo nekusa kwikwidzana, kurwisana; so message yatinayo ndeye unity unity peace peace love love, non-violence.

Patinoenda kusarudzo hatidi kunzwa mhere mhere vanhu batanai, mukapesana mumatongerwo enyika, mumwe akaenda kurimwe bato raanofunga kuti ndorinomubatsira hazvifanirwi kuti nokuti munhu adaro morwisana, kwete.

Indangariro dzake bato rimwe nerimwe rinenge richitaura kuti dei tikatonga tichaita zvakati asi hakuna bato rine mazano angapfuura edu takabva kuhondo tichirwira kuti nyika isununguke.

Hakuna zve rimwe bato rakarwira kuti nyika isununguke kunze kwedu.

Saka tisu tine shungu nehudzamu hwekuda nyika nekuti ma comrades edu, madzikoma, vanasisi, vana baba ana mbuya nana sekuru vakaparara vakawanda kuti tisvike patiri ipapo nemusangano wedu iyoyo we Zanu-PF.

Saka tinohwisisa kuti isu tiripo pachinguva chino pahutungamiriri pawhatever level tinofanira kushanda kushandira vanhu, kushandira kusimudzira nyika yokwedu, kusimudzira matunhu ekwedu hatifaniri kuva nehumbimbindoga hakunazve rimwe sangano muno munyika ringati rakambozvipira kufa kuti nyika isununguke kuti vanhu vasungunuke kunze kweredu.

Saka asina matambudziko atakaona murwendo rwedu imomu arimo atinenge tichiti matambudziko iwayo ngaataurwe kana paine zvichemo.

Kana zviripo zvitaurwe pave ne justice, ne national healing and reconciliation throughout, we cannot progress when communities are in conflict.

We must identify the conflicts and resolve them and move forward and develop.

That is the aspiration of the new order yedu, yemunyika muno.

So, with that aspiration, yenyika ino, handifungi kuti pane vamwe vari pakati pedu madzimambo kana munyika vane shungu nokushuvira kuti macommunities ave in conflict kwete.

Ndofunga kuti umwe noumwe akakwana mumusoro anoda kuti vanhu vabatane anoda kuti tigare murunyararo anoda kuti tidevelope nyika yedu, anoda kuti tiwirirane.

Tingawana umwe ne umwe apo nepapo ane ndangariro dzisingawirirane nedzedu asi ndinevimbo yekuti ruzhinji munyika muno vane shungu dzokuti tishande pamwe chete; tisimudze nyika yedu takabatana tichiwirirana.

Only when the country is stable and peaceful can we develop, can we focus on development, can we make sure that the younger generation, our own children, can be supported to go to schools, to go to institutions, to go to universities, to go abroad and to bring back in Zimbabwe skills and technologies which are not available in the country.

That can only be achieved in a peaceful country and where there is dialogue, where we continuously dialogue among ourselves as we are doing now.

Zvichemo zvenyu ndezvei, zvii zvamuri kuona kuti Hurumende haisi kuita mopa zvichemo izvozvo kuti isu kuHurumende takatarisira kuti muite zvakati nezvakati, Hurumende yoti izvi tinozvigona izvi hatizvigoni pamusaka pokuti.

Iyo Hurumende yokwanisa kutaura kuti tine shungu dzekuti dai semadzimambo or sema communities maita the following imi motaura zvamunenge muchiona kuti aiwa, zvamunenge muchitaura tazvinzwa.

Right across the population of our country, tinofanira kuva ne dialogue iyoyo.

Dialogue with the students, dialogue with the churches, dialogue with war veterans, dialogue with farmers, dialogue with the workers, dialogue with everybody.

No one is not important, everybody is important.

All of us in our diverse positions and callings we have challenges and those challenges can be attended to as we can dialogue and talk to each other then we can move forward.

Takaita ma sanctions edu akatidzorera shure, asi iko zvino hatichafaniri kuramba tichichema nama sanctions nezvatinazvo tikabatana tinosimuka. Nyika yedu inosimuka matoona kuti tava ne solution in the area of agriculture and the area of food security, tava nema solutions in manufacturing, we must also have a solution in the area of beneficiation and value addition, we must have solutions in the types of skills that must be taught in our institutions.

Recently I had a meeting with the Vice Chancellors and the heads of institutions and we all agreed that the teaching, the content of teaching in our institutions should talk to what we must do, what industry needs, what the farmer needs what the communities need to grow and develop.

We cannot just have institutions which are academic and just continue being academic without addressing and looking at what are the needs of society. So we agreed with the Minister responsible for Higher Education that our curriculum should now be structured so as to talk to the needs of society so across the board, that’s what we must now endeavor to achieve.

That should not be the problem, hatidi kutendekana minwe kuti izvi ndezve Hurumende izvi ndezva madzishe, zvese ndezvedu pamwe chete.

Hapana madzimai anonzi aya ndoo vekubereka ve Hurumende ava ndeve kubereka madzishe ava ndeve kubereka ma farmer.

Ayihwa same mother anobereka mambo ndiye anobereka professor ndiye anobereka muporofita, same woman. So ndezvedu tose munyika medu.

Ndoziva kuti nguva yatifambira tigofamba kuchaka chena tichienda kumisha yedu naizvozvo ndoda kutenda the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing yakwanisa kuronga izvi.

Handiti munoona imba yedu ino iyi yakavakwa ne Midlands Development Association, vakomana vedu veprovince yeku Midlands ndoovakavakisa chiro ichi, kuri kubatana.

Kana vanga vasingabatani dei chisina kumira chinhu ichi, chakamira nekuti vakomana nevasikana vakaita sei?

Vakabatana vakaronga nama company edu ari muno imwe company yaiunza ichi imwe yaiunza ichi tikavaka chimba chedu chino ichi chataitira musangano.

Chakanaka asi regai ndikuudzei akaita kuti tivake ichi – Bvisashangu simuka. Uyo Bvisashangu ndiye akanga ari Commissar saka Zanu-PF yaiita Annual National People’s Conference, pa Conference Shamhu ndobva ati Midlands ndoda muvake hall yekuti tozoita musangano ikoko yakanaka, muvhunzei kuti kwake ku Mashonaland West avaka here?

But wakaita hako vakabva vavaka, saka wakabatsira.

Thank you very much.

May God bless our country.

May God bless Zimbabwe.

I thank you.

Read Chief Charumbira’s speech at www.sundaymail.co.zw

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COMRADE Noel Museredza whose Chimurenga name was Cde Ignatius Dzvotsvotsvo joined the liberation struggle in 1972 and went for military training at Mgagao camp. Later he became an instructor at Mgagao and trained comrades like Cde Chiwenga (now the country’s Vice-President), Cde Perence Shiri (now Minister of Agriculture), Cde Henry Muchena, Cde Mark Dube and others.

In this interview with our team comprising Munyaradzi Huni and Tendai Manzvanzvike, Cde Dzvotsvotsvo narrates how as one of the commanders of Gukurahundi they were sent to capture leaders of the Nhari-Badza rebellion. He narrates how three of his comrades perished during a battle at Kaitano when they were rounded up by Rhodesian forces. Read on . . .

SM: Cde Dzvotsvotsvo, can you tell us briefly what motivated you to join the liberation struggle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: I was born in Bulawayo in Mzilikazi. In 1971 my father decided that he wanted his family to go back to his rural area in Mt Darwin. So we went back to Mt Darwin. When we got to Mt Darwin, we discovered that some comrades were already coming to the area talking politics. One day some comrades came while we were playing football and they asked us kuti pane vanoda kuenda kuhondo here?

SM: Do you remember some of the comrades?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Yes, I remember them. There was Rex Nhongo, James Bond, George Rutanhire and others. So these comrades took us kupungwe where they spoke about starting the liberation struggle. At the pungwe, some of us volunteered to join the liberation struggle but some boys of my age refused. They were later forced to join by the comrades. So during that night, about 15 to 20 of us left our homes to join the liberation struggle. I remember there was mdara Manduna and his son Aaron, Chihwiri who was later captured by the Rhodesian forces, Gumbo who is now working at the municipal police in Harare and others I can’t remember their names. We went through Zambezi then to Chifombo.

When I say we walked to Chifombo you may think it was just a few kilometres. No. I am talking of over 100 kilometres. Some people fainted along the way and remember we were walking mumasango so food was difficult to come by. Mostly, taidya chibage chakakangwa. Quite a number of recruits escaped and went back home.

We were at Chifombo for quite some time tichimirira kuti tiwande. After this we were taken to Lusaka where we stayed for one week. From Lusaka we were taken to Mgagao in Tanzania.

When the comrades spoke about going for military training in Tanzania, we really got excited and it seemed like it was going to be a one day exercise. The excitement was kupihwa pfuti and we thought after that totodzoka torwa hondo. However, when we went for military training, we found out that the situation was completely different. We spent about three months going through political orientation – being taught kuti murungu akashata sei.

SM: Tell us a bit more about your training at Mgagao.

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: At Mgagao that’s where we got our Chimurenga names. During these days, paitova nechibhuku chekuti pakasvika marecruits anopihwa what names. So after being given your Chimurenga name, wainyorerwa pakapepa. Ukakanganwa this new name wanga usingadye chikafu. Even zita rashamwari waifanirwa kuriziva because we were not allowed kudeedzana nemazita ekumba. These were early days of the struggle so waitopihwa zita and you had to master it. Later during the liberation struggle vanhu vawanda recruits were now giving themselves Chimurenga names.

The process was that once you got to Mgagao, they would write your birth name and your Chimurenga name. They would also write down your next of kin. Taigara muma barrack ehuswa tichirara pamatanda. During the first days, I was wondering what was going on because this was not what we were told. Then as we were taken through political orientation, we started realising that no, no what we had in mind was completely wrong. Political orientation was important even to those who had volunteered to join the liberation struggle because ndidzo dzaizoita unzwisise what the war was all about.

SM: Who were your trainers at Mgagao?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: There was Cde Nyikadzino, Cde Machoro, Cde David Todhlana, Cde Gwitira, Cde Manyika, Cde Elias Hondo and others. What started was political orientation. After this we were then put into groups – engineering, mortar, artillery and so on. We would wake up around 3am toenda kunomhanya for fitness. Around 6am todzoka kuzodya, mainly it was water rice and at 7am you going for political orientation lessons. Before going for lessons we would go for parade then into our different groups.

SM: What was the importance of this parade?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: This was time for inspection, to see kuti musoja ari smart here. After political orientation, we then moved to being taught maskills ehondo. How to attack the enemy, how to handle ground and air force. We were taught different guerilla tactics that included crawling, shooting and retreating from a battle. During the first days, this was the most difficult part but as time went on, we got used. Takatozopedzisira tava mainstructor.

Our training at Mgagao was for six months. After this I was chosen as one of the veteran demonstrators assisting the instructors in training more recruits. By this time we were still very few comrades. I think we were still less than 500. You know during these days at Mgagao taibikirwa doro, especially on Fridays. Taibikirwa chikokiyana namdara Madzimbamuto. Waipihwa chikari chako, chikari chako. Vaida kuona kuti munodhakwa sei so that when you are deployed at the war front, they knew how you would behave.

SM: When did you become an instructor?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: It was at the beginning of 1974. Some of the comrades I trained include Cde Chiwenga (now the country’s Vice-President), Cde Shiri, Cde Henry Muchena, Cde Mark Dube, Cde Gibson Gumbo, Cde Rupiza, Cde Boniface Hurungudo and many others. Although I trained many of these comrades, they are now my bosses because they hold high ranks. I am no longer in the army structures. Sometimes when I meet Cde Chiwenga he greets me saying ‘how are you professor?’ I also greet saying ‘makadii boss.” We respect each other a lot because we stayed together for a long time.

Also at Mgagao, I was in charge of the armoury – keep the armoury safe and issuing guns to different comrades. These guns were sourced from China, Russia and other countries that supported our struggle.

SM: When did you eventually leave Mgagao?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: After the Badza-Nhari Rebellion. That was still in 1974. We were called in as experts under the code name Gukurahundi to go and deal with the rebellion. I was one of the commanders of Gukurahundi, which was a reinforcement team. I remember one of the commanders was Cde Vhuu, but we only met him at Chifombo.

SM: How did you manage to deal with the rebellion when you got to Zambia?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: We came up with a strategy to disarm them. They actually fired at us but we knew they didn’t have enough ammunition so we forced them to shoot at us until they ran out of ammunition. We rounded them up at Chifombo.

These rebels had captured Cde Josiah Tungamirai who was the deputy national commissar and many others and they were keeping them at Teresera Base. So after rounding up the rebels, our task was to go and free these leaders. You know when we captured them, people like Badza, Nhari, Chigoho and Noel Mukono were actually saying isusu tavabata tisu masell outs.

SM: What had caused these rebels to take this course of action?

Cde Dotsvotsvo: Vakanga vasisade hutungamiri hwanga huripo. They were saying they wanted to appoint vanhu vavo. So we exchanged fired until we managed to capture them. This rebellion really managed to destabilise the liberation struggle. There was so much confusion. The comrades at the war front didn’t know what exactly was happening. After capturing these comrades, we quickly sent information to the war front to explain the exact situation. We had sectoral commanders, detachment commanders and provincial commanders. We made sure that they got information on the situation so that they could update their comrades.

SM: When were you deployed to the war front?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: In 1974 after the capture of these rebels. I was deployed in the Nehanda Sector. I was a detachment security. Takarova hondo around Madziva kusvika kuMt Darwin and Shamva. During this time there was Nehanda and Chaminuka Sector.

Before engaging in war, tainamata nemashizha nebute redu. The people in the area would tell us their traditions and customs. So taipira mudzimu yenzvimbo saying “tichengeteiwo muno munyika yenyu.”

SM: After deployment, when was your first battle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: My first battle was in Karuyana. There was a sell-out in the area called Sondon. He saw us passing by his shop and he alerted the Rhodesian forces. In no time, we saw helicopters coming and there was a fierce battle. We fought back and only one of our comrades got injured. We managed to escape. I remember there was Cde Garai and Cde Grison. Cde Garai is still alive. He stays in Warren Park.

After this battle we escaped and went kwaMudzengerere. My second battle was around the Chiutsa area. On this second battle, we were informed by our mujiba that some Rhodesian soldiers at a nearby mountain had spotted us.

So we decided to leave Chiutsa area walking towards Mudzengerere. Takasvika pane chimwe chibani kuti tikwire mugomo, takapinda muarmbush. One of our comrades, Cde Backstone was killed during this battle.

SM: How did you survive this battle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Cde Backstone was a few steps ahead of me. When he fell down at first I thought agumburwa but I quickly saw that he was bleeding. I knew he had been hit. Quickly we took cover, fired back and retreated. We failed kutora Cde Backstone. Akatorwa nehelicopter takatarisa. Later we managed to escape and went to Mudzengerere.

SM: You said the first battle took place after someone sold out. During the liberation struggle, how would you deal with sellouts?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Taiwuraya! This sell-out, Sondon, we failed kumubata because akabva atiza kuenda kuKaranda. We knew he was the one who had sold us out because ndiro raiva basa rana mujiba nana chimbwido.

SM: How important was it to work with povo during the war?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Povo ndiwo waiva musimboti wedu. We could not do anything without support yepovo. You know I always think povo deserve something from the liberation struggle. Tine chitema chihombe chatakaita. Taitora magumbeze ako iwe nhasi, toenda tonofuga kure uko. Tozokuudza kuti enda unotora magumbeze ako pagwenzi rakati rakati. Without povo we were not going to win the war.

The masses gave us food and shelter. They would cook for us. Sometimes vatengesi vaitibikirawo chikafu chine poison but taivabata by saying tangai madya. Tisu taitokuudza kuti tsunya apa kana kuti seva apa. There were some areas kwataitoziva kuti this area kune vatengesi. The bad influence would come from some chiefs who spoke badly about us to their people.

SM: Talking about food – there is this song from the liberation days that says “gandanga haridye derere.” Is it true that makanga musingadye derere?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: No, it’s not true. What however used to happen is that vana mai vaingotiwuraira huku. Vaida kuti fadza so vaiwuraira huku.

SM: Tell us briefly about one battle that you will never forget.

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: I think it was in 1975 at Kaitano. Food was hard to come by. People had been put in Keeps. We had gone for about two days without eating anything. So takacheka fence into the Keep. It was myself, Garikayi, Jacob Ndururani, Grison Murape, Levy, Arkim Gadzikwa and others I can’t remember their names. What happened was that Jacob Ndururani was from this area so akanobikisa sadza kumba kwavo. We sneaked into the Keep to go and eat the food. About three comrades went into the house straight. I together with my assistant called Robert, decided to take a bath because we had gone for three days without bathing.

As we were bathing, we heard a loud sound. Robert turned to me saying ‘ipfuti ka iyi?’ The comrades who were inside the house had been surrounded. All the comrades who were inside the house vakapisirwa mumba vakafa vese. Jacob Ndururani and two other comrades ndivo vakapisirwa mumba. We were 12 in total and so three of us were gone. We quickly retreated tikanohwanda kumakuva. This battle started about 6pm and went on until 3am.

We were overpowered because the Rhodesian forces started throwing mortar bombs from a distance. We tried to fight back but we later decided to retreat to the graveyard. The next day we knew the Rhodesian forces would try to track us so we retreated to a nearby mountain. Later we walked to Madziva and took cover at one of the farms.

After hours, we were exhausted and feeling hungry. Takaenda pane kashop kemurungu ainzi Dick Hard tikapaza tikatora chikafu.

SM: So what happened to the three comrades who were burnt inside the house?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: We were told nana mujibha kuti their burnt bodies were later taken to Mt Darwin. Takabatikana but there was nothing we could do. There are some battles where you can pull your comrade and bury him later koita mamwe where you can’t even take your comrade’s gun. Fierce battles. You know sometimes the Rhodesian forces after killing our comrades, they would hang them netambo pasi pehelicopter and show villagers. The Rhodesian soldiers would speak on the loud speaker kuti ‘honai tawuraya gandanda.’

I remember Cde Gadzikwa had really tormented the Rhodesians. When they managed to capture him, vakamusungirira pasi pehelicopter and flew kuenda kumba kwavo, kuKaitano to show his mother kuti mwana wenyu tawuraya. The idea was kushungurudza mai vacho. Ndege iyoyo yakatenderera naCde Gadzikwa for sometime. We would see it from our hiding positions and shungu dzotibata but we could not do anything. Usanyeperwe kuti pfuti inongoridzwa pese pese. You need a strategy and to know your terrain. Pfuti haingoridzwi kunge zvemumafirimu. Terrain will tell you kuti pano pfuti hairidziki.

(to be continued next week)

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SO Professor Jonathan Moyo is convinced that President Mnangagwa is afraid of Gukurahundi? He really thinks the Gukurahundi issue should leave ED paralysed with fear? It’s a shame, but that’s the tomfoolery that Prof Moyo has always been dishing in abundance.

Dear congregants, allow me to take a slight detour. MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai is not well. We all saw the pictures. Very, very sad. This cancer of the colon is something else.

Whether we like it or not, Tsvangirai changed the course of Zimbabwean politics. Never mind the British birth and the American connection, Save vakamhanyisa Zanu-PF. Kutoona kuti pano Zanu-PF yatopinda busy, but now is the time to accept reality — Tsvangirai needs rest. Anyone who thinks or suggests that Tsvangirai will get better to contest the 2018 elections is not only being mischievous but being very cruel.

Zimbabwean politics will never be the same without Tsvangirai. In fact, Zimbabwean politics will be a lot poorer without Tsvangirai. The man played his part and history will record that.

Take some rest Save. As you were promised by President Mnangagwa during that fruitful meeting at your house, your welfare will be taken care of. Musatye henyu Save. We wish you a speedy recovery. Put everything before God because in Exodus 15 vs 26, the Lord speaks openly saying: “I am the Lord who heals you.”

Now back to today’s sermon. I am not exactly a fan of French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault, but in one of his writings entitled “The Order of Discourse,” he says something quite profound. According to Foucault: “… in every society the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organised and redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off its powers and dangers, to gain mastery over its chance events, to evade its ponderous, formidable materiality…

“… discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or systems of domination, but is the thing for which and by which there is struggle, discourse is the power which is to be seized.”

Prof Moyo thinks he has a monopoly of knowledge and discourse. He thinks he can control, select, organise and redistribute discourse as he wishes. Prof Moyo knows that discourse is power and he wants to seize it from his supposedly hiding place. By the way, if Prof Moyo really thinks he is in hiding, then he never learnt a thing while in Government. Let’s leave this story for now.

So what I am preaching about? Well, Prof Moyo is trying to seize the Gukurahundi discourse. He wants to control, select, organise and redistribute the Gukurahundi discourse. In his thinking, President Mnangagwa and his Government are not supposed to speak about Gukurahundi. They are supposed to be very, very afraid of speaking about this emotive issue.

Or if the President is to talk about this issue, it should be on Prof Moyo’s terms. The President has to follow the professor’s discourse on Gukurahundi. This way the President and his Government are weakened. They are supposed to be afraid of Gukurahundi. Gukurahundi should instil fear into the whole Government.

Seka zvako Bishop Lazarus. There is this famous statement which says; “A man that flees from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” Does Prof Moyo really think President Mnangagwa is the type that will decide to take a short cut to meet his fear? What does education do to some people?

Anyway, Prof Moyo will soon realise that he is fooling himself to think he has seized the Gukurahundi discourse. In fact he will soon realise kuti ndiye ega ari kutya nyaya yeGukurahundi.

The nutty professor has already sprang into action. Mischievous action as usual. Victims of Gukurahundi, some fictitious are being unearthed. Suddenly, the professor is going to bed with organisations such as Mthwakazi.

We all know Prof Moyo’s views on Mthwakazi but the professor is doing what he knows best — use them for his convenience and use them to fight his personal fights. He did that to former First Lady, Grace Mugabe. He did that to poor Saviour Kasukuwere and he did that to Patrick “who never learns” Zhuwao. Now the political careers of these comrades are in ruins. Imagine what the former First Lady must be going through now. Imagine what Kasukuwere must be thinking. As for Zhuwao, well, let’s wait a little dzungu ritange rapera.

But this Mthwakazi marriage is just kids’ play. Prof Moyo is manufacturing fathers and inventing events. He has decided to drag Vice President Chiwenga into the mud. Said Prof Moyo: “Did I raise Gukurahundi issue in government? One example: In 2016 our family sought and got from Tsholotsho RDC a permit to rebury my father Job Mlevu from a shallow gukurahundi grave. Chiwenga’s JOC blocked reburial, claiming it was a threat to national security!”

Sekuru vangu Matope (may his soul rest in peace) would say; “Chikomana ichi chaka ngwaropusa.” Prof Moyo really thinks he is clever. He thinks we are all dump. This baba vangu Job Mlevu claim is supposed to bring some emotion into his mischief. We are supposed to start feeling sorry for him and we are supposed to be sympathetic. Well, that trick isn’t working at all.

Some people, including those whose political careers he has ruined through G40, hate Prof Moyo with a passion. They are not buying this baba vangu nonsense. The full story about this issue will be told one good day. For now, we want Prof Moyo to know that the Mlevus are not happy at all with what he is doing to their name.

Prof Moyo is trying to cook more mischief through the Gukurahundi Bill that he only “resurrects” when he has been chased out of Zanu-PF. He thinks President Mnangagwa and his Government are very afraid of that Bill. Plato once warned: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Does Prof Moyo really think President Mnangagwa is afraid of light?

President Mnangagwa got into power knowing fully well that Gukurahundi will be an emotive issue. He got into power fully aware that some fingers were pointing at him regarding this issue. A few years ago, he told the New Statesman that; “How do I become the enforce during Gukurahundi? …we had the president, the minister of defence, the commander of the army, and I was none of that.”

Just a few weeks ago, former Didymus Mutasa of all people came out saying; “Actually, I don’t see why he is the only one blamed for Gukurahundi, the whole Cabinet during that time must be blamed, for some time Enos Nkala was Defence minister.

“Nkala hated Zapu so much. I know him very well and I know all the former big guns, we used to argue about that, but nobody has ever mentioned Nkala, so why blame him alone, there was JOC which had people, why are they not blamed, you keep blaming Mnangagwa…”

I have quoted President Mnangagwa and Mutasa not to emphasise the point that whole Cabinet and JOC at that time should also be blamed. I don’t believe in sub-contracting blame. The idea is to make Prof Moyo aware that President Mnangagwa is fully aware that some people point fingers at him regarding the Gukurahundi issue.

Now with that at the back of his mind, does Prof Moyo really think the President walked into his position blind-folded? Does he really think Ngwena would want to become the country’s President without thinking about how he will deal effectively with the Gukurahundi issue?

President Mnangagwa has already signed the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Bill into law and if that doesn’t tell Prof Moyo any story, then muzvina fundo vanoda rubatsiro rwakanyanyisa.

Prof Moyo should not be fooled by the fact that pavari kuvukura vukura no one is responding. He can’t control the Gukurahundi discourse. The Gukurahundi issue will be addressed and it will be addressed from a Government perspective.

There is no amount of mischief that will scare President Mnangagwa and his Government from dealing with Gukurahundi head-on. The people of Matabeleland should know that Prof Moyo has no solution and cannot assist them in getting closure on Gukurahundi. While for the people of Matabeleland, Gukurahundi is a real issue that needs to be addressed, for Prof Moyo it’s a convenient piece of history that he uses whenever he has issues with Zanu-PF. President Mnangagwa is better positioned to deal with Gukurahundi than an ungrateful refugee who has mastered the art of playing with the emotions of the people of Matabeleland.

Someone once said: “If you give too much value to the pain of the past and uncertainty of the future, you’ll waste the power of today.” The people of Matabeleland should not allow Prof Moyo to waste their power of today.

Bishop is out!

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In 1969, national hero Chief Rekayi Tangwena remarked: “I am married to this land. I was put here by God … and if I am to leave, I must be removed by God who put me here.”

It was declarations like this that set Chief Mapondera on a collision course with the racist settler regime.

The Ian Smith government, like other colonial regimes before it, sought to create a compliant and toothless traditional leadership structure that furthered the objectives of the minority.

It was a strategy that dated back to Cecil John Rhodes’ infamous indabas at the Matopos Foothills in the 1890s prior to the First Chimurenga.

Among the heroes of the First Chimurenga were warriors like Chief Kadungure Mapondera, who declared independence from the British South Africa Company in 1894 and led an army against the settlers in Guruve and Mount Darwin.

Starting with just 100 men, his ranks swelled in months and the settlers were happy to capture him in 1903. Chief Mapondera was to die in prison after a hunger strike. (The exact date of death remains unclear, with different historians placing it anywhere between 1904 and 1907.)

After Chief Mapondera, other visionary traditional leaders were to emerge. Just yesterday, at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s meeting with chiefs in Gweru, Vice-President Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga made reference to his grandfather — a man who refused to take up the chieftainship for as long as it remained an appendage of an oppressive system.

VP Chiwenga also spoke of this in 2016 thus: “…they said to my grandfather ‘take the chieftainship’, but he could not be chief because the whites wanted him to wear the modern red gowns and he refused. That’s when he started fighting the whites.

“When nationalist politics started in 1956 he was in the ANC, then the National Democratic Party and then he was arrested as a member of Zapu. When (Zapu) split he remained in Zapu together with the late Vice-Presidents Joshua Nkomo and Joseph Msika.

“They were the first ones to be sent to Gonakudzingwa. He was only released from Gonakudzingwa 1965 because he was now aged. He was the oldest prisoner at that time. He was released in February 1965 and he died on October 11, 1965.”

A little earlier than that, Chief Tangwena had started his storied battles with the settler regime following his ascension to the chieftainship after Chief Kanga’s death.

Those who would like to learn more about Chief Tangwena’s struggles can find a copy of Dr Chido Matewa’s book, “Power Comes from the People”.

The accounts of Mapondera, Tangwena and Chiwenga show us the kind of traditional leadership this country needs as we rebuild Zimbabwe. For present purposes, though, we would like to draw your attention to Julie Frederikse’s “None But Ourselves — Masses vs Media in the Making Zimbabwe of Zimbabwe”.

She quotes Chief Tangwena saying: “The Smith regime told me that my chieftainship was not welcome. They said, ‘You must go, for this land was bought by the whites’.

“They said, ‘You are no longer a chief, but a self-styled chief, because you are troublesome’. They took from me that chain that made one look like a donkey, that Smith used to indicate which of the Chiefs were his donkeys so they would not go astray. I didn’t mind because I didn’t like to appear like a donkey.”

Yesterday, the President of the Chiefs Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, as well as other traditional leaders, raised the issue of regalia once again. If we are to be honest, the present official dressing assigned to chiefs has very little of Zimbabwe to it.

They still wear that chain given to them by Ian Smith, that chain that makes them “look like donkeys”.

It will not cost the country much to change how our chiefs dress. Whatever amount of money goes into changing that, it will be far less than the continued cost to the dignity their offices deserve.

What is more, there is need to address the contradictions created by colonialism between modern legal and governance practices and traditional approaches.

Our chiefs highlighted these contradictions at yesterday’s meeting with the President, and going forward the nation needs to tackle them to avoid needless conflict.

And perhaps most importantly, our chiefs must contribute to the restoration of the dignity of their offices by displaying the same kind of uprightness, dedication to people and unyielding loyalty to Zimbabwe shown by the Maponderas, Tangwenas and Chiwengas who came before them.

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Tau Tawengwa
In 1980, Government adopted scientific socialism as its developmental and governance paradigm.

Scientific socialism refers to a combination of political and economic science and empirical scientific methodologies to achieve socialism; where socialism is the belief that people are equal and should, therefore, equally share a country’s resources.

One economic strategy associated with this paradigm was expanding State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

It was not by accident fluke that Government adopted scientific socialism over free market capitalism in 1980.

Firstly, Zimbabwe’s Independence was achieved at the height of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union and United States were competing for geo-political and economic influence.

Since Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle was largely supported by Eastern European and Asian ideology and resources, it was natural in 1980 to adopt an economic paradigm that leaned towards communism.

Secondly, Government wanted to see social services and employment urgently extended to the majority black population after years of white minority rule and colonial oppression.

In this context, sweeping legislation was passed, affording free primary education and healthcare to the poor.

Price controls, workers’ committees and black trade unions were introduced.

While Ian Smith’s establishment bought controlling stakes in key agro-processing and textile industries prior to Independence, the majority Government continued with this culture and today, Zimbabwe has around 107 SOEs and parastatals, many of which are burdened with mismanagement, debt and high wage bills.

It is true that on the basis of populist voter mobilisation just after 1980, parastatals made political sense as they provided black workers with jobs and upward mobility.

In simple terms, in the early 1980s, SOEs won votes. But over time these have become bloated and dysfunctional.

A report from the Auditor-General’s Office dating back to 2015 suggests that many parastatals are characterised by weak corporate governance, resulting in huge financial losses and misappropriation of funds.

For that reason, there is good cause to privatise non-performing parastatals; after all, SOEs are meant to benefit the taxpaying citizen and not to milk the taxpayer.

Advantages of privatising

l Improved efficiency. Private companies have a profit incentive to cut costs and to become more efficient. In this context, privatisation is positive.

l Lack of political interference. Across the world, SOEs are motivated by political pressures rather than sound economic and business sense. As we have seen in Zimbabwe in the past, SOEs were, in some instances, used to “sponsor” largely political events.

l Short-term view. Globally, it is common for governments to think only in terms of the next election and this often has long-term consequences. Perhaps privatisation brings private sector pragmatic long-term planning to SOEs.

l Increased competition. Privatisation of SOEs occurs alongside deregulation and enactments of legislation to allow more firms to enter the industry and increase the competitiveness of the market. This is positive and welcome.

l Government will raise revenue from the sale. Selling State-owned assets to the private sector raises significant sums for Government. The UK government benefited from privatisation in the 1980s as did the Russian government in the 1990s.

Negatives

l Natural monopoly. Privatisation runs the risk of creating monopolies. The risk of privately-controlled monopolies is that they tend to raise prices and exploit consumers.

l Public interest. Entities like Zesa arguably perform an important public service. In this context, their privatisation should be considered with enough due diligence and with the national interest in mind.

l Government loses out on potential dividends. While it is true that SOEs are often poorly managed, government should consider whether or not they would be good sources of revenue if they were managed better. Government could consider employing better management staff and techniques rather than privatisation.

l Foreign ownership of key assets. The greatest threat presented by privatisation is the foreign ownership of key State assets. Government should, therefore, pursue privatisation guided by indigenisation laws and should allow youth and women’s consortiums to benefit from privatisation processes.

Conclusion

It is true that the era of scientific socialism has passed and I agree with the notion that the world is capitalist and that there are no free lunches.

Zimbabwe needs to embrace competitiveness, and privatisation is the first step in that direction. While many business leaders and politicians have welcomed the idea, there seems to be consensus that the process should be conducted case-by-case and that adequate due diligence should be applied.

Furthermore, from a political point of view, 2018 is an election year.

Therefore, Government should consider whether privatisation should take place before or after elections.

Finally, the process should be guided by principles of indigenisation and involve youth and women’s business consortiums as these sub-groups make up the bulk of our people.

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Christopher Mugaga
The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce is disappointed with how general price levels have taken a northward trend in the last three months.

The increases came on the back of Zimbabwe’s official inflation rate being pegged at nearly three percent as of November last year. What is of concern is that when inflation reached 5,3 percent in May 2010 and after adoption of the multi-currency system, prices remained manageable.

So, what is happening now to warrant price increases? The general conclusion has been that the hikes emanate from foreign currency shortages.

This has seen local businesses that rely on imports of production inputs turn to illegal channels to source foreign currency at a premium. As long as foreign currency shortages remain, industry’s capacity to satisfy the market will remain weaker.

On the other hand, credit to the private sector will remain compromised. This is a result of high cost of funds following a depreciated Real Time Gross Settlement value compared to other payment methods.

Most ZNCC members have resorted to buying foreign currency on the black market given that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s import priority list cannot satisfy the obtaining foreign currency demand.

Informal economy

An informal sector by nature is characterised by low productivity, moonlighting, lack of discipline and innovation as well as propensity to profiteer in reaction to policy pronouncements. For instance, an import ban on certain commodities leaves the informal economy with an edge to hoard, creating artificial shortages as we witnessed with commodities like cooking oil in recent weeks.

Unregistered informal sector players are competing unfairly with registered formal sector players who offer similar products or services but with added fiscal obligations.

The dominance of the informal economy means we can no longer rely on official inflation figures since greater traffic of transacting is now taking place in the underground economy. As long as we have undesignated sites for trading in our urban sites, it is difficult to monitor price levels.

Profiteering spirit

A month ago, parallel market rates were stagnated, especially with the ushering in of a new political dispensation. The festive mood saw a number of players, notably from the retail side, raising prices of products such as bread and we can argue that this was a result of greed.

An interaction with millers and wheat farmers has confirmed that there were no major cost shifts of late. Some players took advantage of the September confusion and the festive mood to seek additional profit.

Disrupted value chain

There is need to work together in interrogating the existing value chains. The major threat on the market today are middlemen who post huge margins than both the producer and retailer. We have experienced a bad value chain which has seen inconsistencies in the pricing culture.

The deeper analyst of value chains might not justify the price increases; we saw meat prices going up recently and even abattoirs could not explain the situation. However, there are cases where low production has exposed the final products to foreign currency realities.

For example, inasmuch as the whole of Sadc is a net importer of soya bean products, last season saw soya production at 30 000 tonnes for Zimbabwe, 119 000 for Malawi and 300 000 for Zambia. We are aware there is a programme to grow 700 000 tones of soya in the next seven years in Zimbabwe. Command soya bean production is definitely the way to go.

Skewed systems

As the private sector, we are pushing for finalisation of the National Trade Policy. We saw noble policy interventions such as Statutory Instrument 64 being abused.

As business, we were supposed to do a proper audit or progress check regarding the impact of SI64. Some of the products which were put on the list could not be produced in significant quantities and this either created shortages or, at worst, a link or opportunity for smuggling.  With SI122 in place, we continue seeing second-hand clothing at “Copacabana”, Mbare, Sakubva, Kudzanai Bus Terminus and many other places.

It cannot be business as usual as we continue to ignore such nefarious activities.

Lack of thorough research by both Government and the private sector created some of the shortages, hence recent price hikes. About five bodies govern the beef industry: the Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services; Rural District Councils; Agricultural Marketing Authority; Zimbabwe Republic Police; Environmental Management Agency and Ministry of Health and Child Care.

These Government departments are supposed to assist in developing the beef industry, but to the contrary, these have increased administration costs because of duplicate fees. In the end, all costs are passed on to the consumer and this ultimately raises the cost of meat. A one-stop shop for all processes required in the beef industry should be introduced.

Way forward

As ZNCC, we are of the view that price controls cannot be an option whatsoever given the number of corporate tombstones we witnessed; notably during the price slash campaign of 2005. Such controls are not only limited to the goods market, but also currency markets given how Zimbabwe experienced acute foreign currency shortages when the then RBZ Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, began to fix the Zimdollar exchange rate to the greenback.

As espoused by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we must allow market economy and enterprise to thrive and this can only take place without interventions to monitor prices. In the same vein, the Competition and Tariff Commission must be on alert to monitor price-fixing behaviour at this hour given the insatiable appetite by a number of market players to erode consumer surplus.

The message also extends to the RBZ where the bond note rate must be allowed to float than maintain parity with the greenback which we know is not sustainable. The price-monitoring function must not be a preserve of the National Competitiveness Commission. This will deepen buy-in from all the players.

Again, this can free the tension and mistrust associated with any investigation or monitoring exercise. In addition, given that the Commission’s predecessor is the National Incomes and Pricing Commission, it will be wise to try to ring-fence the new body’s role to purely competitive matters without extending a hand on pricing issues.

The legacy of the NIPC is damaging and our recommendation is for the NCC to avoid appearing like they are taking such a path because perception is reality.

On the beef industry, we feel the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Resettlement should consider crafting a Beef Industry Policy which governs the entire cattle value chain.

The policy should, amongst others, incorporate the following:

l Direct and regulate the industry’s operations;

l Streamline the various regulatory costs paid in the sector;

l Focus on compliance encouragement and multi-stakeholder involvement to ensure the viability of the industry;

l Clearly articulate how the regulating departments should interoperate; and

l Establishment of the one-stop-shop concept for various registrations, payment of fees and levies to lessen the burden on value chain players.

There is need for extensive farmer training programmes at district level so that farmers will be equipped with animal husbandry knowledge. This can be a better solution given the prevailing economic situation where government is constrained to recruit additional staff. Government should consider allowing private sector and NGOs to participate in foot-and-mouth disease controls (vaccines and education).

There is need for a downward review of the land tax for cattle farmers from the current US$5.

Generally, there is need for increased Government support in cattle production through pasture development, CSC resuscitation and re-engagement with the EU for market access.

o See also B3

Mr Christopher Mugaga is the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce CEO. He shared these views with The Sunday Mail’s Lisa Mandewo in Harare last week

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Dr Gift Mugano
Recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa met university vice-chancellors and college principals to foster synergies between learning institutions and communities.

As a follow up to that call, this article reviews international experience on the role of universities in economic development by drawing lessons from a study by the United States’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT notes that universities in over 20 countries which the research covered played a key role in supporting innovations undertaken by local communities.

The existence of universities attracted key economic resources to a particular region, including firms and educated individuals; and financiers, entrepreneurs and others seeking to exploit new business opportunities emanating from campuses. One of the most appealing features of universities is, of course, that – unlike many other participants in the local economy – they are immobile.

A university is necessarily committed to its region for the long-term.

The study noted that globally, governments are exploring ways of strengthening the role of universities as agents of local and regional economic development.

In this regard, the US reached a milestone in 1980 by passing the federal Bayh-Dole Act to promote transfer of university-developed technology to industry.

Later federal initiatives included the National Science Foundation’s science and technology centres and engineering research centres; both of which made important tranches of government research-funding for the universities contingent on industry participation.

More recently, as the MIT study noted, state governments have become increasingly active in pressing public universities within their jurisdictions to contribute to local economic development.

At the same time, companies, particularly in developed countries, are working more closely with university laboratories as contributors to their research and product development activities.

Corporate interest has been stimulated by growing commercial relevance of university research in important fields like biopharmaceuticals, nanotechnology and bioengineering.

Many businesses, too, have been cutting back on in-house research and development and increasing their reliance on external sources of knowledge and technology to reduce the costs and risks of research.

In the US, industry funding for academic research has grown faster than any other funding source in recent decades.

It, however, still accounts for less than seven percent of total academic research funding (compared with 58 percent from the Federal government), and less than two percent of total industry expenditures on R&D.

For university administrators, if not for all campus residents, the new focus on what is sometimes referred to as the “third stream” mission of economic growth (to differentiate it from the traditional missions of education and research) has generally been a welcome development, in part because of its promise of new revenues at a time when traditional revenue sources are under increasing pressure.

And as the gap between academic laboratories and the marketplace has shrunk, universities, teaching hospitals and other academic units have become more adept at commercial exploitation of academic research.

Rising interest in the university’s economic development role has been fuelled by high-profile examples of successful regional economies in which the university contribution is easily identified.

The Silicon Valley, the Boston area and the region around Cambridge in the United Kingdom are examples.

Less widely-publicised, though certainly well-known to most university administrators, are cases of “blockbuster” licences on university-developed and patented technology.

Both kinds of success have helped promote what has now become a standard view of the university’s economic role, centring on technology transfer.

In addition, Stanford University, in particular, carried out ground breaking research which resulted in successful establishment of companies like Cisco, Google and Yahoo.

These companies, especially Google and Yahoo, have not only contributed to economic development in the US but also globally if one considers the impact Google is making across all sectors from a search engine perspective alone.

In these regions, the technology transfer model starts with discoveries by university researchers in their laboratories and proceeds to disclosure by the inventors, patenting by the university or the inventor and ultimately licensing of the technology, frequently to startup or early stage technology-based enterprises founded by the inventors themselves.

In Cuba and a number of Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and China, university faculties have been largely configured to cover four key areas such as medicine, engineering, culture and heritage and science.

These faculties established robust synergies with the communities they serve.

As such, their curriculum is progressively reviewed to reflect the needs of their societies.

For example, in Cuba, research undertaken by universities is aimed at addressing diseases affecting communities and the nation at large.

These universities are run like business enterprises.

A special example was the National Technological University of Singapore, which, through its Faculty of Engineering, is producing spare parts for Germany’s Mercedes Benz.

This is quite ironic, isn’t it considering the fact that Germany is one of the best countries in the world when it comes to technology and innovations?

One of the major highlights of these universities is that they are research-intense; they produce research tailor-made for solving national problems (solution-driven research), innovation and enterprise development.

The role of lecturers is largely confined to research and community service as opposed to teaching, something that is rife in Africa.

As we start the journey of transforming tertiary education, it is important to take note of these lessons.

At Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University, we embraced the transformation agenda at our inception in 2012 under the wise counsel of our university council.

We draw our transformation agenda from our mandate, which is defined by our mission statement and motto; that is being a research-intense university which is not only locally-integrated but globally-integrated and developing entrepreneurs.

Dr Gift Mugano is an economist and Registrar of Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail

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Clemence Machadu
Howdy folks!

A big lesson that can be learnt from events of the recent past in the Republic is that power resides with the people.

Folks, governments and leaders are installed by the people on the strength of their promises and clarity of their resolve to deliver on them. This means they should always draw their mandate from the people and there are serious consequences for not doing so.

The events of November 18, 2017 when Zimbabweans from all walks of life willingly and wittingly came out in their numbers to send a clear message to former President Robert Mugabe that he should step down serve as an unequivocal referral point in the post-Independence era. They point to a social covenant that had broken down.

Whenever such a covenant with the people is breached, they will wage a revolution to reclaim their power, marking the evolution of a new social covenant.

Right now, people are already melting into a new equilibrium that was created by this revolution. Folks, those elevated to positions of power should always be accountable to the people. Simba rehove riri mumvura.

History now serves to remind us what happens to those who break the social covenant with the people by ceasing to draw their mandate from the people; choosing to rather listen to a coterie of selfish individuals with an agenda far removed from the aspirations of the povo. Such approaches are always guaranteed to backfire.

This is why a certain cabal which thought it could think on our behalf, act on our behalf, eat on our behalf and enjoy on our behalf was chased right to the gates of hell where it belongs.

Povo yakazviramba! Power resides with the people, folks. Even our sacrosanct Constitution begins thus: “We the people of Zimbabwe . . .”

So, it always has to be about the people. The reality of leaders who made the cardinal error of drawing their mandate from wrong sources is that they failed dismally on the day of reckoning when the people asked them what they did with their talents.

Having dug in the ground and hid the talents entrusted to them by the people, as in that Biblical parable of talents, they found themselves with nothing to show.

As a leader, you are a servant of the people, and the people are your masters. You cannot serve two masters – the people and a cabal. We learn all this from the November 18 affair.

Under the mistaken illusion and erroneous impression that the people are docile and will never rise, some leaders broke every cardinal rule in “Kune nzira dzemasoja” until mass yatadza kunzwisisa zvakananga musangano and sought redress. Folks, we can’t deny that prior to the intervention of the people and other stockholders, the country was no longer able to harness its full potential, as leaders then opted to take the escapist route.

Instead of accounting for jobs, we were told that more than targeted jobs had been created already – yet our young people were rambling in the streets.

What an insult to the masses!

As we move away from that unfortunate era, the new leadership in Government should now put the interests of the people of Zimbabwe at the centre of progress. In other words, nothing about us without us! Government should cement and recalibrate the existing social covenant with the people.

But just what should it look like and what opportunities should it provide for the masses? Those are the questions we should be seized with. Folks, it is clear that the political landscape of the country has changed, ushering us into a new dispensation that is already showing more political will to implement progressive reforms.

Prior to the new dispensation, political will was a scarce commodity and that alone was the biggest threat to Government’s social covenant with the people then. In the 2018 National Budget, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Patrick Chinamasa highlights that corrective measures to address apparent fiscal indiscipline have been constantly proffered over the years, with Cabinet actually embracing a number of recommendations for implementation.

He, however, bemoaned that those measures were “arbitrarily reversed or ignored, reflective of lack of political will”, obviously by the previous leadership.

Folks, political will is a tone set at the top, and the previous leadership chose not to show it at a time when it was needed the most, much to the anguish of the generality of the populace.

However, signs of political will are now visible wherever one sets his/her eyes. Minister Chinamasa calls it a “new economic order”.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa set the right tone in his inauguration speech when he said: “While we cannot change the past, there is a lot we can do in the present and future to give our nation a different positive direction . . .I implore you all to declare that never again should the circumstances that have put Zimbabwe in an unfavourable position be allowed to recur or overshadow its prospects.”

Folks, we are coming from an era where things were sometimes done, with the masses said to be the intended beneficiaries. Yet, those in the corridors of power variably emerged as intermediary beneficiaries; winners taking it all. That narrative should change. There is a lot of inequality in this country.

A look at Zimbabwe’s Gini co-efficient will paint the picture better. We, therefore, cannot be content with just being in a new era with old circumstances still existing. Certain things should change and Government should focus on redistributing income and, especially, resources.

For example, is a particular generation solely entitled to land? Young people seem to only get land as an inheritance.

Right now, it is difficult for them to access land and some are actually having to rent ivhu from older people who were fortunate enough to get the resource but are not using it. Yet, Section 3(2)(j) of the Constitution talks about the need for “equitable sharing of national resources, including land”.

Further, Section 289(c) states that, “The allocation and distribution of agricultural land must be fair and equitable, having regard to gender balance and diverse community interests.”

Looking at land ownership statistics, I do not think that equity has been satisfied. Equality should, therefore, be the focus, folks.

Inequality was one of the reasons why Zimbabwe waged Chimurenga. You see, after we obtained Independence in 1980, the first policy launched by the new Government was “Growth With Equity”.

So, without equity, there can never be any concrete social covenant with the people. In reviving the social covenant with the masses, Zimbabwe’s new leadership should also pay attention to ensuring everyone understands what is being done and that no funny business is tolerated in communicating messages.

If the understanding of the “ordinary person on the street” is still far removed from the intentions of Government, then the people and Government will not be in harmony and there won’t be cooperation as they will only be pulling in totally different directions. The people should, therefore, primed to understand the actions of Government and the intentions behind those actions.

The people are the ones who determine the success or failure of every policy or programme and can only be ignored at one’s peril. While Government is pursuing capital amnesty, for instance, what is the understanding of average folks on the street about amnesty and what it takes for its results to be realised?

The other day, I passed by vendors who were discussing that more than a month has already passed without any cent having been repatriated under the amnesty, apparently implying that Government “has sold us a dummy” – which is, however, not the case. Do they have correct understanding of how the amnesty should happen and if not, what would be the impact of that misunderstanding on their will to work with Government?

Again, what is the layman’s view on fiscal consolidation measures such as retrenching some employees in Government?

Further, Government should not be seen to contradict itself on issues that have a bearing on confidence. If the message is that bond notes are still with us and a local currency will come at a later stage, then those communicating this message must not confuse the people.  Government should, therefore, build consensus and foster buy-in from the masses by ensuring everyone understands the bigger picture.

Vasingazivi ngavadzidziswe!

Folks, in this new dispensation, we all have a role to play in the important nation-building process and carving a reloaded social covenant that optimally works for us and that will never again be abused by politicians.

Later folks!

Clemence Machadu is an economist, researcher and consultant. He writes in his personal capacity

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Peter Gambara
It is that time of the year to take stock of summer, looking back and ahead: How did cropping preparations go? Did we achieve targets? What has been the rainfall outlook?

Many farmers faced challenges in accessing inputs and other necessities.

It is, therefore, unsurprising that many farmers battled to prepare land and plant maize and soya beans well into the New Year.

While Government has intervened to spur fertiliser production, it will be difficult to meet set maize production targets.

Farmers should, however, be cautioned against continuing to plant maize way after the ideal planting period.

Planting late into January is bad practice that should be discouraged. Ideally, planting should be completed by December 22 as a maize crop planted in January risks failing to reach maturity.

Short-season varieties require 127 days (end of April) to reach maturity and rains could have stopped by then.

Only those with irrigation facilities will be able to supplement rainfall for their crops to reach maturity.

Farmers should also be conversant with heat units.

Zimbabwe’s longest day is December 22 as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, and the sun will be directly above the Tropic of Capricorn.

On the next day, the sun starts moving back to the Equator en route to the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Consequently, Zimbabwe’s heat units decrease as the sun moves from the Southern Hemisphere, making December 22 the last ideal planting day.

Farmers in hotter areas like those in Natural Regions III and IV (Mutoko, Gokwe, Sadza and others) stand a better chance of planting late and getting their crop to reach maturity than those in Natural Regions IIa and IIb (Marondera, Hwedza, Rusape and Headlands).

Besides, these areas become cold too early, thereby curtailing crop growth.

Farmers keen on establishing a crop in January should consider sorghum or soya beans. Sorghum can be planted up to mid-January and requires only 110 days to reach maturity.

Soya beans can also be planted up to end of January as they have a shorter maturity period (90 days).

As I travelled to my rural home in Mutoko for Christmas, it was evident that most early-planted crops suffered moisture stress. A good number of farmers were hesitant to weed, fearing crops would die.

They resigned themselves to a a bad season.

Sadc weather experts and Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department indicated a “normal-to-below-normal rainfall season” before January and a “normal-to-above-normal season” after New Year’s Day.

A wet Christmas is common in most parts of Zimbabwe and Mutoko was no exception last Christmas.

I am sure the rains continued for a few more days.

Some areas have reported “worm” attacks on maize, with confusion over whether these pests are the fall armyworm or the usual stalk-borer.

The fall armyworm attacks almost all locally-grown crops like maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, cowpeas, groundnuts, potatoes, soya-beans and cotton.

It pretty much prefers maize and other plants of the grass family, though.

The pest, which is also in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi, can cause up to 70 percent damage to crops.

It is believed it came from West Africa and could have been introduced into Zimbabwe via grain imports as either eggs or pupae.

Farmers are advised to take worm samples to local Agritex staff for identification.

Pesticides such as Kombart, Karate, Lambda and Dipterex can control the stalk-borer, while the fall armyworm can be controlled by Ampligo 150 ZC, Coragen, Superdash and Tide Plus 5WG, among other chemicals.

A chemical called Ecoterex can control the two.

In both instances, farmers should always endeavour to ensure the chemical is sprayed into the maize funnel as this is where the pests hide.

The stalk-borer waits for the cob to develop before attacking: damage will only be realised on harvesting.

The fall armyworm multiplies in peace and then returns the following season to wreak more havoc.

In January, most farmers concentrate on weed-control and application of top-dressing fertilisers.

Weeds compete with the crop for nutrients, water and light. Therefore, ineffective weed-control can contribute considerably to yield reduction.

Weed-control should not be left until crops have started turning yellow. Dealing with overgrown weeds is cumbersome; time-consuming.

Farmers should explore herbicides in controlling weeds.

Heavy and continuous rains that normally fall in late December and January often cause crops, especially maize, to turn yellowish.

This yellowing is worse in sandy soils where nutrients are easily leached by rains, and leaching is worse where the crop will not have received adequate basal fertiliser.

Farmers normally top-dress with either Ammonium Nitrate or urea.

However, caution should be observed on urea.

While AN can be applied easily by dropping it next to the plant, urea needs to be incorporated or applied under moist conditions as it requires water to react and release nitrogen.

Some urea is prilled or looks like AN given its recent granular form.

Many farmers have, therefore, mistaken this to mean that they can just place it on top of the soil next to plants as is the case with AN.

Urea applied in that manner risks volatising into the air as ammonia gas and will smell like rotten substances.

This is especially true if it remains on the soil surface for extended periods in warm and dry weather.

It is thus important for farmers to apply urea under moist conditions as moisture will enable it to convert to ammonia (NH3) or ammonium ions (NH4+) which can easily be absorbed by plants.

The key to efficient urea use is incorporating it into soil or applying it under moist conditions, usually very early in the morning after some showers.

To incorporate urea, a farmer should dig a small hole next to the plant or, alternatively, use a sharp long stick to drill a hole next to the plant and place urea there.

Some small-scale farmers use ox-drawn cultivators or ploughs to cover the holes.

That way, the urea is unlikely to escape into the air and will react with soil moisture, producing the nitrogen required by plants.

Where small holes will have been dug, farmers should cover that area by simply stepping on the holes.

Using urea as a top-dressing fertiliser is problematic if it is to be applied over big areas.

Peter Gambara is an agricultural economist and consultant based in Harare. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail

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6 November 2017

His Excellency, Cde. R.G. Mugabe

President and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces

Munhumutapa Building

Harare

RE: Acknowledgement of Receipt of Termination of Employment as Vice-President

I write, Your Excellency, to acknowledge receipt of my letter of termination of employment as your Vice-President with immediate effect in accordance with the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 20 Act of 2013, Section 329, 6th Schedule, Paragraph 14, Sub-Paragraph (2).

Your Excellency, may I take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for guiding me from the time you rescued us from Egypt in 1963 to the present. Since then, I have regarded you as my mentor and father figure and have been loyal to you, the Party and the revolution.

I also wish to express my gratitude for the role you played in saving my life in 1965 when I was facing the death penalty, which was consequently commuted to ten years.

I thank you for your constant refrain in encouraging us to study and never sit on our laurels.

I thank you, Your Excellency, for appointing me Special Assistant to the President at the time my father passed on.

I mention these as milestones of how you have guided me and brought me up.

I also remember with pride your guidance during the armed struggle in Mozambique, when you nurtured and inculcated in me the lasting values of the sanctity of human life and a profound sense of natural justice.

It was through your guidance, that I was able to prevent summary executions and bring justice within the Zanla forces.

I also wish to thank you for appointing me to lead the first Zanu group that came to Zimbabwe after the Lancaster House Conference.

At Independence, you appointed me Chairman of the Joint High Command and Minister of National Security after General Walls unceremoniously left the country following his confession that he and his fellow conspirators had planned a coup against us in 1980.

Thereafter, I served in various executive positions at your pleasure as well as various positions in the party.

Your Excellency, the allegation that I once entertained an idea to form a political party is false and concocted by elements who are currently my enemies, who perhaps themselves may have intended to do so but never ever received any support from me.

Your Excellency, the truth is painful but everlasting. I am a child and cadre of the revolution, that is, both Zanla and our tried and tested Zanu-PF party.

Throughout my 50-plus years in the Struggle, I have remained loyal and committed to you personally and to the revolution to this day.

In December 2014, you again had the honour to appoint me one of your Vice-Presidents. This to me is a demonstration of your deep-seated trust in me which I have never betrayed, even with my life.

However, today, my enemies have prevailed. I could have recently lost my life through poisoning, but survived through God’s grace.

Finally, Your Excellency, on behalf of my wife and family, I wish to thank you most sincerely for affording me the opportunity to serve you.

I shall forever remain loyal and committed to you, my party and the revolution, although I am aware of uncanny attempts by some unscrupulous elements to assassinate me.

Your Obedient Comrade

Hon ED Mnangagwa

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LAST week, Cde Noel Museredza whose Chimurenga name was Cde Ignatius Dzvotsvotsvo spoke about how he joined the liberation struggle in 1972 and how Rhodesian forces burnt three comrades after cornering them in a hut.

In this interview with our team comprising Munyaradzi Huni and Tendai Manzvanzvike, Cde Dzvotsvotsvo continues his fascinating narration talking about how they killed about 20 white Rhodesian forces, the massacre at Chimoio and how they buried thousands of comrades in mass graves. It’s a horrific tale that lingers in the mind forever. Read on . . .

SM: Comrade Dzvotsvotsvo, lets continue with your gripping story. Can you start by telling us what were the roles of Pungwes during the liberation struggle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Pungwes were used to mobilise people, talking about kunaka kwehondo kushata kwevarungu. Making people understand why we were fighting the liberation struggle. The other idea was to politicise the people. These were not pungwe ekungojaivha. Remember macomrades taigara muvanhu. We would hold the pungwes in the evening because as comrades we only moved during the night.

SM: During these pungwes as comrades you sang quite a number of songs. Tell us briefly about these songs.

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: There were so many songs. You know sometimes kana zvemasongs zvanetsa during pungwe, taitamba marecords, rhumba chaiyo, kutamba kanindo. Ini ndairova jive kwete zvekutamba. Ask those who knew me. One of the songs I used to enjoy was “Urombo tofire nyika.” (singing) “Hurombo tofirenyika! Hurombo todya mabhunu!” Sometimes we would change a church song woisa mazwi ehondo. As for dancing to kanindo, remember takanga tisingasiyane nemaradio because we always wanted to hear news. We had to listen to Rhodesian propaganda to know what the enemy was thinking. Later we had our own stations that broadcast from Maputo.

You know sometimes right in the middle of the forest, we would say vakomana ngatimbofara. Tairidza radio totamba stereki. Kutamba tichinakirwa. Pfuti iri kumusana uchitamba. This was important to reduce stress and also for unity. You know during our time, the early years, tairara in the same blanket with a female comrade pasina kana chaiitika. We were comrades. Mumwe wangu haana nebasa rese. Even clothes sometimes taipfeka dzevakadzi. Sometimes waichinja hembe comrade wechikadzi aripo. There was nothing unusual about it.

SM: But some female comrades got pregnant?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Yes, zvinowanikwa even pachikoro chaipo zvinoitika. But that doesn’t mean all school children are like that. Kune vamwe vanongoita basa rekuda kubata mazamu evasikana pachikoro, hubenzi hwavo but kazhinji taitorara with our female comrades in the same blanket and nothing happened.

SM: We all hear that some comrades abused vana chimbwido?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Very true but taiti tikakubata we would sometimes take you back to the rear for you to be disciplined. That’s why we used to say kune nzira dzemasoja dzekuzvibata nadzo. Eight Points of Attention that we used to sing in that song Kune Nzira Dzemasoja. Dzorerai zvamunenge matora kupovho; mukabata muvengi hamuwurayi; musaite cheupombwe and so on. We had rules and regulations. The spirit mediums would always tell us to adhere to the rules and regulations. Vana sekuru would always tell us that muvhimi haayende nemukadzi kuno vhima. So these female comrades were part of us but look hapana panoshaika ndururani.

SM: How important were the spirit mediums during the liberation struggle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: We had Sekuru Chipfeni and others whose main duty was to warn us kuti kuri kuuya shiri dzevarungu, meaning ndege. They would warn us and indeed zvavaitaura would happen.

SM: Is this really, really true?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Yes, zvaiitika. This was our way during the liberation struggle.

SM: What are these things we constantly hear from comrades called poshtos?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Poshto is Portuguese. When we got to a place, taisagara sembeva. Taigara like in twos at one place with the commander right at the centre of these poshtos. These positions pataigara in pairs ndipo pataiti poshto.

SM: What was the difference between section commander and detachment commander?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: During our time, a section had 12 comrades. This was a number big enough kufamba without being identified by the enemy. Detachment was when we brought a number of sections together with the aim of going to attack a certain camp or area. A detachment was for a special occasion yamunenge maronga.

SM: When we spoke earlier you said, during the war, as comrades you killed sell-outs. Did you kill any sell-out yourself?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Personally I didn’t kill any sell-out, but yes sell-outs were killed. I need to tell you that we didn’t just kill these sell-outs. Sometimes we would take the sell-outs to Mozambique and teach them politics. There are quite a number of comrades today who were sell-outs but hazvichaiti kuti nditaure mazita avo. These sellouts became comrades just like me that’s why it’s now difficult for me to name some of these former sell-outs because they became part of us. Some of these sell-outs vakanga vasinganetse kudzidzisa. That’s why we always said asingazivi ngaadzidziswe.

SM: Let’s get back to the war front. Can you briefly tell us of a battle that you as comrades really planned and you went on to execute?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: There were many such battles but I vividly remember when we attacked murungu ainzi Stavros. It was a farm so there were some people from DDF who were repairing roads. There were many whites camped at this site as the roads were being repaired. We attacked them during the night. We first burnt about six DDF graders and bulldozers. Then we turned to the Rhodesian forces. Apa takavawanikidza. I am talking about around 40 whites. Kuvarova kwete zvekutamba. We took them by surprise so they were confused. I can tell you we killed many whites during this battle. Hapana wedu akasara kana kukuvara. The next morning, ndege dzikati dzauya. But we were already gone.

SM: Take us through how you started this battle?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: We had mortar bombs and bazookas so we launched these first and they hit the graders and the bulldozers. After this, we started firing into their camp. Some tried to escape but our fire-power was too heavy for them. It’s unfortunate we could not wait until the next day to see how many we killed because we knew ndege dziri kuuya first thing in the morning.

We were later told nepovho that during this battle we killed about 20 whites.

SM: These were human beings you had killed. Didn’t you sometimes regret taking human life?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: No, not at all. Remember iyewo anga achinditsvaga. If they got to us first, they would have killed us. Tiri vanhu vaitsvagana so there was no reason to regret. We started this battle around 8pm and we spent I think about an hour tichivarova. The next morning helicopters came but we had already retreated and went into hiding. But from our hiding positions we could see kuti nhasi hapana mufaro. We had retreated to another farm takahwanda mumapaddock emombe.

SM: During the war what did you believe in – spirit mediums or Christianity?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Spirit mediums because sometimes taitorotswa about the war. Taipira mudzimu before doing anything.

SM: So after this battle take us through your journey.

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: Then came détente yaMuzorewa in 1975. Détente was a time yakanzi ceasefire naMuzorewa. During this time, waiti ukaenda kuMozambique, Frelimo comrades would say to you go back to Rhodesia Muzorewa is saying the war is over. Most of the comrades were sent to the rear during this time vaibatwa neFrelimo and they would not come back. This created confusion but we followed instructions from our headquarters in Maputo. This happened from 1975 up to 1976.

We were in Shamva during this time but we later decided kuti ngatiteyerei kuMozambique timbononzwa what’s really happening. We were about 15 comrades. I was now the sectoral security. So we went via Mukumbura Border. I remember as we walked Cde Garikai vakatsika chimbambaira vachibva vaputikirwa. Fortunately he didn’t die. Then Cde Lovemore was the next victim. Now we had two injured comrades. We went kupovho and got two bicycles tikaisa macomrades edu tikaenda.

When we got to Mozambique, we were arrested. The injured comrades were taken by plane to Beira. We were later taken to a camp called Battaliyawo in Tete. That is when we got to know the real situation. The liberation struggle actually stopped during this time.

SM: Tell us more about this ceasefire yekwaMuzorewa. What had happened?

Cde Dzvotsvotsvo: We heard that there were tuma talks twakaitirwa kuZambia mutrain what what. Tuma talks itwotwo gave birth to détente. Hondo ikatombomira. Later I was taken to Chimoio where I met Cde Bethune.

(Next week, Cde Dzvotsvotsvo will speak about the Chimoio massacre and how they buried thousands of comrades including school children in mass graves).

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Remember that the US Congress only agreed to remove Nelson Mandela from its terrorist list in June 2008, long after he had ceased to be even President of the Republic of South Africa.
If Madiba had decided to spend his entire life moaning about his placement on that list, he would have only enjoyed five years of real freedom as he was to die in 2013.

When lemons are thrown at you, you squeeze them as hard as you can and make lemonade. Throwing tantrums will not take them away or turn them into oranges.

The world has a very sour lemon in its midst. That lemon answers to the name Donald J Trump.

The President of the United States has become infamous for letting words roll off his tongue without restraint.

Mr Trump is a very bad actor and there is a clear record to that effect.

Therefore, when he says African countries are “sh*tholes”, it should be clear as day that he is pretty much aware of what he is up to – spoiling for a fight.

Well, he got it.

The African Union expressed “shock, dismay and outrage” over his comment.

Many African countries, Zimbabwe included, joined in the chorus, with some summoning America’s envoys to clarify their boss’ largely racist statement.

White House spokesperson Raj Shah, whose task of late appears akin to applying make-up on a frog, didn’t even try this time around. He let it be; warts and all.

Shah is (mis)guided by the simple fact that Trump will always be Trump. No one and nothing can ever change him.

This is not the first time Mr Trump has been reckless with words; and it definitely will not be the last.

That is the reason why someone at Gondwana Collection Namibia – which runs several game reserves in the Southern African nation – thought long and hard before reacting to Mr Trump’s utterances.

Instead of giving him the backlash that he was obviously itching for, they felt it better to turn his statements into a tongue-in-cheek marketing strategy for their country’s tourism sector.

“Good morning Trump America. If ever you would want to leave your beautiful and so perfect country, and come to a real sh*thole country in Africa, we invite you to come to sh*thole Namibia, one of the best sh*thole countries out there . . .” a voice-over that comically imitates Trump says in a two-minute video that has gone viral on the Internet.

About 100 000 people had watched the video within three days of its release.

The video goes on to advertise Namibia’s amazing tourist attractions, including lakes, wildlife and climate, fully aware that in this latest Trump storm, they had the whole world listening and watching.

Good for you Namibia.

Zimbabwe is among the “sh*tholes” of President Trump’s world. If Zimbabwe is indeed a “sh*thole”, it is in no small part because of American economic sanctions on the country.

The West imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe following implementation of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.

Close to two decades later, Washington’s Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act is still in place.

As a result, we have George W Bush’s Executive Order 13288 and Zidera on the one hand and the fact that Zimbabweans seem too comfortable in blaming the sanctions for every hiccup the economy experiences.

Economic sanctions – as terrible as they are to us – are a selfish but important tool of US foreign policy.

As such, just as the world has to make lemonade out of President Trump’s dirty mouth, we just have to make lemonade out of the sanction lemons we have been served.

Scrapping sanctions can be a long and winding path. Zimbabwe cannot sit and wait for American goodwill to end the sanctions.

Remember that the US Congress only agreed to remove Nelson Mandela from its terrorist list in June 2008, long after he had ceased to  be even President of the Republic of South Africa.

If Madiba had decided to spend his entire life moaning about his placement on that list, he would have only enjoyed five years of real freedom as he was to die in 2013.

Rather, he chose to live his life to the fullest.

You see, Uncle Sam is entitled to his opinion, but that opinion doesn’t have to hold anyone at ransom.

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Some will argue saying the MDC-T can spring a surprise in the next few months, but hey, hey lets be very honest – this party failed to take over power with a fit and strong Tsvangirai, why should anyone be afraid of them now?

JAMES Maridadi? Kikikikiki! They used to call him James “Mari yadaddy.” Don’t ask me why but on a serious note this former DJ is beginning to embarrass the journalism fraternity. Did you see how emotional he was as he was talking about Minister Obert Mpofu’s wealth in Parliament?

Kuita kupupa furo pamuromo Jomisi. Bishop Lazarus is not going to preach about where Minister Mpofu got his wealth, but just briefly there is need to tell Maridadi to cool it off a bit. It’s not a crime that someone is rich and haisi mhosva yedu kuti Maridadi ari kushupika necheuviri. Getting so emotional and angry as if someone has just snatched your wife? Take it easy Jomisi. Hapana mari yadaddy apa.

Was it Minister Patrick Chinamasa who responded saying: “You know where the problem is Honourable Maridadi? We are not accustomed to see a rich African. We are very much comfortable to see a rich white person, but when we see a rich black man, we conclude that he is a thief.”

Good going Minister Chinamasa. Maridadi will do with lots of some education. Even the Holy Book in Jeremiah 29 vs 11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Maridadi thought he was being clever kutaura nyaya dzemubhawa in Parliament but it backfired. Kuti kana adzokera kuMabvuku vari pasi pemuti oti makandinzwa here boyz dzangu?

But then Maridadi is not the only one in the MDC-T who thinks is clever. Did you see how the opposition party was last week asking for an “Operation Restore Legacy” through the back door? Without thinking properly, some faction in the MDC-T came up with a sickening lie that the army preferred Nelson Chamisa to take over the MDC-T.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Mr George Charamba quickly saw the mischief and dismissed this lie telling the opposition party that it has no wings that stretch anywhere near the army and so should stop dreaming. But Mr Charamba was being too generous.

The truth is that the MDC-T, after Tsvangirai revealed plans to leave politics, has no clue on the way forward and they were silently requesting the army to assist them in their succession politics. That is how smart and smooth “Operation Restore Legacy” was. Opposition yakutodawo yayo. Unfortunately, there is no legacy to restore in the MDC-T. Ngadzitungane tiwone mudanga guru!

Now to today’s sermon. We now know that President Mnangagwa is not afraid of Gukurahundi. He will address the issue, not on Professor Jonathan Moyo’s mischievous and divisive terms. There is another issue that needs some demystifying. Kune vari kuti Ngwena ingangodaro iri kutya maelections.

One of the few people who think President Mnangagwa is afraid of elections is Brian Kagoro (yes, Brian you remember him from the forgotten past?). According to Brian, the President won’t win the forthcoming elections if the army does not campaign for him.

Some call Brian a respected lawyer, others call him a civil rights activist, but I see a pathetic failed politician who is out of touch with reality. He is in the same class with Dr Ibbo Mandaza, the only difference being that Ibbo is tired and no one seriously cares to listen to him anymore. You can add Professor Arthur Mutambara on that list.

We are fully aware that when speaking at events sponsored by organisations such as Zimbabwe Election Support Network, one has to tell the organisers what they want to hear and poor Brian did exactly that last week during some public meeting whose theme was; “Making Elections Make Sense.” Brian could have chosen to be honest and retain some measure of dignity, but then donor funds and honesty have never been neighbours. We fully understand Brian had to earn a few dollars and they were paid in US dollars. Election time is pay time. Nawo maUS dollars kumusika mutema.

If we really want to be sober and if we really want to be honest with each other – with the way things are politically who between President Mnangagwa and MDC-T would be afraid of elections? Just look at the political field – the candidates, the policies, the strategies, the linkages and the visibility? Who should be very, very scared of elections?

Surely, it can’t be Ngwena. NO! Ngwena iri yoga mudariro. Bring Tsvangirai, bring Chamisa, bring Khupe, and bring Arthur Mutambara. I am not talking of jokers like Nkosana Moyo here. Bring serious candidates kwete tumbuyu.

Some will argue saying the MDC-T can spring a surprise in the next few months, but hey, hey lets be very honest – this party failed to take over power with a fit and strong Tsvangirai, why should anyone be afraid of them now?

If you think Bishop Lazarus vari kunanzva President Mnangagwa, let me recap what the President told Alec Russell of the Financial Times on January 16.

“After pronouncing that Zimbabwe is open for business; Zimbabwe wants to reintegrate with the international community; Zimbabwe will accept those who accept her. We want fair, free, credible elections. In the past the countries who imposed sanctions on us, we would allow them to send an observer if they so desired. But those who had pronounced themselves against us, who predetermined that our elections would not be free and fair, we not allowed to come in.

“But now with this new dispensation I don’t feel threatened by anything. I would want that the United Nations should come, the EU should come. If the Commonwealth were requesting to come, I am disposed to consider their application to come.

“The same with other countries; the more we have observations across – and I don’t think we have anything to hide. I am preaching this day in, and day out. I would contradict myself if I say, I will be discriminatory. But of course if some people made conclusions now, we know the elections will not be free and fair, so they cannot come and observe; they have had made decisions before the elections take place.”

There is the election gospel according to President Mnangagwa. This is not the language of someone afraid of elections. Kuti kana UN ngaiwuye, kana EU ngaiwuye, kana gudo ngaawuye. He doesn’t “feel threatened by anything.”

Indeed, there is no threat. Kagoro and company can try to massage the truth to make donors happy but kuribe opposition.

The Financial Times was so impressed by President Mnangagwa’s views that they made it their lead story with a catchy headline: “Zimbabwe leader signals break from Mugabe era with open election vow.”

Russell even asked the President about buying cars for chiefs saying some people thought this was vote-buying by Ngwena explained things very clearly.

“The chiefs are on the Government payroll. One of their conditions of service is to give them motor vehicles. Whether there’s an election or there’s no election, we’ll still give them the motor vehicles and their salary or allowance, whatever.

“This was done by the former administration, except that they had not been given, so I’ve gone ahead to give them. In fact, the later vehicles I’ve given have not been bought by this administration; they were bought by the former administration. It has nothing to do with vote-buying and so on; it’s part of the conditions of service of those chiefs.”

The opposition still thinks it has a weapon against election – there is this something that they keep on calling electoral reforms. They think President Mnangagwa is afraid of reforms.

Well, they should brace themselves for interesting times ahead. Mathew 7 vs 9 to 10 says: “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” President Mnangagwa won’t give his son a stone and he won’t give his son a snake. Uyu chingwa chake, uyu fish yake tigonzwa kuti vanochema vachiti chii?

Mr Charamba has already hinted on the forthcoming attractions in the broadcasting sector. “In a matter of months from now, I’ll be dealing with licenses for new TV stations, such that this whole fascination with ZBC will cease to matter to ensure the playing field is level.” Kana pachitaurwa nyatsobatisisai mashoko.

President Mnangagwa and his administration know that there are some who are still questioning their legitimacy. He knows the next election is not about contesting against the MDC-T or any other opposition.

The next election is a contest for legitimacy and the President knows what needs to be done. Remember he is a lawyer by profession.

Bishop is out!

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A lot of talk these days is about the first 100 days in office.

This is in relation to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new administration and the fact that it announced to the nation and the world that the team was working with a 100-day programme implementation benchmark.

We are nearly at the half-way point of that mythical first 100 days, and the Office of the President and Cabinet — as we report elsewhere in this issue of The Sunday Mail — will be presenting reports to the Head of State and Government soon for his personal perusal. This should provide an opportunity for President Mnangagwa to assess how his team is performing, whether or not they are on track to meet the targets they set for themselves, what (and maybe who) needs to be changed, and if the targets we set for ourselves are even realistic in the first place.

On January 14, 2018, Presidential Spokesperson Mr George Charamba gave an interview on radio in which he turned his attentions to this magical first 100 days. He, in typically grandiloquent fashion, said: “First of all, it is an American concept which we have imported into our own politics, but one which doesn’t take into account the realities that are obtaining in our own situation.

“You are talking of a president in America who has a whole mighty economy behind him and therefore who can, in fact, not just create time, but (also) define reality by virtue of it being the strongest economy. Now, we have plucked from that omnipotent office a management concept called ‘100 days’, to plant it onto an economy that is coming from a minus and still go by a calendar month.”

He was not done.

“. . . if Zimbabweans are counting days hoping for real, measureable, concrete, material changes in their lives within 100 calendar days, then we are likely to meet a crisis of expectation which may not in fact be validated through scientific reckoning.

“. . . From worst we get to worse, from worse, hopefully we get to bad, and from bad we get to zero, and from zero then we begin to crawl up . . .”

Some sections of the private media, as expected of a sector that has for long traded on negativity and portended doom at every turn, said Government was backtracking because it was already failing to deliver meaningful change in the post-Mugabe era and a few months to elections. Never mind that the radio interview in question, in its totality, explained the 100 days concept and what the State was doing to turn the economy around and improve livelihoods.

The 100-day concept first gained currency in the United States in the 1930s when Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House at the height of the Great Depression. In that regard, it is a concept that Zimbabweans will find attractive, seeing as we are in a bad economic situation — or as Mr Charamba would say, at worst and going towards worse, bad and then zero.

It really is an unofficial timeline with which to gauge achievement, but nonetheless an important one.

The first 100 days are essentially a statement of intent taking its first baby steps into implementation.

The idea is to create hope by charting policy direction, to mould attitudes by engraining discipline; indeed to lay a foundation for the future.

As we have said before, from the time of the Cde Robert Mugabe Presidency and into the President Mnangagwa administration, what Zimbabwe requires is an honest day’s work from every citizen. Turning Zimbabwe around is not about the first 100 days of President Mnangagwa’s Cabinet team. It is about the every day of every Zimbabwean.

President Mnangagwa’s job is to oversee the creation of an appropriate, implementable, sustainable policy framework that allows every Zimbabwean to give their best for themselves and their country every day.

The most brilliant 100-day plan will come to nought if we put together all our individual one days of corruption, indolence and apathy.

This is not to say the new administration, which has already engendered hope of a better Zimbabwe, should sit back and hide behind the fact that the 100-day concept is a mythical creation of American political mass media.

If the leadership puts in an honest shift every day, beyond 100 days, it will be easier to get the rest of the nation to put in a good shift daily too.

Let us not wait for the 100-day mark, let us work honestly and diligently every day and forever.

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Dr Mungai Lenneiye
In 2017, Zimbabwe was obviously the hottest news in Africa and the global hype still lingers. A lot of people worldwide are still trying to understand Zimbabwe after the transition.
The big question is: what does all this mean for the economy?

Three important issues stick out as the country heads to the extremely important World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Firstly, Zimbabwe used to be about Robert Mugabe. Suddenly, Mugabe is no longer on stage and this man who was Vice-President and not well-known globally is at the helm. This is a perfect opportunity for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to market himself. A President is the carrier of a country’s brand. The world does not know Mnangagwa much and many even struggle to pronounce his surname.

I hope people in Davos will say of President Mnangagwa, “I can do business with this man.” That’s all we want.

If people say he was convincing and not selling hot air, they will be able to say that.

And saying I can do business with Emmerson Mnangagwa means “I can do business with Zimbabwe”.

Secondly, he is taking officials, including ministers. Like other Presidents, he might not be available to a lot of people, so ministers will speak to more people. Therefore, the message should be the same throughout.

Ministers travelling with him really need to understand his message.

The most important thing President Mnangagwa did at last Thursday’s preparatory meeting for Davos was launch investment guidelines.

I’m glad he did this as he can say, “I am coming to say invest in Zimbabwe because already, our people in Zimbabwe are investing in their country. Zimbabweans in the Diaspora are also investing at home. So, it is now up to you, the international community, to also invest.”

The third message is to businesspeople travelling with the President. Zimbabwe has its problems, but then again, no country in the world has no problems. The point is that we should not wash our dirty linen in public. In Davos, businesspeople should not spend time complaining.

They should be in tandem with the President and say, “Yes, there might be some problems, but there are also many advantages in Zimbabwe.”

This will encourage international businesspeople to come. As President Mnangagwa has rightly said, the message should be: we are open for business and want to be part of the international community in ways that we haven’t been in the past 20 years. President Mnangagwa made another important point; that we should do everything in the national interest.

He was right in saying land redistribution is not going to be thrown out.

In the national interest, the Land Reform Programme is irreversible, but how we implement it reinforces good business practices, governance and security.

It was, therefore, important that he mentioned this. Yes, we are going to engage, but mindful of our national interest.

Another key point in his delivery concerned parastatals. Businesses have been clamouring for parastatals to be sold. However, his message was don’t rush; let’s study the matter. His view is you cannot rush me into selling something when I have not yet assessed the right price. His point was give me time to research and establish my company’s worth. If you want me to privatise, let me find the real value; give us time and don’t rush us. My deduction was the need to understand our parastatals; how to fix them. Here’s an example. If you are going to sell a company such as NetOne, you need to be careful on the price because it is of high value.  Indeed, time should be accorded to studying parastatals. A timetable of doing things entails indepth assessment.

Expectations

The immediate expectation is good publicity and goodwill for Zimbabwe, and the country should market itself as a prime tourist destination. People will be interested in privatisation and commercialisation. There will also be issues regarding how Zimbabwe intends to meet its debt obligations. Davos is not only about the current (situation) but image that a country portrays by saying it is ready for business.

Zimbabweans should see this as an investment for the medium-term; not four or five months’ time.

The forum is pivotal as President Mnangagwa will get an opportunity to establish an international benchmark of doing things. He should stick to his word and worldwide views on Zimbabwe will start changing. History will then record that the President of Zimbabwe came here and this is what he said. And the people will remember what he said and after some months, they will check to see if he is walking the talk. He has been talking to the region, saying the right things.

However, Davos is where he will talk to the world. I feel that by the time we get to the next Davos and President Mnangagwa is able to implement one or two major things he would have said, Zimbabwe will get a positive response and some people’s views will change.

To me, that’s the value of Davos.

It is a branding exercise that would ordinarily cost Zimbabwe hundreds of millions of dollars if it were done through commercial means. The President has been presented with an opportunity with huge potential at minimal cost. What is amazing is that the Davos agenda had already been set when he was inaugurated as President.

Some people then went through a lot of trouble to ensure the agenda accommodated him. This means this is a special opportunity.

Over the years, Zimbabwe has been politically active in Africa. It is now important to hear the voice of the new President of Zimbabwe and show direction.

There was always negative news, but Zimbabwe now has an opportunity to brand itself on a global scale. Once that is achieved, it will take a long time to soil the Zimbabwe brand. This is a great opportunity for President Mnangagwa to pitch the Zimbabwe brand as high as he can.

The country has a very high political brand, yet, its economic brand remains low. President Mnangagwa should raise the economic brand to the same level as the political brand.

Many people around the world know Zimbabwe because of its political history. They should now get to know the economic potential of the country.

We need to forget hyperinflation and show that we are now on a new trajectory where we can use our political brand to market our economic brand.

I see the World Economic Forum at the same level as the United Nations in terms of global significance. The WEF is the UN Summit of global economics.

It is the highest summit of economic branding. The UN is the highest level of political assembly and I know Zimbabwe has taken its political branding to a high level before at the UN.

Now is the time to achieve the same in the economic sphere.

I believe that even if Zimbabwe gets its economic branding to half the level of its political branding, it would have achieved milestones. These are very exciting times for the country. It’s a time of hope and you should turn the hope into certainty.

I would like to see the world say we are going to do business with Zimbabwe.

Many people know former President Robert Mugabe more because of his political branding, but President Mnangagwa has an opportunity to be known for his economic branding.

There are a lot of middle-class people who work through investment companies. This is the class of people that may not comprise billionaires but millionaires willing to invest. They have quite a lot of money which they cannot invest on their own, but do so through investment companies that venture into developing markets.

Big international corporations and the world’s biggest banks will also be represented. It’s important to send the right message to them; that Zimbabwe is ready for business.

Dr Mungai Lenneiye is Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Business Club. He is a former World Bank country head for Zimbabwe and has worked as a development economics expert in several African countries. He was speaking to The Sunday Mail’s Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi in Harare last week.

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Tonderai SJ Makoni
In the 1970s, my Economics studies forced me to ask: “If capitalism and democracy, as propagandised by the US and Britain, were the two major sources of rapid economic progress, why was it that the USSR was ideologically, politically, militarily, technologically, organisationally, scientifically – if not economically, too – a super power at par with the United States?”
I was consequently compelled to look at what could be gleaned as some common factors attributable to the world might of the Soviet Union and US from 1945 to 1990, which witnessed America and Nato states foment the successful collapse of the USSR.

Background

In the two super power countries existed highly competent, ideologically committed, hard-working, technologically, scientifically, organisationally and professionally savvy people dedicated to realising their nationally set objectives. The staff were knowledgeable and highly skilled.

They knew what was to be done, by whom, why, how and when to achieve quality production on time, especially in armaments and spacecraft enterprises.

The second common denominator was ready existence in both countries of industries that manufactured capital goods to make desired consumer goods.

I designate that to be the Tripode Industrial System (TIS) that consists of: (i) The capital goods industry which fabricates capital goods for; (ii) The capital goods industry which produces capital goods for; and (iii) The consumer goods industry engaged in stocking, marketing and selling consumer goods and services.

TIS demands personnel with technological and organisational competences to service it fully. Availability of such skilled people is indispensable to successful sustainable industrialisation of Zimbabwe, for example.

Given availability of supportive socio-economic activities, sustainable economic progress is certain.

Besides the two, in Zimbabwe was the additional need to have people with actionist creative minds in Government, the private sector and at large.

Fourthly, such creative people – especially in areas of organisation, inspiration, technology and science – needed imagination and dexterity to replicate mechanisms.

Fifthly, they should also pay attention to how indigenous science and technology can be utilised to enhance national defence and economic advancement. Sixthly, to an extent that we think it viable to attract foreign investment, we should purposely approach external appropriate companies engaged in fields important to bringing about fundamental industrialisation of our national economy.

Zimbabwe’s economy today faces balance of payments deficits because of high imports of industrial raw materials, processed goods and capital equipment plus the propensity of international traders, especially bulk goods transporters, cross-border traders and foreign domestic-owned big, medium, small shops.

Deficits are exacerbated by smuggling and efforts of such businesses to exaggerate import prices while understating export earnings in order to build up abroad; foreign exchange.

The deficits are most likely to be reduced by growth of capital goods industries and industrial raw materials; both of which engineer building of domestic technological competences, employment and income.

Steam and revolution

In 18th century Britain, James Watt perfected the steam-engine which had capacity to evacuate water from underground and to power locomotives with steam for long land and sea distances.

Companies in European countries imported such engines. Their prime interest in the engine was to develop in their workforces competences to replicate and improve its performance.

They consequently instructed their relevant workers to:

l Dismantle the steam-engine;

l Make a technical drawing of all its makeup and parts;

l Name all steam-engine parts in the particular European country’s indigenous language

l Figure out how the particular company and country could replicate, that is reproduce the engine and where possible, manufacture better quality and higher productivity steam-engines; and

l Reassemble the engine and start using it in productive activities.

European companies’ response to James Watt’s steam-engine was to master how to reproduce the same on their own. That capability led to industrial revolutions in their economies.

Consequently, European strategy of first mastering for self, technological, scientific and organisational competences enabled them to reproduce by self whatever was made elsewhere; whatever was scientifically-discovered or what was technologically and organisationally done in other countries.

Non-replication in Europe, Japan, the US, the Koreas, India and China will not necessarily be the consequence of inability, but the product of other considerations such as excessive and expensive capital, intensity skills limitations, population size, inputs and imports unavailability or level of competition.

Private and public focus on setting up full capital and consumer goods industries led to both agricultural and industrial revolutions in respective countries.

Despite African countries being endowed with raw metallic and non-metallic minerals and forests, wildlife, livestock and agricultural crops, no single country has ever focused on building up the TIS to make capital goods that manufacture industrial consumer goods.

We, instead, have been programmed by these enslavers, colonisers and neo-colonialists to be the poorest of the poor. Capitalists have always been dedicated to under-developing and squeezing wealth from Africa through smuggling, under-pricing of our raw materials and semi-skilled exports of manufactured goods, overpricing our imports, tax avoidance and evasion plus corrupting civil servants, politicians and businesspeople.

They invent disease and introduce them among Negroid people for experiment.

In the case of Zimbabwe, imperialist countries have, through pro-white economic sanctions, seized some of our export receipts and prevented us from accessing credit from the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, the Paris Club, the US and British white Commonwealth countries.

We have been squeezed to face low prices for materials and the few manufactured goods we export.

Imports from advanced nations cost us 500 to 10 000 percent of the export value of the raw materials we export.

Given economic sanctions, I tended to believe Zimbabwe would be the first African country to catch onto establishing the TIS economy.

So far, we have failed.

Any such initiative does not have to be undertaken on a massive scale.

What is needed is ruthless determination to do so and doing so against those hell bent on bringing down the ant-imperialist country.

China’s strategy

When China first considered allowing foreign investments into its economy, it did not view such investors as engines for developing the country.

Chinese interest in foreign investors was for them to acquire – permanently – competences to manufacture on their own in China what the foreign company was profitably producing elsewhere.

It is China’s ethos that the fundamental economic, scientific, technological or organisational development of China was the function and duty of its own people.

In the 1980s, initial conditions for foreign companies like Mercedes-Benz to invest in China, for example, were as follows:

l The workforce be preponderantly Chinese;

l The company acquaint Chinese workers with the chemical composition of all the body parts that constitute Mercedes-Benz vehicles and how the components are shaped, manufactured and assembled;

l If the Chinese workforce makes improvements in Mercedes’ technology, components or organisation, such innovations be creditable to the Chinese; and

l After 50 years, there would be a parting of ways. The production plant would become wholly Chinese-owned.

Like continental Europeans, China’s focus was to imbibe competences and make all things itself.

Creating capital

It should be possible to negotiate with a principled Chinese company to consider setting up a full capital goods industry for making capital goods in Zimbabwe, made more probable by resurrecting a better quality Zisco.

Products from Zisco could facilitate creation of a Sino-Zimbabwe Railway Corporation to make railway engines, communication equipment and all other possible products.

It could also engage in railway routes surveys; construct and supply railways requirements in Africa to make the Cape-Cairo railway linkage possible.

The joint company could also engage in exporting railways requirements worldwide even as part of China’s One Road One Belt transport system.

Lack of full capital goods industries in Africa is the product of absence of incorrigible willpower in our policy design, statements and their effection failure to prioritise – nationally and materially – importance of owning competences to run capital goods enterprises successfully and lack of determination to fully master engineering, technological, scientific, organisational and operational skills.

Such mastering is being fruitfully done in Asia as was the case in continental European nations and the US.

These capabilities remain unpursued — if not actually dismissed — in economically enslaved, neo-colonised Africa.

Zimbabwe’s key mission is to do for ourselves what successful nations do to advance their own causes.

In the body of this piece, I have articulated how prosperous nations have cottoned onto developing competences to operate the TIS by themselves, for themselves and those who do not care to master the techniques and use them to transform their raw materials into usable goods and services that grow the national economy.

Raw material-less Japan is today a very rich country through mastery and innovativeness in its TIS.

Early on, it concentrated on developing national ability to manufacture capital or consumer goods originating from self or from outside Japan.

This is a competence completely shunned by mentally-colonised Africa.

One genetic British Nazi known as Robert Guest writes, “In Africa, the poorest continent on Earth and the only one that, despite all technological advances that are filling stomachs everyone else, has actually grown poorer over the last 30 years…”

He goes on to say what is utterly false in Southern Africa; that slavery – which to me means the ownership, capturing, buying, selling and bullying of fellow humans for business purposes – was common in most parts of Africa before the Arabs and British instituted slavery and the slave trade in and from Africa.

Thus Guest is quite insulting to African people’s struggles against triumphant US, British, European and Nato racism and imperialism in Africa.

According to his book, “The Shackled Continent: Past, Present and Future”, 40 percent of Africa’s investment is outside the continent.

The World Bank chips in, stating that poverty and civil war, in particular, cause an average of 2.2 percent fall in income per capita; something that partially emanates from destabilisation projects of Anglo-Americans and their Nato allies, exemplified in the overthrowing of Gadhafi of Libya.

What’s next?

The to-be-dones have already been stated. Economic consequences and conclusion from absence of strategic, dynamic and full capital goods industries in Africa have created short, medium and long-term material disasters.

To prevent such outcomes, I appeal to our businesspeople to strive to engage in building up manufacturing industries from their import profits; and to stop externalisation, overcharging, smuggling and excessive greed.

Businesspeople and Government need to invest in capital industries that manufacture consumer goods.

Corruption requires tough measures.

I recommend that the Zanu-PF 2018 election campaign economic policy thrust be geared to effecting our ability to convert raw materials into capital capital goods that produce capital goods, which, in turn, make consumer goods in a corruption-free environment.

Such drive with national unity is central to accelerating sustainable economic progress, which, like war, we must wage with overwhelming willpower to win.

Mr Tonderai SJ Makoni is an economist and was the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s first black banking office manager. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail

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Richard Mahomva
Zimbabwe’s drive towards accelerated openness to business with global market players raises both optimism and pessimism. Optimism in this regard emanates from a broad spectrum of hopes for economic revival against a background of the country’s isolation from key global markets, international monetary institutions and other global policy establishments.

This alienation mainly originated from the land reform policy taken up by the Government in 1997 in response to Britain’s negligence of its land compensation mandate.

This was, of course, followed by economic sanctions on Zimbabwe which further heightened what came to be known and popularised in academia as the “Zimbabwean crisis”. The policy direction by the new administration towards the urgency of re-engagement and foreign policy reconciliation has attracted a fair share of pessimism.

This protestant pessimism is primarily grounded on fears of Zimbabwe’s vulnerability to the realist gravitas of the West in asserting its dominance.

In a way, this may indicate some degree of hesitancy towards the approach prescribed by Government to attract Foreign Direct Investment. This follows the West’s historically-defined leaning to capitalist realism largely characterised by exploitative labour and resource capital harnessing not only in Zimbabwe, but in Africa as a whole.

In support of this perspective, in his book, “Looting Africa”, Patrick Bond argues: “Africa is poor, ultimately, because its economy and society have been ravaged by international capital as well as by local elites who are often propped up by foreign powers.

“The public and private sectors have worked together to drain the continent of resources which — if harnessed and shared fairly — should otherwise meet the needs of the peoples of Africa. Changes in ‘governance’ — for example revolutions — are desperately needed for social progress, and these entail not only the empowerment of ‘civil society’ but also the strengthening of those agencies within African states which can deliver welfare and basic infrastructure.

“The rich world must decide whether to support the African Union’s Nepad programme, which will worsen the resource drain because of its pro-corporate orientation, or instead to give Africa space for societies to build public/people partnerships in order to satisfy unmet basic needs.”

Therefore, as the nation is engrossed in celebrating the milestone stride of re-engaging the international community, some introspection is also important in defining the parameters of Zimbabwe’s willingness to renew its synergies of engagement with the West.

Standing our ground

In so doing, Zimbabwe must have a well-grounded ideological standing — one which is cognisant of the permanence of interests. These interests are anchored on the West’s quest for development at the expense of its counterpart’s under-development.

The West’s modus operandi of engaging economic powerhouses outside their locale has been traditionally Machiavellian. While Europe has set that precedence of dominance, it must be noted that this is the case across the board where political-economy interests are concerned.

This follows the West’s clear position on its market and democracy relational terms on neo-liberalism.

Put simply, neo-liberalism is a cross-cutting rationale which is emphatic on the value of free market competition. Neo-liberalism privileges economic laissez-faire and the freedom (or liberty) of individuals against the excessive power of government. This position champions respect to private property entitlement.

Across Africa, neo-liberalism has been explored to widen Foreign Direct Investment, at the same time alleviating employment woes. Against this background of Africa’s exploited and massively colonially-dependent political-economy structures, neo-liberalism has gained popularity as a rational course for prescribing poverty-reduction and raising the standards and principles of “good governance”.

In most instances, neo-liberalism has been mainly engaged as developmental than it is an expression of the West’s attempt to spread out the uniformity of its principles of governance at the expense of the experiences of those it targets as its students.

This is the same neo-liberalism which mutilated African economies to structural adjustments in the early 1990s.

In some spheres, the rationale of neo-liberalism has been problematised for promoting a one-sided course of the democracy debate in Africa. It is not also disputable that neo-liberalism has aided the growth of opposition politics to safeguard colonial property ownership in Africa.

In Zimbabwe’s case, neo-liberalism played a crucial role in raising a selective awareness on human rights and democracy following the people-driven Land Reform Programme.  In turn, this prompted the need for reviving nationalism which was emphatic of Zimbabwe’s delink from the West in the early 2000s.

Nationalism became an emotive liberation-anchored perspective for reasserting Zimbabwe’s interaction with the West.

Today, nationalism should be a resource for constructively defining Zimbabwe’s policy leaning with regards to improving the livelihoods of the citizenry.

Nationalism must be the defining mark of Zanu-PF’s entry into this dispensation.

Nationalism must be a key resource to grounding the legitimacy of the new administration in its economic development aspirations.

Taking a nationalist turn

Nationalist pronouncements on this engagement envisaged by the ruling must go beyond the narrative of employment-creation. This is because job-creation mainly sustains the economic power base of the multi-national company and the hegemony of its mother country.

The proposition of employment-creation must also cascade to enhancing the supply of skills to the mushrooming “informal sectors”.

Likewise, the notion of employment-creation must add value to the absence of skills with direct impact on crucial sectors like our extractive industry. There is also need for emphasis on promoting indigenous specialisation in the production of high-value commodities for export markets to compete with the imports consumer culture catalysed by neo-liberalism. Our engagement with the international community must facilitate a lucid re-organisation of capital through mutual benefit of our local businesses and their foreign counterparts.

In the same vein, regional trade should be strengthened so that Sadc and Africa as a whole also benefit from Zimbabwe’s openness to business.

This will enable the country to become a relevant contributor to Africa’s growth, particularly in terms of restoring her legacy as the breadbasket of Africa.

Through this approach, it may also be easy for Zimbabwe to set the pace for fostering collective dialogue in trade negotiations regarding goods and services which the continent has to offer.

Richard Mahomva is an independent researcher and a literature aficionado interested in the architecture of governance in Africa and political theory. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail.

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Dr Gift Mugano
Zimbabwe made an impact at the just-ended World Economic Forum in Davos.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his team met high-profile investors, leaders of multilateral banks such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Africa Development Bank and were able to charm over 3 000 participants as well as the global community which was following the proceeding.

I can say President Mnangagwa’s acumen left the whole world excited. It is clear that Zimbabwe is ready for business. However, as we continue to build momentum to attract investors and build on our successful participation at the WEF, we must ask ourselves regarding our next step.

Our next steps lie in the need for expedience in implementation of measures enunciated by the President in his inauguration speech which he keeps highlighting at every forum.

In this regard, we must demonstrate to the world that we are ready for business by decisively dealing with corruption, addressing the micro-economics of competitiveness and dealing with an archaic regulatory framework.

Corruption

Culprits are already being brought to book. I must admit, however, that the process is slow and not comprehensive. Beyond just arresting people, we must make sure that there is quick finalisation of cases.

More importantly, measures that deal with white-collar crime such as electronic Government should be put in place.

There should also be capacity-enhancement in institutions like the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, police and general security services.

This must be worked on in terms of 100-day rapid results initiatives.

Competitiveness

Zimbabwe is lagging behind in the region in the provision and cost of water, electricity, information communication technologies and transport.

With respect to water, the challenges here are two–pronged, that is, availability of clean water and its cost. Investors want reliable supply of water and at the moment, reliability of water is not guaranteed.

Evidence on the ground shows that over 50 percent of water is lost through leakages.

Addressing the availability of water may require some time and is capital expensive.

However, the cost of water can be addressed overnight.

Zimbabwe has the highest cost of water in the region because it has fixed charges of US$$80 per cubic metres while our peers in the region charge nothing.

So, in cases where investors are planning to invest into a business which requires a lot of water, they may opt for other regional countries.

Going forward, Zimbabwe must scrap fixed water charges.

Energy

The challenge here again is two–pronged: availability and cost of electricity. With respect to electricity production, there is work in progress, but that work needs to be upped by attracting investors with interest in the energy sector.

The good news is that President Mnangagwa made that call in Davos. Respective ministries must follow-up. However, with respect to pricing, inasmuch as Zesa Holdings is already subsidising the nation, there is still evidence that our prices are on the high end when we consider rates for industries which consume excessive electricity compared to the region.

Here, Government should consider ring-fencing electricity pricing, especially in Special Economic Zones by charging rates comparable with regional counterparts.

Our ICT costs are relatively higher compared to other countries in the region.

Moreso, the quality of services in a number of cases is below our regional peers.

Here, the regulator — the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe — must rein in service providers.

Transport

The missing links in our transport sector are railway lines and a vibrant airline.

The good news is that new investors have partnered the National Railways of Zimbabwe.

What we need to see is expedience in operationalising that partnership. This will go a long way in reducing the cost of transport due to the economics which come with bulk carriage provided by NRZ.

The national airline must be capacitated to enable it to deliver its mandate, especially now when there is renewed interest in Zimbabwe and an expected boom in the tourism sector.

Politics

The President consistently reiterates Government’s desire to hold free and fair elections.

In Davos, some investors expressed interest in Zimbabwe but emphasised they will make concrete moves after elections. This clearly explains the importance of credible elections as a necessary requirement for international engagement and even fostering national cohesion.

Going forward, we must take concrete steps towards creating an environment for credible elections.

In this regard, Government must engage with all relevant stakeholders through dialogue and come up with actionable areas for the election roadmap.

The call by the President to invite the European Union and other interested parties outside Africa to observe our elections bolsters confidence.

Dr Gift Mugano is an economist and the registrar at Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail

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Now tell me why after Davos you would not want to give President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa a bottle, two, three, or even four of Bell’s?
The fellow simply smashed it. He was clear. He was succinct. Precise. Humble. Modest and unassuming.

The UK’s best-selling blended Scotch, with a rich heritage dating back to the mid-19th century.

The principal expression available globally is Bell’s Original, which comprises up to 40 different malt and grain whiskies.

The “heart malt” of Bell’s is Blair Athol, while the Speyside malt of Dufftown and the Lowlander Glenkinchie help to shape the blend’s character, along with a quantity of Caol Ila from Islay, which adds a touch of island influence.

Overall, Bell’s Original may be summed up as offering soft grains and spices on the floral and fruity nose, with a sweet, nutty, malty and spicy palate, which yields just a hint of peatiness.

The slightly smokier Bell’s Special Reserve is a second variant, available only in the UK.

Perth-based Arthur Bell began vatting malt whiskies together to provide greater consistency from 1851, going on to combine malts and grains to create his own blended Scotch.

In 1895 the “Extra Special” trademark was registered, and was first used alongside Bell’s name in 1904.

This was effectively Bell’s first branded blend, and the “Extra Special” tag was used until the introduction of the Bell’s Original variant in 2008.

1896 saw the registration of Arthur Bell’s signature, which still adorns every bottle, along with the slogan “Afore ye go”, which was registered in 1921 and first used four years later.

The famous saying that’s on every bottle of Bell’s Blended Scotch Whisky – “Afore ye go”.

The literal meaning is “Before you go”, but what it really means is “Stay a little a longer and share a dram”.

After all when you’ve got good friends, good whisky and good tales to tell, why cut the occasion short?

So now you’re here reading this article why not stay a while longer and have a look around the world of Bell’s, and see the strength of character that makes its history and its whisky?

By 1970 Bell’s was Scotland’s leading blended Scotch, and in 1978 it became the best-selling blended Scotch in the UK, having seen sales grow in value by some 800 percent between 1970 and 1979, though it did briefly lose its number one status to The Famous Grouse in 1980.

Remarkably, by that year Bell’s could boast around 35 percent of the market share for standard blended Scotch in Britain.

In the decade from 1970, output from Bell’s distilleries rose from 4,75 million litres per annum to 13,44 million litres, partly due to the construction of Pittyvaich distillery in Dufftown during 1974.

Much of the credit for Bell’s dramatic growth is usually given to Arthur Bell & Sons’ dynamic chairperson and chief executive Raymond Miguel, who left the company in the wake of its takeover by Guinness in 1985.

One major change to the actual Bell’s blend took place in 1994, when an eight-year-old age statement was added. This was a time when there was a surplus of mature Scotch whisky, so the move to give a perception of additional quality and kudos was understandable.

With mature whisky in short supply by 2008, the age statement was removed and the blend rebranded as Bell’s Original, with owner Diageo claiming that the revamped recipe was closer to that first formulated by Arthur Bell.

Bell’s first began to release whisky in ceramic decanters during the 1920s, commemorating special occasions, and by 1930 a bell-shaped decanter was in use.

A unique decanter is now produced each Christmas, while the highest prices at auction are paid for the 1981 Prince Charles & Lady Diana Spencer Royal Wedding decanter.

Today, the leading markets for Bell’s Original are the UK, South Africa, the Nordic countries, Spain and Brazil, and globally the brand is currently the 10th best-selling blended Scotch whisky, accounting for 2.36 million cases in 2013.

That is blended whiskey for you.

Now tell me why after Davos you would not want to give President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa a bottle, two, three, or even four of Bell’s?

The fellow simply smashed it.  He was clear. He was succinct. Precise. Humble. Modest and unassuming.

Tell me which thinking person would not want to vote for him this year? Tell me which standing MP would not want to campaign for him this year, whether the MP is from Zanu PF or the opposition?

C’mon, the fellow nailed it!

They threw all sorts of questions at him but he maintained his poise and composure. He clearly showed that he has arrived. They even dared his emotional intelligence regarding Gukurahundi and the man simply stood his ground.

“Currently, we have signed a Bill, the National Healing Act and I have assigned one of my Vice-Presidents to deal with that one!” ED shot at the condescending reporter.

“Is it called a Truth and Reconciliation Commission?” she fired in a desperate bid not to be outdone.

“It’s not called a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it’s called a National Healing and Peace Commission,” ED promptly corrected the agenda-setting reporter. “The past should not stop us from having a better future!” Icho!

There was no credible comeback after that.

Love him or hate him ED acquitted himself extremely well in Davos. Not even the Zhuwaos or Jononos of this world could discredit his credibility.

This is 2018 and ED has given every reason why every right-minded Zimbabwean must vote for him and his party.

Surely, there comes a time when we have to acknowledge sheer brilliance, composure and articulation.

The man deserves a Bell’s. And let’s wear that fashionable scarf as we do our toasts.

Dubulaizitha!

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Teddie Bepete
In historical times, no state prospered without interdependence with other nations.
President Mnangagwa’s recognition amongst world leaders defines the importance that our country has on the international stage.
It appears after US President Donald Trump, President Mnangagwa was second in line for global attention in Davos.

I reflect on the “freedom train” days with much nostalgia. A surge of life always overcame one despite the debilitating economic hardships of that 2007-8 hyperinflationary era. On one ride from Harare’s Mufakose suburb to the CBD, a vicious dog occasionally attacked the train around Budiriro 5.

That dog was formidable in its reproaches. It looked as though it had an intrinsic conviction that it would someday derail the train with one  gigantic push.

But day after day, as I rode on the freedom train, the gigantic push never came.

The grim dog continued to pounce, sweating alongside the railway line. Never did a day come when I witnessed a train derailed by a barking dog.

Sometime later, we suddenly stopped at Budiriro and hoped to see our canine friend who had mocked the freedom train for so long from close range.

It emerged he had died in a freak accident with a bicycle.

When I was a young boy, an old man came to me and said, “In future, when you see a dog howling at the round moon, somewhere nearby some master is dead.”

But I digress.

The intention is not to write about dogs that bark at the moon because their master is no more and when the locomotive of the people is actually on its way to the future.

The 48th World Economic Forum meeting in Davos came at the most critical time when Zimbabwe is showcasing an array of opportunities to foreign investors.

The Zhuwaos – once corrupted by a familial power project – and the sly but silly Prof Moyos of this world (wherever they are hiding) must awaken to the fact that the new dispensation has successfully taken rejoining the international community as a priority.

The fact that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is the first Zimbabwean Head of State to be invited to such a platform is quite telling.

It requires the nation to join hands in supporting ED so that this leap from poverty becomes reality.

To speak with a negative voice at such a life-saving moment is tantamount to treason.

It is too late for agents of retrogression because President Mnangagwa has already taken the new era to the doorstep of the modern world.

Change has begun, and change is our only choice as a country. Decades of poverty under corruption and economic mismanagement are already a thing of the past.

According to the man who engineered China’s modern status, Deng Xiaoping, “poverty is not socialism; to be rich is glorious”.

The liberation struggle was fought to extract our people from the york of colonial barbarism and poverty.

The nourishment of our hardwon freedom has to go hand-in-glove with economic prosperity.

In historical times, no state prospered without interdependence with other nations.

President Mnangagwa’s recognition amongst world leaders defines the importance that our country has on the international stage.

It appears after US President Donald Trump, President Mnangagwa was second in line for global attention in Davos.

Alex Magaisa who has always been caustic towards Zanu-PF says, “His invitation is symbolic of the generous goodwill Mnangagwa is enjoying. . .the majority of the West, with Britain taking the lead, seem to have largely embraced the Mnangagwa administration.”

And there is need to change the perception that land is more important than capital. Inspite of all the abundant labour we have, our land cannot be productive without adequate capital to utilise it the modern way.

This is how the Chinese evolved into a modern economy.

They stopped abhorring the efficacy of capital and instead embraced it to the salvage of the communist ideology.

Deng Xiaoping said during those days, “We mustn’t fear to adopt the advanced management methods applied in the capitalist countries. . .The very essence of socialism is the liberation and development of productive systems. . .Socialism and market economy are not incompatible.”

We always refer to the Chinese experience as the Oriental nation’s political history is similar to Zimbabwe’s.

If capital comes to the succour of the ideals of our liberation, then it is welcome. We don’t want a situation where capital is used to loot our resources for the benefit of the world’s richest elite.

Xiaoping said in allusion to capital, “No matter it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.”

This year’s WEF meeting themed, “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”, urges cooperation among nations to reduce inequality.

Our country is part of that fractured world that needs emergency healing.

We believe world leaders who gathered in Davos will seriously consider President Mnangagwa’s appeal as genuine for it truly represents the aspirations of the majority.

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