Editorial Comment 

As we move towards sustainable environment management and waste disposal systems, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared the first Friday of each month “National Environment Cleaning Day”.

From now on, all Zimbabweans are asked to dedicate just two hours of their precious time to clean their environs on this day.

It might have taken a little nudge from the First Citizen of this country, but the motivation to keep the environment clean should actually come from every individual. Keeping the environment clean and hygienic is everyone’s responsibility. It is a matter of attitude and responsibility.

The theme “Zero tolerance to litter: My environment, my pride” aptly captures the spirit that should drive this noble initiative. In as much as it is about our collective environment, all the benefits will be felt at an individual level by every citizen.

After all, cleanliness is near to godliness. Firstly, maintaining cleanliness at an individual level will lead us towards becoming a better society from the simple fact of feeling good about where one lives.

With diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and typhoid continuing to ravage the nation, the National Environment Cleaning Day was long overdue.

Harare’s high-density suburbs have been the epicentre of the recent cholera outbreak.

Contaminated underground water, accessed through boreholes dotted around the suburbs, was identified as the cause. Urban centres across Zimbabwe generate about 165 million tonnes of waste every year, the bulk of which ends up in open illegal dump sites, urban streams and wetlands.

Because our local authorities have serious challenges in delivering potable water, that dirt ends up in our taps.

In essence, we are choking on our own dirt, our own irresponsibility and our own slovenliness!

Ironically, there is immense business and energy potential in waste and environmental management even as we cry about economic hardships, lack of access to electricity, and living in dirty towns and cities.

Zimbabwe is sitting on gold and we need to be innovative and roll-out ways of extracting value from waste.

Sound management of chemical waste, solid waste as well as electronic and plastic waste needs to be put in place for the protection of human health, flora and fauna.

While we are at it, another pressing issue that needs to be urgently dealt with is Zimbabwe’s love for plastic materials, which are the world’s biggest pollutants.

Wholesalers and retailers need to follow international trends and start using biodegradable paper for packaging, which has a lower carbon impact and has improved recyclability.

Largely due to plastic pollution, the cities’ blocked drainage systems are now an albatross around our necks.

Ordinarily, rain water is supposed to come and wash the cities clean.

However, as it stands most cities no longer have any drainage systems to talk about as garbage has been allowed to collect in the drains beneath our streets.

Besides being aesthetically unpleasant, the resultant swampy pools are also breeding grounds for various diseases, including cholera and malaria.

These are the pressures that make improved public sanitation urgent.

All of this obviously, has a bearing on our health delivery system, which is already choking from underfunding.

Cleaning up the environment will as a happy consequence trim the country’s health bill, with funds being diverted towards investment.

Joining hands to clean Zimbabwe is not solely about the physical environment, it has got great chances of yielding significant psychological and social effects.

This is particularly important in the Second Republic as we find each other and build the Zimbabwe that we want.

Being a politically polarised nation, ours has not been an easy journey, especially after lives were lost in the post-election violence that broke out as the opposition demanded that their preferred candidate be declared the winner of the Presidential poll.

There is an urgent need to cement the cracks before they become wider. The National Environment Cleaning Day gives us that opportunity.

The concept is rooted in nationhood; with the same effect as the national flag or national anthem in rallying everyone around a common cause.

It allows people from all walks of life to take off their political and whatever other straitjackets and put on one robe, the robe that defines us all Zimbabweans.

A clean Zimbabwe, achieved through working together in our communities, will build national pride and oneness of purpose. Even better, increased attention to the need for a clean physical environment should spur people to want to also live in a clean economic environment.

There is a close correlation between personal cleanliness and personal morality.

Let us wash away all dirt and grime and cleanse our economy of corruption.

For years now, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has been running a clean-up campaign in that country, and the initiative has proved to be quite popular in a country that as recently as 1994 was the scene of a horrible genocide.

And it is also quite interesting that Rwanda is ranked amongst Africa’s least corrupt nations.

A person who loves his or her country enough to keep it clean will love it enough to work hard and work honestly.

Gibson Mandishona

When Phinias’s mother, Likeleli, was eight months pregnant with him, she suffered massive depression and anxiety, especially after having miscarried three times.

After being overwhelmed by this crushing feeling, she tried to commit suicide in the nearby Tuli River.

However, Mogorosi, her husband, who was hunting nearby (or could have been secretly trailing her), managed to rescue her. A month later, Mooketsi (which means the additional one in Sesotho) or Phinias — as renamed by an older brother — was born.

However, due to the close relationship I had with him, I will simply refer to Prof Makhurane as “Phinias”.

The Makhurane family hails from the Pedi group of Sotho-speaking people. Mogorosi was married to three wives, of which Phinias’s mother was the youngest.

As the last-born child in the family, Phinias was spoilt. He was breastfed until he was five.

In his autobiography, Phinias relates a story in which his father, together with two other men, wrestled and killed a lion using spears and machetes.

However, this duel with the vicious beast left Mogorosi — who was the sole breadwinner of a big family — blind. Out of the 14 Mogorosi children, only five proceeded beyond primary school.

The young Phinias was not enamoured to the idea of going to school because of tales of punishment and beatings he had heard.

A close cousin and friend at Manama School, however, persuaded him to give it a chance for a month before making a decision.

And this was the beginning of a long, decorated academic career.

At Manama School, Phinias faced challenges paying his school fees, but this was later solved as poor households were afforded the opportunity to contribute milk to the school as payment. It really paid off.

Phinias excelled in all classes.

He soon progressed to Mnene and Chegato, and finally to Zimuto Seconday School for his “O” levels.

He passed with distinction. I first met Phinias in 1961 when we pioneered the first “A” level class at Fletcher High School in Gweru.

In his autobiography, he writes: “One of my classmates, Gibson Mandishona, was a very competitive fellow…”

We were only five in the A-level Science class — myself, Phinias, Prof Chris Magadza, Dr Douglas Mufuka (now a nephrologist) and the late Walter Mthimukulu.

Phinias was a tad older and used to wear a traditional-style greyish jacket, presumably given to him by Swedish missionaries working in his home area. We, thus, nicknamed him “Dickens”, which did not amuse him.

At 24, when he was in his second year of the BSc (Physics and Mathematics) degree, he got married to his school-time sweetheart, Lydia.

Double brain

In his autobiography, Phinias puts paid to a rumour that a scan had revealed that he had double brains, a condition that was likely to lead to his death within five years.

He writes: “If only someone had mentioned this rumour to me, I would have set everybody’s mind at rest so that they would not have had to live next to someone who was about to die!”

After attaining the BSc at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Phinias left for the University of Sheffield (UK), where he completed a PhD in Solid State Physics in 1968.

Similarly, I complimented our long-term wish of doing justice to Mathematics by pioneering a PhD in the subject in 1975.

His thesis focused on investigating the behaviour of gold and manganese alloys at low temperatures using X-rays and neutron diffraction techniques.

The research involved frequent visits to Harwell Atomic Energy Research Station — the vault of Britain’s nuclear secrets.

The first visit to Harwell was dramatic: the security guards could not allow some unknown person, let alone a “man of colour”, to enter the premises.

After some checks, he was eventually allowed in. At times, Phinias felt despondent that his PhD studies were theoretical and didn’t have any immediate application in Rhodesia.

This possibly explains why he later drifted away from science into management.

His burning desire and natural wish was to immediately return home and take up lectureship at the University College of Rhodesia.

To his greatest shock, his application to become a lecturer was turned down on account that he was over-specialised to teach in the physics department.

This also happened at a time when most of the liberal staff members of the university had resigned and moved to Zambia or elsewhere in protest against the UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence).

However, African universities nearby provided him with viable alternatives.

He subsequently applied and moved to the University of Zambia, where he re-united with Professors Yates and Cyril Rogers.

The delayed action by the University of Zambia made him to seriously consider accepting an offer from a UK university.

His wife, Lydia, suggested that they wait for one week and indeed his preferred university came through.

Yearning to be home

In 1970, Phinias’s father died. His wife and kids attended the funeral as he was not able to come to the then-Rhodesia.

Whilst in Zambia, Phinias managed the affairs of the International University Exchange Fund, which catered for scholarships for Zimbabwean students, including political refugees.

When I was in the UK, I used to host some of the student refugees sent from Zambia.

He also hosted meetings at his UNZA house, which contributed towards the unification of Zapu and Zanu into a united political machinery.

“Politics follows the laws of physics: every action creates an equal and opposite reaction,” he said.

We remained great friends, although belonging to different parties.

In 1973, Phinias visited Botswana, where he had organised to meet his mother and brothers.

His mother recounted: “Your father died while you were away. Do you want me to die while you are away?”

This naturally drove him to move to the University of Botswana in 1974.

There he rose to the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor and participated in the development of progressive science teaching and university infrastructure.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

In 1980, Zimbabwe got its independence.

The following year, Phinias moved back to Zimbabwe and became the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Principal of the University of Zimbabwe.

He worked tirelessly on the university’s infrastructure.

He actively participated in the establishment of NUST, putting together in a chain reaction mode the various experiences he had accumulated.

After ten years at the helm of UZ, he became the first Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo — a vibrant centre of academic excellence.

Lastly, in a skills enrichment process, Phinias became consultant in identifying core technical and professional experts and establishing the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, becoming its first CEO.

“The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.” (Matthew 9:37)

Overall, Phinias played significant roles spanning the academic, leadership, administrative and political spheres.

He represents the best qualities of the Zimbabwean society, which the youth should emulate.

Two persons were influential during his active life: his mother — “she never wanted to argue with anyone; and, as a result, she won all arguments,” he once said — and his wife, Lydia, who was pivotal in his enterprising decisions.

They were married for 48 years.

We pray to have the great physicist, thinker and statesman rest in peace: “a poor player who is heard no more”

“The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight

But they while their companions slept

Were toiling upwards in the night. ” (Longfellow)

Engineer Kudzanai Chinyanga

Not all things went according to plan (in our road projects) because while planning was done in 2017, the money was secured in late April-May 2018 and again, we had outstanding projects for 2017.

Construction projects are not planned to be completed within a financial year; at times they straddle two financial years.

Once a project begins, it has to be completed, so we then said since we got the money late, we have to instruct that all the 2017 projects be completed before we start 2018 projects.

That is point number one. Number two, the money became available late because Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) had to go to the market to borrow the funds.

All road projects were affected equally. The Department of Roads, however, had a head start in that the Ministry of Finance initiated the Road Development Programme (RDP).

RDP is actual road construction that entails upgrading roads from gravel roads to tarred roads, including upgrading some from narrow mats — what we call a narrow mat is a narrow, tarred road — to wide-tar mats in all provinces.

So, in as far as roads are concerned, that programme was unveiled early and of course we had to be involved in the procurement processes.

We then noted that road authorities were struggling in terms of procuring equipment, hiring equipment (and) we had to follow procurement procedures; that is, to advertise, get responses and then we all congregate at the Procurement Regulatory Authority (of Zimbabwe).

So the Minister (of Transport and Infrastructure Development) instructed that we standardise rates for equipment.

We then engaged several stakeholders, including the OPC. In this case, we were using the Minister’s powers as the superior road authority.

Under the Road Act, the Minister has the responsibility of all roads in the country; other road authorities are using delegated authority.

So in this case, this administrative guideline was coming from him as the superior and the responsibility for roads that he carries.

We then negotiated what are deemed business rates, favourable business rates that came out I think in June.

What this means is that if you hire a grader, say, from Mutoko Rural District Council, you just pay the same as Harare City Council. It is no longer about where you are.

And we also have what we call mobilisation cost, where the owner will charge you for moving it onsite before starting work.

So work in road authorities started around July, and this opened up the field to everyone because now we could now hire a grader even from people who were not aware that we were hiring equipment.

Some of our businesspeople bought equipment specifically for use by housing cooperatives and land developers.

We got significant support considering that the country has a shortage of road-making equipment.

Price madness

Then came the October madness. It provided us with distortions on the market and we had stoppages where contractors were not willing to work.

They started coming in, demanding payments in foreign currency, but we said, no, let us all calm down, let’s see where this is taking us, we can’t panic, we can’t be reactive.

As Government, we needed to settle, we needed concrete things to happen than to work in a fluid environment. So we said those who are willing to work, we will continue working with you and pay you what we promised.

We also made provision for a 20 percent increase in rates across the board to try and cushion the contractors.

In fact, 20 percent is what the Ministry can provide legally. Beyond that, Praz will have to authorise.

And around Mid-November, we saw a lot of our contractors, those who had removed all equipment from site, come back.

Those who had mothballed operations also started to work.

Fuel

Then came the diesel challenge; the challenge came when our work was fairly advanced.

We are trying all we can to cushion our own contractors.

We then elicited the support of CMED as a fuel provider, where they could set up fuel supply points to supply our contractors with fuel.

And where there is real demand, real return for money, they have agreed to supply fuel to our contractors who are working on Mutare Road, Norton.

They have also set up a similar facility in Chivhu to take care of those who are doing that 10-kilometre section.

They have set up another fuel supply point along Beatrice.

So where we have a huge number of equipment, they will see the business sense of putting up such a facility, but when we have about three to five pieces, they are not obliged to do so.

But with other smaller road authorities, they cannot do that, so their contractors are struggling, but some big contractors would set up their own facility then find their own means of getting fuel.

We have no option but to continue working with our local contractors because that is what we call sustainable development.

If you don’t include and empower your own contractors, you will end up without an industry, we are very happy with their performance.

We are also happy to notice some improvements in that they are buying new equipment, which means their own businesses are growing.

They are employing full-time engineers and technicians, which means they realised that their businesses can grow.

So we will continue supporting them whenever we can.

Our projection is that, save for the fuel challenges that are national in outlook, we do not see our contractors failing to rise to the occasion.

They are ready and expect more work. Also, they now have confidence in Government’s programmes since there are no longer abrupt stoppages because resources are not there.

We have also adopted a culture of starting a new project only when there are sufficient financial resources to complete it.

Next year’s projects

For the 2019 Road Development Programme, we expect about $800 million and this includes money for the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge road, which is almost half that amount.

Of course, we will continue dualising our two projects, namely Harare-Gweru and Harare-Mutare.

Zinara will come in with another $60 million for routine and periodic maintenance.

Overall, it adds up to $860 million — that $60 million covers what we call the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) and this project is ending next year.

We have to complete the programme next year because it was meant to cover a declared emergency running over three years (2017-2019).

The only extension we would ask for is for projects that would not have been completed in 2019 when the resources are readily available.

We will then revert to our normal maintenance programmes.

This year, we had $272 million for road development programmes. For the ERRP, we had $40 million. More than $100 million has been used so far for the road development programme.

It is safe to say Government has been very supportive and committed to the programmes because all that money was released to IDBZ, so it is not like we are talking about money which is not there.

But that resource envelope is sitting at IDBZ right now, so road development programmes are ongoing.

Engineer Kudzanai Chinyanga is the director for road maintenance in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development. He was speaking to The Sunday Mail reporter Tanyaradzwa Kutaura last week.

Basil Nyabadza

The Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda), through various public-private partnerships, is already in every rural province.

In all the eight rural provinces, we have activity. In some cases, (activity) is at three or four Arda estates in each province.

We carry out livestock farming, plantations, cereals, horticulture and wildlife.

We believe that economic devolution is the best way forward in attaining Vision 2030, which is meant to establish an upper middle-income economy in 12 years’ time.

As such, we have made significant headway on cereals at the moment. We had to start with cereals as a way of boosting food security.

Nutrition is our next target through producing oil seed (soya bean, groundnuts and sunflower).

We are also pre-occupied with establishing plantations, mainly of fruit trees.

We are talking about macadamia, pickens, lemons, oranges, mangoes and guavas because these are dedicated export lines.

In Esigodini district, Matabeleland South, the processing plant is almost complete. We believe in early 2019 it should be commissioned.

The plant will trigger production of guavas, mangoes, tomatoes and butternuts under an active out grower programme that is rural-based.

In Chipinge district, Manicaland, we are stepping up and revitalising production of macadamia nuts.

We are establishing a plantation of 700 hectares in Mutasa district at Katiyo Tea Estate and the partner is already on site as I speak.

That will lead to a processing factory for avocadoes for dedicated exports to Europe, precisely France, Italy and Britain.

Under the devolution programme, Arda is revisiting key projects such as milling, bakeries, abattoirs and milk production.

We believe each of the eight rural provinces should have a minimum of those four projects that I have just outlined.

Currently, we have a crazy, uneconomic situation, where bread is baked in Marondera and delivered in Bulawayo.

Essentially, the journey to Bulawayo and back is about 950 kilometres, which burns diesel that we don’t produce as a country.

We also have a situation where maize is grown in Karoi, transported to Harare for milling and then taken to Kariba for resale as maize-meal. I believe this is not viable.

And who bears the cost of such extensive travelling?

We can never be competitive in the circumstances.

So, as Arda, we have already established a milling plant in Matabeleland South (Matobo district) next to our Arda Antelope Estate to retain value within the district.

Jobs will be created in the district and we will export mealie-meal to Bulawayo; so we regard Bulawayo Metropolitan Province as a consumer base.

This is what we are doing as Arda under the devolution plan: to see that what we have inherited — the economic system inherited yesterday — is made relevant and we become competitive.

If you look at current production patterns, most products come from rural areas but are processed in urban areas and marketed back to rural areas.

We are saying no to that business model.

That is what Arda wants to address in the next five years.

We are also working on timelines of our value addition and beneficiation programme and we believe we will have a clear position 36 months from now.

We have to change our vocabulary and question why are we importing bread, why are we importing milk, why we are importing mealie-meal – that’s what we will be asking each Minister of State.

We have got to retain value through production and processing of those products in respective provinces.

Arda board chair Basil Nyabadza was speaking to The Sunday Mail reporter Norman Muchemwa last week.

We continue chronicling the political life of Cde Jane Ngwenya. This week Cde Ngwenya tells The Sunday Mail’s Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarati about the formation of Zanu and her life in prison

***

Q: You mention a number of names as orchestrating the secret meetings to form another party. Obviously there should have been one or two most influential. Who were the ring leaders?

 A: The men who were in the forefront of moving out of Zapu to form Zanu were Mugabe and Sithole.

However, we now have some people with small minds who think the formation of Zanu was a result of differences along tribal lines; no that is not it.

The reason why they moved out of Zapu was because they thought Nkomo was delaying the armed struggle by pushing for negotiations with the whites.

It is known amongst us that Nkomo did not and even after the 1980’s Matabeleland disturbances, he did not want bloodshed.

In fact, Nkomo believed in talks and use of force was out of his way of doing things.

That is why even in 1980 he agreed to be part of the new Government, this is despite the fact that he was popular compared to Mugabe.

He, again, agreed to the Unity Accord in 1987 and further agreed we dump the name PF Zapu for Zanu-PF, despite the fact that Zanu – or later Zanu-PF – was an offshoot of Zapu.

Umdala Wethu was a man of concessions and believed in negotiations, that is why some people who don’t know him and later emerged in Zanu try to portray Nkomo as a coward.

No, it is wrong to see him that way. Yes we still have some tribal clashes here and there, but they are small because of the unifying role of Joshua Nkomo. I worked with him and I speak about him with authority.

I also worked with Robert Mugabe and I can speak about him with authority, because I know a lot about him and what kind of a man he is, very principled.

But the issue is Mugabe and Sithole were the front figures in Zanu and that party did not have support in the 1960 and 1970s.

Even when Mugabe returned to Zimbabwe in 1980, I am sure he doubted how he was going to be received.

This is because after the ceasefire, we came back from Zambia, Mozambique or Tanzania and people expected to see the party they knew – and it was Zapu.

A lot of clashes and hatred started when the idea to form a splinter party from Zapu first came up.

Like I said earlier, when we came back from Tanzania in 1962 after having met President Nyerere, there was a lot of tension because of the idea by Mugabe and company to form another party.

We knew of the plan but there was not enough evidence to nail them before they acted.

But interestingly, I remained close to Robert Mugabe and even in the wake of his ouster last year, we were close.

I should mention that when we were in Tanzania seeking the way forward in forming a government-in-exile, I was staying with Sally Mugabe.

I became close to Sally because of the language barrier as I would interpret in English any discussions made in Shona or isiNdebele.

Even after the formation of Zanu, we remained close despite the fact that I had remained in Zapu.

I remember on some occasions, while we were in Tanzania, Sally would complain to me that Robert Mugabe had been out almost the whole night and returned just after 4am.

Worse, Mugabe is a reserved person who listens a lot, so in those incidences he would not give a satisfactory explanation as to where he was.

But these leaders were engaged in a lot of meetings that took much of their time. However, women are jealous, so Sally’s suspicions was that her husband could have been out with other women.

Q: How did you personally handle the Zapu split because we hear you were accused of being in the same airplane in which Edson Zvobgo had flyers denouncing Nkomo?

A: In life you are excluded or included in certain things that you yourself fail to understand or find answers to.

I remained in Zapu because I could not fit in Zanu.

Though I remained in Zapu, I was aware some senior party members suspected me because I had also resided with Mugabe, who was now of Zanu. Mugabe stayed with me and I was a friend of Sally.

I even once accompanied Sally to her home country, Ghana, and met her mother. I went to Kumasi, where Sally’s father resided since her parents were divorced. That is when I got to understand that in their culture, children are raised from the mother’s side.

Back to the events building up to Zanu formation.

Zapu had been banned in September 1962 and these secret meetings, by those that later formed Zanu, were ongoing behind Nkomo’s back

Then Zapu members organised a conference for May 1963 at Cold Comfort Farm.

But Zanu had already laid its foundation and the day when the Zapu conference began Zanu was formed.

I attended the conference at Cold Comfort Farm after having arrived in the country the previous night.

I was accused of having information about Zanu since I had been on the same flight with Zvobgo, who was one of the Zanu masterminds.

The Cold Comfort Conference wanted to explain that there was discord brewing in the party as well as what had transpired in Tanzania with Nyerere.

But I was coming to the conference from London and having been on the same plane was Zvobgo.

I only saw Zvobgo after some hours on the plane, but I am sure he did not recognise me.

When the flyers issue came about, that is when I remembered that Zvobgo was in the company of other people I did not recognise and on the plane they were circulating some small papers amongst themselves seemingly approving their contents.

Therefore, my crime was that I was on the same plane with a man carrying leaflets with a message denouncing the Zapu leadership.

At the conference, a number of influential people in Zapu did not attend and these were the ones that formed Zanu. These splinter members increasingly talked of Nkomo’s weaknesses.

I was verbally assaulted like everyone else in Zapu. We were regarded as docile, confused, stupid and poor in decision making.

At the Cold Comfort Farm Conference I was elected Secretary for Women Affairs.

Zanu was to be formally formed at Enos Nkala’s house on 8 August 1963 led by Sithole, and two days later we formed the People’s Caretaker Council.

We, however, continued mobilising the masses against the white colonial government. We had established a firm foundation and the whites were now uncertain over our next political moves.

That is why in August 1964, the People’s Caretaker Council and Zanu were banned by Ian Smith.

Most of the nationalists were arrested or restricted with those from Zapu going to Gonakudzingwa in Gonarezhou, Masvingo while Zanu leaders we restricted at Sikombela in Gokwe

I was arrested in 1964 and sent to WhaWha prison for a month before being sent to Gonakudzingwa.

The first five people at Gonakudzingwa were Josiah Chinamano and his wife Ruth, Joshua Nkomo, Joseph Msika and Daniel Madzimbamuto.

The main reason why people were sent to Gonakudzingwa was that the place had animals such as lions and this was to instil fear in anyone who wanted to oppose the whites.

At the restriction camp, life was difficult. We were kept in structures made of corrugated iron sheets which were very hot in summer and very cold in winter.

The weather conditions were very harsh and some people even developed blisters in summer.

But when we started going there, something amazing began to happen. The area had small shrubs, but once we were there, trees began to grow.

Life was tough during these periods. Some people are now lying about the way they survived in prisons. Honestly, it was not easy.

The way we were treated in jail was very difficult and the whites wanted us to surrender and send a stern warning to those with potential to join us.

From Gonakudzingwa I was to be sent to Gweru Female Prison.

I remember seeing a big board inscribed “Home of Correction” when I got to the prison. The place sure was “a home of correction for those who had lost their minds and taken a political route”.

Life there was tough and the ill-treatment led me to confront one of the senior officers, Mrs Powers.

I remember telling her that she was the one who needed to be corrected on how to treat human beings. We were treated as mere slaves and it was really disgusting.

As a result of my confrontation, I was punished and put on a penal diet – a small portion of sadza, piece of meat and vegetables.

The penal diet was for a month and it left me skinny.

I should also mention that in Gweru I met the 12 girls from Mutoko. These people are not talked about. We used to call each other girls back then. This group was very brave and were united in all they did in prison.

The group of women had come to prison after having gone on a spree uprooting tobacco on about 15 white-owned farms in Mashonaland East.

They were saying their men were working hard for the whites but the salaries did not match their effort. I ended up being one of the most vocal in prison. I was like a leader to them.

But I have high respect for that group from Mutoko and most of us tend to forget other freedom fighters. It seems as if we have better fighters than others. The ones who really suffered during the liberation struggle are not given credit.

We suffered while we were in jail or detention centres. We had cold water poured on us in prison during winter and we would then spend the whole night standing because the floor would be wet. At Gweru prison we were fortunate that we had a magistrate coming there every Thursday to listen to our concerns.

But no one dared talk to the white magistrate. Blacks generally feared whites. However, after my completion of the penal diet punishment I said to myself, I would raise the issue of our treatment to the magistrate on his next visit.

I told the magistrate that we were aware the prison matron and her colleagues were taking food rations meant for us to their homes and feed us only on vegetables. I remember asking if we had been sentenced to death, because the treatment was meant to kill us.

As a result of that, living conditions improved, a bit, in prison. We got good food, clothes and we could even go and see doctors. But what pained me the most in prison was that I knew other prisoners were there for crimes such as murder and so forth, but as for me, I had not committed any criminal offence. The whites wanted to isolate me from the masses outside.

I could not sleep because I kept wondering for how long will I live in confinement. It is better to be told you live for 20 years in prison than just being held until further notice.

That is why I am in pain, I am angry over how some people now think they are more important. I know the struggles I went through.

To be continued next week

Editorial Comment

Anyone who has liaised with Chinese government officials on why their country took just 30 or so years to transform from a sprawling economic joke into the world’s second biggest economy are bound to hear one recurrent theme.

Of course, there is no single ingredient to economic success. Development requires a cocktail of measures, a potpourri of interventions that come together over time to deliver better, sustainable livelihoods.

Development theorists will proffer all manner of solutions, many certainly less effective than others. While theory is good, providing the hypothetical foundation needed for development-oriented action, it is much simpler to take away the practical example of a country that has lived the experience and is now a super power in its right.  So what is it the Chinese say about their development experience and how they contrast it with African countries?

Chinese government officials will tell you – and we will take the calculated liberty of paraphrasing- that: “We have embraced predictability. We plan long-term. In Africa, you’re unpredictable. In many countries in Africa, you never know who the president/prime minister will be tomorrow.”

If one is patient, senior Chinese state officials will gladly expound on this. They will explain how bitter experience has taught them to avoid long-term planning in many African countries. They will speak of how Africa’s preoccupation with politics has driven politicians to mold societies that easily swing to the extremes of the political spectrum of right wing and left wing. They will lament how populist posturing makes it difficult for investors to engage African governments. And they will conclude by asking for something as simple stability. It appears Zanu-PF, under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa since November 2017, has taken this to heart. The ruling party is moving boldly to foster a stable social, political and economic environment that will allow not only long-term planning, but will nurture structured implementation of those long-term plans.

The ruling party has done that firstly by enunciating an economic vision that seeks to steer Government on the path to establishing an upper middle-income economy by 2030. That is essentially a 12-year vision, and its supporting planks are shorter-term strategies, such as the Transitional Stabilisation Plan (2018-2020) that Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube unveiled this year.

Diligent implementation of the TSP and honest evaluation of overall progress as structured under the Rapid Results Initiative and 100-day ministerial plans will foster that economic stability that promotes productivity and attracts both domestic and foreign investment. Whatever plan succeeds the TSP must build on these initial planks from 2020 through to 2030. And the cadres that the ruling party seconds to Government must have this broader vision in mind, as well as appreciate the nitty-gritty of the practical implementation of the successive development plans that will take us to upper middle-income status by the stated target year. Which brings us to the second thing that the ruling party has done to encourage, and indeed entrench, the necessary stability for long-term planning.

At Zanu-PF’s 17th Annual National People’s Conference that ended in Esigodini yesterday, the ruling party made it clear that it had resolved to second Cde Mnangagwa to Government as President and Commander-in-Chief for the constitutional two terms.

The various organs of the party were clear on this, and Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga and National Chair Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri were unequivocal in their declaration that stability and long-term planning should trump narrow, uninformed personal ambition. Some sections of the notoriously anti-Zimbabwe media have claimed that Zanu-PF is already preoccupied with the 2023 harmonised polls and yet we have just come from a general election and the ruling party, through cadres seconded to Government, has only just started implementing the TSP.

They opine that this will breed instability by keeping the country chartered on a political course. The reality is that the people making these claims are actually turning the entire issue on its head. Rather than keeping the country “unnecessarily politicised”, the decision by the governing party to declare Cde Mnangagwa as its candidate puts to rest any potential factional, destabilising politicking that may arise.

The declaration at the Conference ensures the party and the Government it leads will focus on what Cde Mnangagwa has said it should: the economy.

There have been attempts by some individuals to divide the governing party’s leadership, in particular trying to create a rift between President Mnangagwa and his deputy VP Chiwenga. Obviously such characters are mostly found in the political opposition, which is quite expected of them after a thorough licking in the elections. What is disturbing is when rumours arise of some Johnny-come-lates within the governing party latching onto that false narrative of division at the top and in the process giving legs to shameless lies that otherwise would not have found a way to get around.

By stating loudly and clearly its political stabilisation plan (PSP), Zanu-PF is not merely putting to shame those who would prefer to engage in under-developing brinksmanship, it is establishing the environment necessary for its cadres to direct Government operations in a manner that takes us to the promise of 2030.

The TSP requires a PSP.

That said, it would also be good for the political opposition – specifically MDC Alliance – to start feeding into this key narrative of long-term stability. The opposition needs a PSP. The first step could be for them to finally be democratic and elect a leader for their long-suffering supporters with whom, as fellow Zimbabweans, we empathise and sympathise with. After all, President Mnangagwa has subjected himself for acceptance or rejection at both party and Government level.

It’s a lesson the election-fearing opposition could do well to learn.

Hala Al-Karib

The emancipation of women is one of the most significant aspects of social and cultural transformation around the world. Women are gradually moving to occupy more space in the public arena.

However, in Africa, the history and current dynamics of women’s emancipation movements are off the radar and often poorly documented beyond women associated with political parties, liberation movements, or NGOs which receive funding from the global North.

For years, African women have broken through multiple layers of alienation and repression, enduring slavery, colonialism, post-colonial state patriarchy and victimisation, further compounded by cycles of armed and civil conflict that have forced women into roles as combatants, survivors and victims.

The engagement of women in reconciliation and inter-communal peace is sidelined and superficially addressed in political processes.

Over the past 40 years, women — particularly poor women who are the majority of the continent’s population — have struggled with the impact of privatisation and open-market economies which, in turn, affected women workers, teachers, midwives, healers, farmers, and cattle herders.

They all lost their work in some form or another, as well as the opportunities to progress and engage in independent collective feminist movements.

For example, in Sudan and South Sudan, midwifery, nursing and teaching jobs were predominantly filled by women who had strong unions during the 1960s and 1970s.

These unions served as incubators for the feminist movement, where working women with access to rights discourse and collective actions took initiative to spread the message of women’s liberation and sought to lead by example.

Yet these jobs and the unions that accompanied them have totally collapsed since, with generations of women becoming un/under-employed and forced to surrender to dark social and economic realities.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the collapse of trade unions and privatisation led to, among other things, polarisation and armed conflicts across the region — exacerbating the problems faced by vulnerable women.

Those who were forced to adjust — commonly by migrating to urban centres and across borders in search of alternative work — assumed any form of livelihood available to them, such as vending, domestic work, petty trading and low-paid service jobs.

Subsequently, the women’s movement lost its collective power. Women lost their solidarity, their connection to each other and most significantly and sadly, their capacity to engage in politics collectively because they had been uprooted, displaced and polarised.

The civil space in the Horn of Africa is now fully occupied by NGOs.

For the past 40 years, we have been living in times of what I regard as “the NGO-isation of civil space”, where the language and rhetoric of gender equality is mostly generated by international NGOs.

The challenge of NGO-isation is that it is predominantly subject to the imagination, assumptions, and interest of Northern funding institutions and their surrogates.

For example, challenging female genital mutilation (FGM) has been a priority issue that dominated the work on women’s human rights across the Horn of Africa for over 40 years – meaning that to be an activist for women’s rights and gender equality, one is obligated to work on and speak out about FGM – constructing a distorted view of what it means to be a women’s rights activist and institution.

This has occurred despite the fact that women in this region have a long history of political and social struggle, which endures to this day.

Yet most Northern institutions reduce women’s rights and violations against women to a one-dimensional fight against FGM.

Without a doubt, FGM is a violation of women and girls’ rights — but it is a symptom of a deeply-rooted culture that seeks to undermine and subordinate women by controlling their bodies, a culture that has been nourished and fed by ultra-conservative political regimes.

Nobody needs the headache of politics

Consequently, most women’s organisations turned into passive spaces where people don’t “do” politics. The work on women’s rights has become more focused on PR and the presumed activists became elites competing over resources and privileges.

In this context, the rhetoric of gender mainstreaming becomes a box-ticking exercise while minimising the root causes of women’s subordination and the politics behind that subordination.

The few publicly-aware activists become the outsiders, bearers of bad news, and are often labelled as too difficult — too political.

This de-politicisation of the women’s movement is extremely dangerous for the future of African women. It has already influenced generations of younger women in our part of the world, causing them to aspire to work for NGOs on women’s rights to claim social and economic privileges rather than making any meaningful change.

In countries where the majority struggle with accessing basic human needs, the local NGO elites use their positions to gain privilege while making a point of avoiding the pain of politics.

But the conversation about women’s rights and building the women’s agenda cannot be attained without political activism.

#MeToo in Africa

The #MeToo movement has been crucial in exposing settled power relations that relay the subordination of women. However, even in the Northern context, a movement like #MeToo can easily be aborted and manipulated by the powerful patriarchal system if it is not clearly defined and structured against the patterns of power relations that are designed to undermine women and marginalised people.

#MeToo could eventually be co-opted under the current global trends of growing conservatism and socioeconomic polarisation.

This is why, as African women, we need to refrain from blindly following Northern dynamics and rhetoric when it comes to the women’s rights agenda, and think very carefully about our own #MeToo movement.

The African #MeToo must be based on and informed by the complex realities of our experiences.

Women have spoken out in Africa since long ago — but in a vacuum.

Our judicial institutions are still lagging behind on human rights and justice and they are predominantly patriarchal in nature.

Therefore, it is important for women’s rights activists to foreground their political understanding while pursuing equality and justice.

We live in societies where violence is legitimised and deeply integrated into our laws and cultural norms. Polygamy is rampant and most of our countries do not have personal status laws that observe women’s rights and humanity.

Sexual violence remains a feature of women’s lived realities. Of late, waves of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism are spreading and finding a fertile playground to institutionalise misogyny in our societies.

The question is: To what extent are the current modalities of intervention prioritised by Northern governments and surrogates contributing to women’s movements in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere in the continent?

Risks

There is no doubt that international support has played, and is playing, a significant role in enabling the continued existence of a women’s rights discourse in Africa. Nevertheless, Northern support has largely controlled the women’s rights and gender equality agenda along with our imagination, ultimately reducing our capacity as activists to own the conversation.

More significantly, the providers of international support have been allowed to decide what constitutes activism’s successes and failures, and who can be recognised as legitimate activists.

Thus, many groups without a drop of activist spirit in their blood, whose stance completely contradicts the ideological needs and the essence of feminism and women’s rights, are promoted haphazardly because they comply with the regimented terms of engagement (the rules of the game).

On the other hand, activists who struggle to own the agenda have to stay under the radar and are often stigmatised as being “too political”.

Moreover, most of the current modalities of Northern support to the South are heavily merchandised. Work on social change and gender equality is gradually being turned into a commodity under the claim of addressing corruption and taking control of resources and spending.

In the past 20 years, USAID and the UK government have channelled the majority of their resources to developing countries through private companies.

These types of sub-contracting companies who act solely based on financial calculations were put in control to engage on extremely complex issues, including peace and reconciliation, sexual violence, anti-terror and others.

These entities lack not only expertise and knowledge but also the genuine interest and empathy that would qualify them for a role within local civil society.

Today, the engagements between the North and South on women’s rights are not based on solidarity as they are supposed to be.

Instead, the rhetoric of gender equality and women’s rights is being used by northern institutions to capitalise on these ideas.

Conservatism which is now dominant in many of these institutions is encouraging the de-politicisation of women’s movements, as it has no real interest in a growing African women’s movement and social transformation.

This cannot lead to the change we need. We cannot talk about change and movement-building under these terms of engagement. Unless fundamental and brave reforms occur, human rights, women’s rights and social development will be overtaken by merchandise institutions.

Women’s movements are political movements.

They are about power relations, political positions and goals, engaging in politics beyond mere representation, rather as conscious constituencies that have clear aims and tools for resistance and are dedicated to values of solidarity.

Women activists and feminists around the world should always remember that our engagement in women’s rights is based on what we have suffered and continue to suffer.

As African feminists and activists for women’s rights and equality, let us never forget that the burden is ours to carry, and to own.

Hala Al-Karib is the Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA).

Sharon Munjenjema

Cases of human-wildlife conflict plummeted by 39 percent to 198 this year from 323 cases recorded last year, it has emerged.

Unsurprisingly, fatalities resulting from the clashes fell to 25 from 34 in 2017.

“Generally, cases of fatal human-wildlife conflict decreased this year compared to last year.Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) public relations manager Mr Tinashe Farawo attributed the progress made thus far to awareness campaigns.

“We attribute this to the awareness programmes we continue to carry out in communities.

“We have partnered with different organisations to promote awareness, especially in areas close to national parks. Wildlife attacks on tourists continue to occur. We urge the public, especially during this festive season, to be wary of wild animals,” he said.

Tourists, he added, should stop encroaching into wild animal spaces, particularly by attempting to take ‘selfies’ with them. Of the 198 cases of human-wildlife conflict reported this year, the Authority managed to attend to 175 of them.

At least 34 cases of crocodile attacks on humans and livestock were recorded, resulting in the death of 16 people, while nine were injured. Among those injured is a local female tourist who lost an arm in a crocodile attack that occurred five days before her wedding, with her story attracting international headlines.

The incident took place while she was canoeing along the Zambezi River (Victoria Falls) with her fiancé early this year. There were 37 cases of elephant attacks, which resulted in seven fatalities.

Five people were injured by the jumbos.

Human-wildlife conflict incidences involving hippos and buffaloes occurred 26 and 13 times, respectively. One person died and two were seriously injured in hippo attacks, while one person was gored to death by a buffalo.

Further, although there were 36 cases of lion attacks, they did not result in any fatalities.

Overall, 67 cattle, 105 goats and 17 donkeys were lost to predatory animals. Zimparks has had to put down 40 wild animals in areas where attacks were recurring.

Mr Farawo said, “When an animal has become a threat to society, we have to eliminate it and this year, we eliminated about 40 of them.

“Crocodile attacks are the most problematic. We advise the public to treat all water bodies with suspicion. We have lost so many lives due to crocodile attacks and most of the victims are caught unaware doing laundry, fishing etcetera.”

Statistics from Zimparks show that human-wildlife conflict is most notorious in southern parts of the country.

The Authority plans to set up permanent bases in human-wildlife conflict-prone areas that are prepared to promptly respond to distress calls from affected communities.

Government is also in the process of establishing a fund that will compensate victims of human-wildlife conflict.

Clifford Sileya

Problems and misunderstandings between Zanu and Zapu necessitated the Unity Accord of 22 December 1987.
After the 1980 elections, the then-Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, incorporated members of Zapu into Government. But at some stage, there was a discovery of a weapons cache on some Zapu farms, which I believe created the crisis.

There were some arguments whether the weapons were known or not known and so on.

Government tried to clamp down on disturbances arising from the discovery of the arms cache and dissidents in the Matabeleland regions and Midlands.

Actually people don’t know that the Unity Accord started almost by accident.

The late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, came to State House to see President Canaan Banana in the company of his brother, wife and his aunt.

He said “President Banana, I have come to bid you farewell, I have had enough, I cannot stay in this country.”

They argued, as President Banana continued to insist “You cannot go anywhere, muri mudzimu weZimbabwe.”

Dr Nkomo literally broke down. It was an emotional and moving moment.

And Banana for a moment alone with Nkomo. He told us later that he had spoken to Nkomo and had also phoned the Prime Minister (Mugabe).

This was a misunderstanding within the family, we are one family, we can talk as a family.

Although there was Zapu and Zanu, they were all the Patriotic Front when they were prosecuting the war, and Mugabe and Nkomo were joint leaders of the Patriotic Front.

So Banana said “look, guys, you are together and ideologically there is no difference between Zanu and Zapu, and there is nothing that we cannot talk and agree.”

Basically, the advantage with Banana was the he was Zanu and Ndebele and his family was Zapu, so he was acceptable to both camps.

In fact, he had the advantage of being acceptable to both sides.

He played a crucial role in the talks because as far as they were concerned, he was an honest broker.

They — the two parties — formed their teams.

The Zapu team was led by Joseph Msika, John Nkomo and Thenjiwe Lesabe and quite a number of other people, while Zanu team was led by Simon Muzenda, Maurice Nyagumbo, Enos Nkala , (and) Munodawafa, among other people.

So President Banana usually would bring them together for discussions.

I was tasked to do the minutes of their discussions and give them to President Banana, who would look into them and forward them to Prime Minister Mugabe.

As principals, Zapu leader Nkomo and Zanu leader Mugabe would discuss progress made by their teams.

Serious talks started around March/April 1987 and dragged until the eventual signing of the Unity Accord in December 1987.

People don’t realise that Nkomo and Mugabe went back a long way during the Zapu days when Mugabe served under Nkomo.

At a personal level, their relationship was cordial although the involvement of dissidents soured their relationship to some extent.

Even when Zapu people were expelled from Government, they remained Members of Parliament and they would regularly meet their Zanu counterparts in Parliament and State occasions.

I remember at one point in time when we were preparing Independence celebrations and deciding who should seat where, the Zapu people where accommodated.And these people would talk to each other outside Parliament.

Banana and Nkomo were also very close. Nkomo rarely called him President. He used to call him mfundisi. These relationships helped in preparing ground for the Unity Accord.

Basically, when we had the Government of National Unity (inclusive Government) between Zanu-PF and MDC, it was a totally different scenario with Zapu and Zanu (arrangement) because ideologically, it was one family, one ideology and one history as well.

The main issue basically was to unite the parties.

President Banana always said “look, when I read this situation, I don’t see any problem between Mugabe and Nkomo, and the problem is coming from the lower ranks.”

I remember at one point in time he said to Enos Nkala and Maurice Nyagumbo, “You are against the unity for the simple reason that if Nkomo comes, if Chinamano, Msika comes, they are higher than you — muchadzika in the hierarchy.

However, they both denied the allegations (of trying to derail the talks)

Before the 1985 elections, Nkala and Nyagumbo told then-Prime Minister that Zanu was going to win in Matabeleland because all the Zapu members we now on their side.

Then the intelligence guys came and requested to see the President.

They told the President that “mukutaurirwa makuhwa nana Nkala, people go to Zanu meetings in army trucks but they will walk by foot to Zapu meetings, they will not vote for Zanu.”

Banana then brought that to Mugabe’s attention, but Nkala insisted and said the President is not in touch.

Come election time, Zanu did not win a single seat in Matabeleland.

All the meetings were being held at State House. The working party — half Zanu and half Zapu — met at State House, and I would record the minutes of the meetings.

Then Zapu and Zanu principals — Mugabe and Nkomo — with President Banana and their teams would meet at Munhumutapa Offices. Willard Chiwewe was the secretary there.

Days preceding the signing of the Unity Accord were wonderful days, you could see the eagerness in the negotiating teams and the principals that they were determined to bring the people of Zimbabwe together.

You could sense even the general feeling amongst Zimbabweans, you could see that every Zimbabwean was looking forward to the day.

There were serious disturbances in the country and in some parts where the army was not present, these were no-go areas. The Unity Accord brought peace and relief to the people of Zimbabwe.

That was a dividend to the people of Zimbabwe, people would walk freely and do their business together without any disturbances.

It also brought the nation together.

People would plan together with one agenda, working in peace and unionism.

The previously expelled ministers of Zapu came back into Government, the likes of Joseph Msika, John Nkomo, Cephas Msipa and Chinamano all came back to Government.

It was no longer a them-and-us attitude, but people were now working together in peace for the development of the country.

Nothing defeats unity, nothing defeats oneness, and unity must come out from deep, shared values.

It’s not something that you will coerce people to do.

Ideologically, you must have a common base, something that you share as one people. Differences are bound to be overcome if you have one goal.

So you can never develop industry and the economy without a peaceful environment. People must be free to go to their places of work, be free to go home after work and be free to engage in matters that are important.

Peace creates a shared sense of purpose. My message to the people of Zimbabwe is that unity is peace and peace has many dividends at personal, commercial and industrial level.

There are many dividends that accrue from peace, that accrue from unity, that accrue when people are singing from the same sheet.

Peace must be preserved at all costs, let us always cherish the effort that was invested to make us a united people.

Mr Clifford Sileya, who was the principal private secretary to the late former President, Canaan Banana, was speaking to The Sunday Mail reporter Norman Muchemwa on his recollections of circumstances surrounding Unity Day.

Lincoln Towindo

An army donning nothing remotely linked to a camouflage – apparels made from a tapestry of red, yellow, black and green colours – invaded the usually sleepy environs of Esigodini, Matabeland South, a fortnight ago.
Their mission couldn’t have been any clearer: defining the course that will affect the lives of more than 13 million souls that call Zimbabwe home.

Zanu-PF, which attained an overwhelming mandate after getting more than two-thirds in the House of Assembly in the July 30 harmonised elections, now shapes Government policy.

The party is now supreme to Government.

Having run a campaign focussing on putting the economy – and with it the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans who remain squeezed by a stressed economy – back on the rail, the party’s focus at the 17 Annual National People’s Conference held a fortnight ago was on keeping the eye on the ball.

As National Party Chair Mrs Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who was in charge of proceedings, said, there is need to fulfil promises that were made to the electorate.

“These events have led us to converge here in Esigodini as we gather in unity to introspect, reflect, deliberate, plan and resolve on how best to successfully fulfil our promises made to Zimbabweans during the elections,” she said in her opening remarks.

New trajectory

Billed as a potentially epoch-shaping indaba; one that would see the revolutionary party reconnect with its traditional values and redirect discourse towards economic development ahead of intra-party fights, the conference did not disappoint.

Gone was yesteryear’s rhetoric of splendid isolation and in its place a sound message of diplomacy, re-engagement and development.

The narrative of unity, for long cast to the back burner, resurfaced with aplomb owing to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s patient cajoling and redirection of the party towards cohesion over the last year.

However, amid the celebrations and festivities, focus was on mapping the way forward, with particular focus on the national economy.

And major decisions were indeed made.

Unsurprisingly, key proposals in agriculture, the lifeblood of the economy, were put on the table.

Noting the economy’s reliance on agriculture and the need to leverage the sector for accelerated economic development, the party directed Government to immediately facilitate the construction of dams, de-silt existing ones and hasten water harvesting.

It was also resolved that the selection for Command Livestock be revised in order to make it inclusive and biased towards deserving farmers.

The revolutionary party also emphasised the need to fast-track ease of doing business reforms in line with the aspirational goal to promote both domestic and international investment.

Further, the push for a simple and business friendly tax system was made.

The obtaining three-tier pricing regime, which has brought considerable discomfort to the transacting public, did not escape the attention of delegations.

Government, it was also agreed, has to renew its focus on infrastructure development in order to provide the major building blocks for development.

The laundry list of proposals was as exhaustive as it was relevant.

President Mnangagwa succinctly noted that the deliberations and subsequent prescriptions would naturally give Government the guidance and oomph to pursue its agenda.

“The resolutions of this conference will help us as Government to be more focused, guided by the will of the people.

“We value all the constructive contributions with regards to all the sub-sectors of the economy – agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism infrastructure, energy, ICTs and social services – and we promise to do our best,” he said.

Recognising the need for political stability as the plinth on which economic development will be built on, the party unanimously agreed to endorse President Mnangagwa as the party’s candidate for the 2023 elections.

An urgent and elaborate restructure of the party was also recommended and adopted.

Glamour

But the weighty agenda of the Conference didn’t stop party fashionistas and merrymakers from doing what they know best.

The razzamatazz, the glitz and the glamour was all too apparent for all to see, from the colourful party apparel, high-end entertainment, cultural diversity and an unrelenting show of political force.

Even on the opening day, delegates started streaming in at dawn as youths arrived in song and the elderly doddering in slowly in rhythmic unison.

The unrelentingly scorching sun of Matabeleland South failed to deter the scores of delegates queuing at security check points for screening.

With nearly all delegates dressed in colourful party regalia, the multi-purpose marque set up at the centre of Umzingwane High School, the venue for the indaba, seemed to have been drowning in a sea of red, green and yellow.

As to be expected, conversations revolved around the new direction of the party.

Inside the marque, the continued carnival atmosphere threatened to overwhelm the giant structure.

Stewards and security detail had a tough time controlling the frenzied delegates as they danced, wriggled and whined to anything that sounded like music.

Delegates from individual provinces battled to outdo each other on the dance floor; so did the boisterous Youth League and the remarkably energetic Women’s League delegates.

But proceedings were smooth and seamless, which clearly indicated the detail and fastidious effort of the organising committee.

Gone was the disorderliness of past conferences, a sign of lessons having been learnt from the past.

On offer was high speed Wi-Fi, an excellent PA system and reasonably comfortable air conditioning.

Amid animated conversation, sloganeering and comradely banter, the delegates were in celebration mode.

The event was, after all, a celebration following the party’s success in the July 30 Harmonised Elections.

After witnessing such breathtaking efficiency and organisation, it might be hard to disagree with President Mnangagwa’s contention that the country “is in safe hands”.

Retired Justice Selo Nare

Zimbabwe’s Unity Day, which is celebrated on 22 December every year, lays background to the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC).

After the political conflict which took place in Matabeleland in the early 1980s, where, according to our investigations, people lost their lives, there had to be some peace accord somewhere, and it lays the basis for peace and reconciliation.

That is where the foundations of peace and reconciliation started.

For me, this is the underlying background of peace.

As of the reconciliation part, a lot of people are still hurt by the conflict relating to what is termed by Gukurahundi and, hence, they need that healing.

That healing is very necessary; and for healing to take place, there must be a peace accord that must come and then people reconcile.

Once they have reconciled in whatever form, whether in form of some reparation, maybe they need some apology, as we have indicated.

All this is necessary and very important.

People must then recognise that without peace and healing, we cannot move forward as a nation.

We cannot realise progress, stability and economic development without peace and healing; hence, in 2013, Parliament found it necessary to pass an Act — the National Peace and Reconciliation Act — prescribing what was expected of the nation in order to heal.

There were, and still are, divisions as regards to the healing process.

Some people are now taking advantage of the situation, especially from a political perspective, where reparation is asked for when the other people have not called for it.

Some political parties have also seen this as a way of gaining monetary and political mileage.

Thus, at times it has become a bit difficult for us to visit certain areas without having to be criticised.

There are differences also from some chiefs.

I believe the chiefs, as the general custodians of the people, are prepared to help talk to their subjects on peace.

I believe with such a scenario the healing process will take a bit of time because there are other people who come in with a political agenda.

We have invited some political parties to our meetings and workshops, given them our strategic documents; however, they are still adamant that much must have been done as of yesterday.

They have even come up with a view that since the Motlanthe Commission has made its findings and given recommendations, “why are you not doing the same?”

However, we always tell them that Rome was not built in a day.

We continue to value their input and they are part of our journey.

The journey was started by my predecessor, the late Cyril Ndebele, and they had started by looking at other jurisdiction such as South Africa, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and many other countries that had similar political conflicts.

We then came in with strategic plans where we invited other stakeholders for us to fulfil our mandate to operate throughout the country.

So far, we have followed the route in training and preparing our way, and this was necessary because the Act had not been signed.

In between that era and the time my commissioners were sworn-in, there was a lot of capacity building with the help of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).

We started strategic planning with stakeholders and came to the implementation part of it; we have in some areas completed the peace committees.

We have numbered our interests, we have put in place what we want.

In June, when we met in Bulawayo, we agreed that we should start with the national elections that were held in July.

We preached peace. We travelled the whole of Zimbabwe in what we deemed the Peace Caravan.

We believe these and other measures put in place by Government led to peaceful elections.

Despite these campaigns, violence erupted in Harare and the commission was involved in dialogue with the involved parties such as the police, the military and the political parties.

However, at this point in time, going into the New Year, we will be focusing on disturbances in Matabeleland that happened during the 1980s and we will begin dialoguing with people in the area and, with the help of Government, providing transport.

We have been challenged by people who have said “where you are? the people need healing.”

Some people are saying “if Government is determined to resolve this matter, why can’t you do it the Motlanthe Commission way? Where you go and have meetings with the people affected.”

Hence our meetings with the chiefs, the custodian leaders, who have said they will help us.

We have to talk to the people, it is the people who will give us the answers.

Here is a problem that happened during this period, how do you think we can handle it?

At this point in time, it is not only the people who are resident in Matabeleland who can help us with the way forward and in with our mandate of providing healing.

Even people in the Diaspora have made suggestions; their suggestions will give us a way forward.

After that, we can forward a report to Parliament.

Already, I have received a document from people in the Diaspora. They would like to meet the commission, they have made suggestions, as regards to reparation, and the low-hanging fruits which relate to matters that Government can do to heal the nation.

For instance, those that are without birth certificates, whose parents were killed during Gukurahundi, we are inviting Government if it can declare a moratorium, where the chief can certify relationships between the deceased and those in need of the documents.

I am glad that the Motlanthe Commission spoke about reparation for those losses. This is one area that was discussed when we visited many areas in Matabeleland.

People want birth certificates, jobs and development.

However, politically, there is an acceptance element in these areas that the present Government is doing a lot in order to accommodate the people.

The people testify that there is development in some areas and recognition of people that have played a role in Government are being recognised.

For instance, the late Professor Phenias Makhurane being declared a national hero, although he was buried at his homestead.

What needs to be done now is for the commission to carry on with its mandate so that healing and reconciliation begins.

Resources must be made available for us to carry out this mandate and visit those areas.

Presently, if you attend the meetings of the chiefs, they have taken the decision that they should be involved in the dialogue.

Recently, in Lupane we were challenged to meet the grassroots and we believe we should do that.

However, we cannot do that without the resources.

In addition, the commission should not be confined and limited to the Matabeleland situation only.

As NPRC, we are dealing and seized with different situations and conflicts.

Post elections, we had two officers who gave evidence to the Motlanthe Commission — that is the role we played.

We have also dealt with the Chiadzwa situation, where we were invited, where the people in Chiadzwa believe that they need to benefit from the diamonds. Politically, we have covered other areas in Mashonaland Central, we have also covered areas in Matabeleland South where there is gold and there were machete conflicts.

However, these are not the only areas that have experienced conflict; thus, there is need for the commission to move around the country with this message of peace, reconciliation and healing so that we move forward as a nation.

Retired Justice Selo Nare is the chairperson of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. He was speaking to The Sunday Mail reporter Debra Matabvu in the capital last week.

Yesterday Zimbabwe celebrated Unity day — The day when Zanu-PF and PF Zapu signed the historic Unity Accord to foster unity and peace in this country. We hope this day was not celebrated as mere routine but that it afforded all and sundry an opportunity to self-introspect as we seek to uphold harmony in this great nation of ours.

The Second Republic has embarked on a growth trajectory that can only be sustained through peace and unity. Without these critical ingredients very little can be achieved.

The Unity Accord was signed by the two parties as they represented all Zimbabweans, as an enduring symbol for unity and it remains for all of us to foster peace and ensure the desires and aspirations then continue to be propagated as we take Zimbabwe to the next level.

Unity is a currency through which Zimbabwe and any nation for that matter, can realise its goals and aspirations. The success of Vision 2030 will lean on a strong and united force that will have enough stamina to confront challenges that stand in the way now and in the future. Therefore, we can never overemphasise the need for real unity and peace in the development discourse.

There is nothing macho about anyone seeking to bring disharmony into the nation and it is our fervent hope that the MDC Alliance comes to the party sooner rather than later.

Presently they score very badly on this front as they continue to threaten peace with their hate speech and riotous behaviour in some instances. We hope sense will soon prevail in that camp so they can begin to seek peace and help rebuild Zimbabwe.

Populist speeches and negative actions perpetuate an atmosphere of disunity and have destructive tendencies that destroy where others are building.

Posterity will judge us harshly if this negative mode is not abated.

Zimbabweans need to join hands in ensuring a peaceful environment that can engender the prosperity that we all aspire to achieve. In this vain, any institution or individual involved in any divisive behaviour needs to stand guided.

The prosper-thy-neighbour concept can be firmly grounded in our nation only if there is unity. This is not just about Ubuntu but emphasises the unity and peace that we so cherish. Being our brother’s keeper symbolises the harmony that should come almost naturally.

The Second Republic hardly has time for any destructions but requires a united and formidable force that will take this country to the proverbial Canaan.

Words by President Mnangagwa on the eve of the July 30 harmonised elections were quite instructive:

“We remain one people with one dream and sharing one destiny. We sink or swim together which is why in unison we must sing one national anthem.

This should be the guiding principle of all we do individually or collectively. Challenges in our economy demand that we work together with a common vision to achieve our goal of ensuring Zimbabwe realises its potential as a major economic powerhouse, and with it an improved standard of living for its citizenry.

Right from day one President Mnangagwa has emphasised the importance of unity for Zimbabwe to realise its dream of a middle income economy by 2030 and other socio-economic goals that drive this country.

We have very little excuse not to deliver.

The country is endowed with natural and human resources and these can be fully exploited and applied through unity of purpose and a deliberate effort to foster peace.

The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission has already begun to make headway in bringing peace to a number of areas where this has been difficult due to a myriad of reasons, mostly political.

Elsewhere in this paper we carry an article that enunciates the NPRC’s programme and its roadmap. This is one initiative set to bring sustainable peace.

The challenges confronting this economy will be easily surmountable if peace and unity prevail and the onus is on all of us to ensure that peace happens.

Let us all work towards fostering peace in families, communities and the nation at large. It is about time we transformed our potential as a force to reckon with into reality. It is everyone’s responsibility. The old adage that united we stand, divided we fall remains relevant.

Munyaradzi Hwengwere
So Zimbabweans fretted and vented about the shortage of Coca Cola over the festive season. Curiously, even grown-ups who found the funny side of it had to take to social media to cynically explain why the sugary water had become scarce. The symbolism is obvious: essentially, there is an attempt to explain the shortages within the context of a deteriorating economy.

There also seems to be a proud affirmation that Zimbabwe’s success story must be defined not so much by how much she produces, but essentially by what she eats and how much she eats.

Apparently, for many, it seems crucial issues such as changing weather conditions and their impact on local agriculture is not something worth discussing.

Even the miracles being performed by our small-scale miners through huge deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners is not the story for economists and analysts.

For them, these are boring stories.

Instead, they would rather preoccupy themselves with stories on the country’s ability, or lack thereof, to satisfy its sweet tooth and cravings. For the avoidance of doubt, we make no qualms about society’s cravings for food.

Without man’s love for the finer things in life — especially food — capitalism would die.

Food cravings are inherently natural.

However, the challenge for most developing countries, including our own, is how to set their priorities.

In our case, production is secondary to consumption. Somehow we believe we have a God-ordained mission to eat, whether we have produced or not.

US-dollar salaries

The economy is admittedly under stress and it seems it has become the norm to demand salaries in US dollars.

Teachers recently walked hundreds of kilometres to petition Government to be paid in “Benjamins.”

Our beloved Members of Parliament also fought doggedly and passionately to get their share of the cake. In fact, they actually took the 2019 National Budget hostage and held the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Prof Mthuli Ncube, to ransom by threatening to pass the Budget only after their demands – including for luxurious vehicles – were met.

Where the money would come from to meet these tastes does not seem to bother our professionals and legislators.

The tragedy is that there appears to be a collective inability to comprehend that we have to produce first before we eat. We have also failed to properly contextualise present problems and chosen to characterise them as a currency issue instead of a production one.

Our economic challenges are two-pronged: they are both on the domestic (fiscal) and external trade front.

We have chosen to consume rather than save and direct our resources to building our productive capacity.

Figures from Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe indicate that in 2018 alone, we earned more $6 billion in export receipts. It might be important to note that we are among the highest earners of foreign currency in Africa.

Rwanda, whose economic miracle is driving remarkable growth in the East African country, only earns a fraction of what we generate. Our challenge, however, lies in the way in which we use our resources.

It seems we continue to import consumption goods with reckless abandon.

For example, on a month-on-month basis, our trade deficit tops $100 million owing to unremitting imports of luxury goods. In some cases, the imported products can ordinarily be produced in our own country.

Competitive “local currency”

An analysis of the black market foreign currency exchange rates, or premium currency market – as the Finance Minister would like to call it – shows that our currency situation is not as bad as it is made out to be.

In fact, the obtaining currency situation has presented an opportunity for Zimbabwe to enhance her productive capacity and increase revenues.

The so-called premium rate presently hovers between 2,7 to 3,5 RTGS to the US dollar. At this rate, the surrogate currency is, therefore, comparatively stronger than some regional currencies.

South Africa – the continent’s biggest economy and our major trading partner – has a currency (the rand) that is trading at 14:1 with the US dollar.

Conversely, with 1 bond note one can get close to 4 rand. The same can be said for countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Namibia.

While there is some discomfort when a currency loses value, a stronger currency is not necessarily in the best interests of the economy. The currency wars between USA and China are quite instructive.

Washington accuses Beijing of pegging its currency at a lower rate in order to prop up its exports. Likewise, Japan, which is one of the world’s largest export economies, has always been mindful that a stronger yen would hurt its export competitiveness.

As such, the Asian country always actively seeks ways to ensure its currency does not trade at par with the US dollar. But most importantly, most of these major economies are very clear that their national currencies are anchored on increased productive capacity and competitiveness.

To them, currencies are simply a means to an end, and not an end in themselves. Zimbabweans, too, must understand that our premium-rated currency provides greater opportunities to procure critical raw materials and develop our internal capacity to produce and export.

Overall, what we have lost from a strong currency, we can gain from broader markets. We must also note with satisfaction that imported products have not become cheaper than locally produced commodities in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), which must be a boon for local companies.

In fact, the outcry over Coca Cola shortages shows that the imported option for the same drink has not come easy. Given the strength of the bond note against the rand, it should not be a challenge to opt for the imported one, if one could afford.

Encouragingly, we have come to realise that the local product is cheaper.

The influx of imported products that was envisaged, especially after the suspension of import restrictions on select products, has not happened.

Economics has emerged as the biggest winner. Equally, Zimbabwean products that had no market only four months ago, now have ready markets outside our borders because of soaring demand.

The country has internally devalued and significantly enhanced competitiveness. There is an opportunity in our current troubles and authorities must never be tempted to sway and create conditions where these imports are better priced than local products.

This problem is a Godsent opportunity to turn around the economy.

If you think of it, the shortage of Coca Cola is actually a demonstration that if local beverage company Delta gets its act right, both local and even export markets are theirs for the taking.

The question then is: what must we do to ensure our local producers exploit the evident gaps?

Put differently, instead of listening to consumerist-minded crybabies, what is it that we must do to direct our businesses to abundant opportunities as well as change the negative mindset?

While the fiscal side appears to be slowly creeping back to doing things right, there is need to urgently direct foreign currency to only those companies that have higher local content.

What would it take if the RBZ would support only companies with an import substitution road map? What would it also take to gradually reduce the country’s import bill by allowing those that have the capacity to import their own fuel?

What would it take to redirect foreign currency from the fuel sector to productive sectors of the economy such as manufacturing and agriculture?

We also need to tell the Zimbabwean story better. At the heart of all the noise is a frustration that the Zimbabwean dream has gone down the drain.

Rather than see the rainbow, and the advances being made on many fronts, many have dug themselves into collective mourning. Sadly, our culture industry, especially the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation, for one reason or the other, has miserably failed to align its storytelling capacity in ways that transform the national mindset.

Instead, doomsday leaders on social media and other communication platforms seem to be the ones directing the national mood. In all markets that have done well, significant investments have gone into the culture industry.

The USA, UK and even Iran have taken time to position the communication sector at the centre of development.

In Zimbabwe, we believe their role is peripheral. We must make 2019 a year where we change the collective mindset because things are not as bad as they can potentially be.

However, if we continue pressing the self-destruct button as we seem to be doing by investing and generating a lot of negative energy, we will wake up to realise we missed a glorious opportunity to prosper.

Feedback: munya.hwengwere@gmail.com

Darlington Musarurwa News Editor
It is very difficult to forecast what might possibly happen in 2019 – after all, forecasting is not an exact science – but one thing is certain: the overbearing negativity will definitely follow us into the New Year.

As a country, we seem to be irrationally obsessed with negativity. Even when we are given reason to hope, we choose to be hopeless; when we are given reason to do, we choose to undo; and most worryingly, when we are given reason to believe, we choose to disbelieve.

Notwithstanding encouraging progress in exports, agricultural and mining output, including exceptional performance in tourism, many are already predicting doom and gloom for 2019. For global market and opinion research companies such as Ipsos MORI (a UK-based market research firm), such a phenomenon is not uncommon.

In fact, it has a name; they call it “declinism.”

It is a phenomenon that Adrian Gore – founder and CEO of Discovery, which is one of South Africa’s biggest financial services firms – knows all too well.

Gore was recently gored (pun intended) by some doomsday critics for talking up prospects for the South African economy.

Responding to withering attacks on his supposedly rose-tinted views, the business executive noted that empirical evidence indicates that irrationally seeking out negatives and being overly pessimistic has dangerous consequences.

“Global research shows that we universally suffer from declinism – the belief that our country and public life are on an irreversible downhill trajectory and that the future will undoubtedly be worse than the present. The same research shows that we believe this in spite of facts to the contrary, driven largely by our stubborn ignorance about the way national development indicators have actually improved,” wrote Gore in a guest article in the Financial Mail (South Africa) issue of December 6 to December 12.

Does this sound familiar?
Well, he could have been talking about Zimbabwe.

Gore also warned that a declinist narrative has two particularly dangerous consequences: “First, we don’t see our country’s progress”, and secondly, “we erroneously perceive our anomalies as insoluble anomalies”.

He adds: “The danger herein is that attitude drives fundamentals, not the other way around. The effect of the above is that we start perceiving our country and its economy as risky, and we avoid investing, when the opposite should be the case. . .

“Behavoural economics tells us we are doubly as motivated by potential loss as we are by potential gain. So if we are to ever solve our country’s problems, which are real and substantive, we can’t, ironically, obsess myopically about what we perceive to be the negatives. We need to have a sense of what’s at risk – a future worth losing – and this means seeking out positive signals as well and integrating them into our perspectives and decision-making.”

It is difficult to ignore or argue against such a breathtakingly incisive assessment.

Remarkable progress
We, too, are incorrigibly ignorant about how our national development indicators have actually improved. The mining sector, especially the gold sub-sector, has performed remarkably well.

Statistics from Fidelity Printers and Refiners – the country’s sole gold buyer – indicate that gold output rose to 31,6 tonnes by the end of November, which is 6,8 tonnes more than the 24,8 tonne realised for the whole of 2017.

To put this in perspective, output and delivery of the yellow metal is the highest since gold production was first reported in Zimbabwe in the 13th Century.

The upward trajectory is the same for minerals such as diamonds, platinum, coal et cetera.

This definitely has to count for something, considering that mining contributes the lion’s share to national revenues.

Equally remarkable progress has been noted in agriculture, which employs 70 percent of the population and contributes 60 percent of raw materials to industry.

This year, Zimbabwe has recorded the highest ever tobacco deliveries (250 million kilogrammes) since commercial production of the golden leaf began in 1894.

Last year, deliveries topped 186 million kg.

The impact on the fiscus has obviously been immense, as this year’s sales rose to $733 million from $553 million a year ago, which represents an incredible leap of more than $179 million.

The same pattern is being mimicked in the cotton sub-sector, where deliveries rose to more than 130 000 tonnes, up from 70 000 tonnes last year.

Exports of cotton lint naturally rose as a result.

Further, the tourism industry is expecting its best year ever.

Visitors to various destinations across the country are projected to top 2,7 million this year, which is the highest in 19 years.

The success story of the sector is, however, convincingly told by strong results that are being recorded by hospitality industry players.

Overall, Zimbabwe’s exports rose by 17 percent to $5,6 billion in the January to November period, from $4,8 billion in the same period a year ago.

This represents a phenomenal jump of more than $800 million in the last 12 months.

Quite clearly, the sweeping reforms that are presently being pursued by the new political administration can only add tailwinds to local economic growth.

Clear choices
Our collective actions as Zimbabweans will ultimately define how our economic recovery process is likely to pan out.

We have two clear choices: we can either make it easy or difficult.

We, therefore, need to unlearn the enervating cognitive bias that we are doomed.

We are not.

As Adrian Gore says, “attitude drives fundamentals”.

Continuing to relentlessly attack our country, and most often in circumstances where this is unwarranted, can only serve to bog us down.

Prof Mthuli sleeping easy
Unfortunately, the recent – but not unexpected – shocks that affected the market after the October 1 fiscal and monetary policy interventions have been feeding the declinist narrative for the past three months.

When the Finance Minister slammed the brakes on Government’s spending binge, there was bound to be some whiplash.

And three months down the line, the picture is becoming clearer.

There has been better price discovery of the RTGS and bond notes, and parallel market exchange rates have since stabilised.

As exports continue rising and the tobacco marketing season approaches, the rates might go down further, and with them the associated pricing pressures.

Prof Ncube should be sleeping easy because the market is doing the job for him.

One of the major issues that remain outstanding in Zimbabwe’s current reform process is clearing arrears owed to international finance institutions and other bilateral creditors.

This might possibly be top on Treasury’s 2019 to-do list.

Clearing the country’s arrears will improve the country’s creditworthiness and integrate the country to the global financial system.

It also makes it possible for private companies to reopen traditional financing windows, which help relieve pressure on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

We are really on the right path, but we still have to walk the hard miles.

A positive mindset and unity of purpose will definitely help.

Our challenges are not insoluble.

Economists usually warn of “headline risks”, which glibly mean the deleterious impact of negative newspaper headlines and stories.

So, declinism must not be afforded any space in a country that is investing all its energies to put the economy on the right path.

It is one of the “isms” – together with regionalism and tribalism – that must die in 2018.

We continue chronicling the political life of Cde Jane Ngwenya. This week Cde Ngwenya narrates to our Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarati of her release from Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp and fleeing Rhodesia upon learning of her inclusion on a hit list by Ian Smith’s security agents

Question: How did you take prison life?
Answer: It was not easy being held up in prison without a release date. I had not killed anyone, I was not a murderer and I had completed my prison sentence, but someone chose to continue detaining me.

I remember we had some women, about five of them who had been imprisoned for various traceable crimes. At least for these ones, it was fair because they knew why they were in jail. But for people like myself, we were paraded as criminals.

I should mention that my stay at Gwelo Female Prison saw me correct a number of things, especially on how we were treated.

Like I mentioned earlier, we had a magistrate visiting every week to check on the conditions in prison and I had raised a complaint over the ill-treatment we were subjected to at the hands of the prison wardens. After the complaint, an office was established for us to undergo routine physical body searches.

Previously, we would strip in a degrading manner in front of everyone. We also started receiving regular allocations of bath soap and sanitary sundries.

But prison will always be a place whose conditions are meant to break you.

Question: We know you were one of the first female nationalists to serve at Gwelo Female Prison and also at Wha Wha, were there other female political prisoners during your time there?
Answer: I mentioned the ‘girls’ from Mutoko and there was also one interesting woman, Mai Mangoma who came while we were at Wha Wha Prison.

She came from Tandi area in Rusape. She was the second female after me to be sent to Wha Wha. Two others were to follow.

What is interesting about Mai Magoma is that she came with her baby girl. She was the first child we saw in prison with her mother.

The child triggered protests in prison and we even incited those who were outside, who would come to see us, to also protest against the detention of the child. I had never seen such level of love for a child from men. The attachment everyone had with this child was unbelievable.

Men were kept away from us, but on the day Mai Mangomo came, we could hear them shouting from the other side of the fence that they have been told a child has come to prison with her mother. All they wanted was to see the child.

They were shouting for us to get out of our cells and lift the baby into the air for them to see her.

I went out with Mai Mangoma and the child. We could see the men lining up behind the fence and full of emotion when they saw Marjory. It was a sad sight and immediately we broke into tears. It was sad to see men broken to such levels. It seems as if the child was reminding them of their children back home.

You could see that the men had been crushed and were thinking of their own children.

But back to your question, women were few in jail during that time.

Men would say if we all get arrested who will cater for the children.

For those like us who were unfortunate to be sent to prison, the white settler regime wanted to set an example and deter other women from engaging in politics. From Wha Wha, I was put in an underground cell at Connemara Prison.

I remember the prison wardens at Wha Wha saying to me; “Jane you are going tomorrow morning.”

The following morning I woke up and prepared myself thinking I was heading for Gonakudzigwa. But that was not so, I was driven to Connemara. There, I was put in an underground dark cell for three weeks. They would say they were waiting for transport to take me to Gonakudzingwa and, imagine, that took three weeks.

In that cell, there was a very small light and I could not see the sun.

The room was poorly ventilated and the food was just a small portion of sadza, a piece of meat and vegetables. In just three weeks I lost significant weight and when I got out it seemed as if I was losing my mind after the solitary confinement.

My confinement was meant to break me  to stop all political activities. I remember at one time in that cell, I tried to climb up and peep through a small hole to see the sun. But when I eventually got out of the cell the light intensity was so bright that I fell to the ground.

That is the effect when one is confined to a dark environment for long and suddenly gets exposed to the sun. It actually hurts the eyes. So when I arrived at Gonakudzingwa, I was not feeling well, my head was spinning. I was now used of staying in the dark and my eyes were still having challenges adjusting to the sun.

That is why I say I went through a lot. I could have surrendered long back, but I told myself that it is a do or die and that was the only price to buy Zimbabwe.

I was at Gonakudzingwa between 1970 and 1971. Infact I was sent to jail and detention on several occasions between 1964 and 1971.

As I mentioned earlier, the skirmishes of the Zhii era had seen me end up at Grey Street Prison, but that was not an arrest because there was no charge. We were just held there. When we were released from Gonakudzingwa, there was a list of people who were supposed to disappear and I was on that list. It also included people like Cde Choga.

The list had 13 names of people who were supposed to be killed by Ian Smith’s security agents. We had some people in Smith’s regime who would supply us with information.

So we got the information from a black police officer in the settler government. People should know that not all whites or blacks who worked for Smith were against us.

Zapu was a great party which had so much support and informants and that is how we got to know of the list of persons targeted for elimination.

Question: So which other names were on the hit list?
Answer: The ones I can still remember are myself, Chirongoma, Choga, Moses Guya, Tshuma and Nyathi. Myself and Nyathi decided to skip the country when we learnt that we had been targeted.

It was on 16 November 1971 around 5:30am that we left the country for Francistown Botswana.

The people who arranged my travel to Botswana were the late nationalist Grey Mabhalane Bango and Sivako who was also a businessman here in Bulawayo.

Two days later, the Special Branch was all over my mother’s village in Njanja looking for me.

Choga and Chirima, who were on the list, did not go into hiding and they were abducted by Smith’s security agents. Up to today, their whereabouts is unknown and their remains were never found.

That is how brutal the colonialists were. As for ourselves, we were received by our representative in Francistown.

He took us to the police as was the procedure. They would then report to their superiors that they have one or two of the nationalist leaders from Rhodesia, remember, I was part of the Zapu leadership.

I then met the Botswana Foreign Minister and an official from the President’s Office in Gaborone.

After two weeks, I went to the President’s Office in Gaborone and met President Seretse Khama.

I also saw his son Ian who was to later lead Botswana. Back then Ian was a small boy, I remember joking with him that he had a pointed nose like his mother’s.

The President of Botswana knew that we would rule so it was an honour for me to go meet him and he told me that he wished Zimbabwe good luck and he supported us. My escape to Botswana was so that I could proceed to Zambia to join others who were already there.

At that time I was pregnant. I will not mention the father for now.

At around the same time, we had a problem when the likes of Chikerema and Nyandoro quit Zapu and formed Frolizi  so when I got to Zambia the likes of Chikerema and others had established their own Frelimo offices.

I should mention that when I ran away from Rhodesia I had secured a scholarship to study in Canada and I had my papers with me. I was thus caught between travelling to Canada and fighting for the freedom of my country. But it was when I reached Zambia and noticed how our cause was being derailed because of power ambitions that I decided to stay. I told George Silundika and Edward Ndlovu that I was no longer interested in going to Canada.

They tried to persuade me to take the opportunity, but again, I was stubborn and wouldn’t take their advice. At that time my pregnancy was advancing and I could not return home as the security agents were looking everywhere for me. So I had to join others in organising our political activities in Zambia.

Zambia was difficult to manage at that time because the youths were too many. Many people were leaving Rhodesia to prepare to wage a resistance against the settler regime, so the camps were full.

In 1972 I went for a conference in Moscow where I gave birth and left my son, Shingirai, there.

He was in the care of the Soviet Women Committee. I was to collect him after 13 months.

 Question: What was this conference about?
Answer: It was one of the many conferences I attended. By the way, I was part of the delegation to the All People’s Conference in 1961, which later gave birth to the Organisation of African Unity.

I had been selected among women from other countries into a committee that fought for the freedom of Africa. I became one of the first female nationalists to travel to Europe to seek support to dislodge the Ian Smith regime.

I was also part of the Cairo, Egypt committee which worked on the constitution of the OAU and also joined other African women in politics to form the Pan African Women Organisation.

So we used to travel a lot for various conferences and it was during one of such events that I met great Major Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space.

To be continued next week

Fatima Bulla recently in Beijing, China
What began as a dream to hone their skills and knowledge in international capitals of the world such as Beijing has turned out to be a living nightmare for many Zimbabwean students.

Duped out of their hard-earned fortune by scholarship scammers who purport to organise fully-funded study programmes for them, many prospective students are now at wit’s end. It is an all too familiar story that is told over and over again.

However, the scammers do not seem to run out of victims. Unfortunately, the biggest victims have been female students.

The Sunday Mail Society recently spoke to some of the students who are stranded in China, most of whose cases have come to the attention of embassy staff in Beijing.

Twenty year old Gugulethu (not her real name) claims she paid $700 to Michael Tapiwa Nyarugwe – an agent representing a company called SAACA – and only discovered she had been conned after Shangdong University of Finance and Economics in Jinan City demanded US$860 (RMB6 000) in tuition fees for her to be admitted.

However, when she left Harare, she was made to believe that she will get a fully-funded scholarship.

Gugulethu told this paper from her temporary base in Jinan City that the agent has since got off the grid.

“They said they won’t accept me at the school if I don’t pay the money. If I fail (to raise the money), they will send me home.

“They said they told all the agents that all students should pay, so they thought I was the one trying to deceive them. I told my family members and they sent me RMB3 000 (about $420) and now I owe RMB3 000, and I have no idea where it will come from. I really cannot go home. There are days where I only go to bed after eating peanuts and taking water that is sweetened with sugar. It’s really a painful experience,” she said ruefully.

There is both a paper trail and digital trail of communications between Gugulethu and the allegedly cheeky agent, Nyarugwe.

As it stands, if Gugulethu fails to raise her tuition, she will be deported in 11 days’ time (January 10).

Another victim is 20-year-old Nomsa (not her real name).

She paid $1 500 to Nyarugwe to pursue a degree of her choice, but after arriving in Beijing, she had to settle for a degree in Chinese language.

But again, she has to stump up US$1 300 (RMB 9 000) that is needed for tuition at Kunming University in Yunan Province.

Like Gugulethu, Nomsa, who hails from Bulawayo, fell to the same trick – she was told her scholarship was fully funded.

She now has to raise the tuition fees by January 18 next year or she will also not get a residence permit.

Most of the students seem to have fallen victim to the same agent – Nyarugwe.

In a recent interview, the controversial agent, who curiously says his company SAACA is not yet registered, said he was aware of Gugulethu and Nomsa’s plight.

“I think I should communicate with those guys and see how we can settle this whole thing before it gets out of hand. There are some who were complaining, there is one Nomsa who is in Kunming as we speak, then there is one in Shandong called Gugulethu – those are the people that I am aware who are complaining,” said Nyarugwe.

He indicated that the affected students should engage him first before running to the Press.

“Before a student comes to China, they need to communicate with us, then we will make the arrangements for all the airport pick-up, all the registration stuff, but if you do not clear your agency fees or our payment, we cannot give you the papers.

“But due to the cash crisis that was in Zimbabwe, we had to release the papers. Like I normally do, I will just give them so that they get assurance that they really got admitted, including the type of scholarship they would have got.

“When they get there, they have to pay one, two, three core things, and everything is clearly mentioned on the admission letters, even the JW2 forms. I am pretty sure that they can read and comprehend. . .

“Everything is done before they leave Zimbabwe. The least we can charge is maybe $500 or $300 and the highest we can charge is up to $800. We work with different agencies,” he said.

Information gaps
But daring agents, who are many, seem to be capitalising on information gaps that exist on what the structure of the various scholarship-funded programmes, particularly in China.

Another student who is stranded in Beijing, and who spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said his application was processed by Godwin Mukara from Global Admission Service, which, in turn, was working as an agent of Sicas.

The aggrieved applicant claims he paid $1 500 and was granted a half scholarship by the Belt and Road Collaboration Innovation Centre.

However, upon arrival in Beijing, he was told to pay $3 600.

“When I arrived (in Beijing) there was no class, no teacher. We were being told we are the first-year students and we will be learning Chinese. Then I realised everything was different from what we were promised. My residence permit will expire soon,” he said.

Contacted for comment, Mukara declined the opportunity to tell his side of the story.

The story of stranded Zimbabwean students in foreign lands is as heartbreaking as it is unending.

Zimbabwe’s acting Ambassador to China Mr Mqabuko Dube urged prospective students to be wary of scholarships offered by individuals and private companies.

“I can safely say we receive such cases from time to time. The embassy would like to urge Zimbabweans to be careful because it is clear that there are bogus organisations that claim to provide scholarships. Therefore, before students can sign to anything, they should make it a point to check with the Department of Scholarships, as well as with the Embassy of Zimbabwe,” said Mr Dube.

Lovemore Ranga Mataire
I have always been infatuated by Zimbabwe. No place has besotted my heart so much like this teapot-shaped land, which had Cecil Rhodes so awestruck that he willed to be interred at the apex of the sacred Matopo hills.

Sadly, his wish was granted. Today, the British imperial agent of dubious sexual orientation lie buried at one of Zimbabwe’s most revered places – the Matopo hills that has within its vicinity, the Njelele Shrine. Located about 100 km south of Bulawayo and often referred to as Mabwedziva or Matonjeni, Njelele is a rainmaking shrine on the south western fringes of Matopo National Park in the Khumalo communal area.

Njelele dates back to the time when the Mbire ethnic group migrated southwards from Lake Tanganyika and eventually settled at Great Zimbabwe.

Oral tradition has it that the Njelele shrine was first established at Great Zimbabwe before the Rozvi administrative power shifted from Great Zimbabwe to Matopo Hills.

Zimbabwe is a special place with special people. Sadly, familiarity breeds complacency. Positioned at the centre of southern Africa, Zimbabwe is the heart beat of Africa south of the Sahara.

This is not hyperbole. I am not playing cheap patriotic capers. No. This place we call Zimbabwe is no ordinary place. If only its people knew how endowed this country is; socially, spiritually and with so much economic potential.

It is in Zimbabwe where we have the Great Zimbabwe monument, an indefatigable record of an ancient civilisation whose ingenuity has vexed generations of scientists and historians.

This place is a national treasure. The Great Zimbabwe bears our umbilical cord as nation.

An acropolis of Africa, the Great Zimbabwe was the citadel of civilisation and a vibrant trade centre that connected the country with the rest of Africa and the world. It is a unique artistic achievement that has struck the imagination of African and European travellers since the Middle-Ages. The Great Zimbabwe bears testimony of a once magnificent city, rich in historical significance, architectural wonders and unresolved mysteries.

Rhodes, Ian Smith and earlier Europeans tried but failed to distort the history of the Great Zimbabwe.

Besides the Great Zimbabwe, the country is endowed with plenty of natural wonders. The misnamed Victoria Falls quickly comes to mind. Why have we not intrinsically mediated on why the Mosi-oa-Tunya is colonially called Queen Victoria Falls whose best view is on our side of the Zambezi?

These are not rhetorical questions. These are genuine questions that must inform present and future generations about the special place that Zimbabwe occupies in the universe. Why are we not talking about this magnificent God-given phenomenon instead of being obsessed by this “jecha” crap? And what about the Ngoma-Lungundu? The Ark of the Covenant. Many doubt, but scientific examination has all proven beyond doubt that the Ngoma-Lungundu artefact is one of the oldest artefact in the world and it’s here in Zimbabwe. In 2010, the Ngoma-Lungundu was displayed at the National Museum and very few took interest, but the British and other European nations did. Why do we step-fault our own worth? Said to have been built more than 700 years ago from the remains of the original Ark, the Ngoma Lungundu belongs to the Lemba people, with African Jewish ancestry. The Ngoma Lungundu was used to store Moses’ 10 Commandments dictated to him on Mount Sinai. For decades, the ancient vessel was thought to be lost, until it was found in a storeroom in Harare some years ago. The artefact is believed to be the oldest wooden object ever found in sub-Saharan Africa.

So why are we not talking about these beautiful stories instead of being obsessed with the nonsensical “jecha” mantra? Shouldn’t we resist kowtowing to a certain opposition leader who is attempting to flatten the poetry of Zimbabwe and besmirch our founding ideals of freedom, peace, sovereignty and our exaltation of the liberation struggle?

Should those in opposition not resist the temptation of falling prey to an unstable, stubbornly uninformed and an authoritarian demagogue whose only claim to fame is being youthful?

Things that once belonged to the periphery of the main discourse are creeping back to the centre; glaring misogyny, intolerance, and childlike histrionics and a shocking amenability to direct foreign intrusion. Isn’t time as a nation we resist the temptation of being stuck in a bygone past characterised by a debilitating perpetual election mood? Isn’t it time that we resist the slenderest extension in the precincts of what is right?

I think now is the time to speak up and to wear as an emblem of honour the excoriation of bigots. I think now is the time to speak up and wear as an emblem of honour the excoriation of bigots.

I am forced to agree with the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie when she says that; “Now is the time for the media, on the left and right, to educate and inform. To be nimble and alert, clear-eyed and sceptical, active rather than reactive. To make clear choices about what truly matters.” I think as the Fourth Estate we need refocus on issues that really matter.

Why are we not talking about the dedicated tobacco farmers who are now producing a record crop, the horticulture farmers who are once again exporting our fruits and roses to European shelves; the manufacturers who are defying the odds to create products and jobs; the men and women leading our roads and dams infrastructure renaissance?

These are the stories we wish to tell.

Zimbabwe is irreplaceable. It is our country together. If we fall, we fall together. If we prosper, we prosper together. This “jecha” thing is as much an affront to our aspirations as it is retrogressive. Now is the time to resist a certain dark populism that only scapegoats- a dark populism based on mere bluster.

We need to counter the lies with facts and proclaim greater truths of our equal humanity, of decency and compassion. We need as a nation to cherish every precious ideal that gave us our freedom and independence.

We must always challenge the cropping up of ugly ideas that seek to present our nation as being at odds with itself. We need to resist the temptation of turning ugly ideas into the norm. It surely does not have to be like this.

“We must as a society encourage and inculcate the culture of hard honest work. The prosecution of perpetrators of corruption will be carried out without fear or favour.” President Emmerson Mnangagwa during his inauguration speech on August 26 2018.

Since assuming the helm as the country’s second executive president, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who now leads the Second Republic, has been leading a concerted drive against corruption.

Since then, the dragnet continues to be strengthened in order to account for corrupt individuals in both the private and public sector. The Prosecutor-General’s Office is presently being rejigged to make it better able to execute its mandate.

About 317 prosecutors were recruited this year to cover the National Prosecuting Authority’s 59 districts across the country. Also, the NPA is currently in the process of reorganising the Asset Seizure Unit, which will be responsible for recovering assets acquired through corrupt means.

The Judiciary also opened Anti-Corruption Courts in March this year.

In addition, President Mnangagwa has since established a six-member Special Anti-Corruption Unit in his office.

It is led by seasoned lawyer and former State prosecutor Mr Tabani Mpofu.

The mandate of the unit is to help investigate corruption cases and make recommendations working with the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and the National Prosecuting Authority, among other organisations.

Last month, the President also used temporary powers for a new law that will see illegal currency traders being sentenced to  a maximum 10 years in jail, while ill-gotten wealth will be confiscated.

Under the regulations, Government will track unexplained movement of money in the financial system.

President Mnangagwa’s intervention – which entailed amending the Exchange Control and Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Acts – was made through constitutional provisions of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act.

Government believes the fight against corruption, which has an adverse impact on the economy, is inextricably linked to efforts to grow the country into a middle-income economy by 2030.

So far, Zacc has investigated more than 400 cases since the beginning of the year, up from 294 cases that were handled last year. Above listed are some of the major highlights of the war against corruption.

2019 promises to be an equally eventful year.

As we take a breather today and tomorrow, and prepare to welcome the New Year, obviously many are already compiling their New Year’s resolutions.

It is to be expected; it is an annual ritual.

Unsurprisingly, many will set for themselves lofty targets, which, again, is to be expected.

There is definitely nothing wrong with this. And when mutually exchanging compliments of the new season, it is tempting to wish our family and friends well. But as we transition to 2019, the economy will be the major talking point.

The tail-end of this year, particularly the fourth quarter, has been challenging, as Treasury makes structural adjustments to the economy in order to set a solid foundation for sustainable growth. The subsequent tremors that have been felt in the market have been interpreted variously, with cynics being quick to point that the economy is about to fall off the cliff.

It will not!

But we wish we could tell you that Zimbabwe’s recovery will be instant – it will not. We wish we could tell you that it will be easy – it will not be.

We wish we could also tell you that the pain of transition is over – it is not.

Obviously, we still have to walk the hard miles.

Some workers such as junior doctors, who feel the current squeeze, are restive.

Despite Government’s best efforts, fuel still remains in short supply as demand shoots through the roof.

Our challenges are many.

So, it will definitely be painful.

Encouragingly, a lot of progress is being made: we have, for the first time in more than two decades, grossed more than $1 billion in the tourism sector; gold and tobacco production has reached record territory; and this year’s exports have risen by more than $800 million compared to the same period last year.

We, however, must continue to make sacrifices. As President Mnangagwa said on microblogging site Twitter on December 22 : “The sacrifices we make today are the foundations of a better tomorrow.”

Revolution is about pain.

Any momentous change in life involves pain.

Gold is also purified by fire.

As has been proven throughout history, challenges breed innovation, progress and success through the invaluable life-lessons they impart.

In a speech to graduates at Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire, USA, on June 3 last year, Chief Justice of the US Supreme court John Roberts could not have put it any better when he spoke about how challenges are as invaluable and indispensable as they are inevitable in life.

“Now, the commencement speakers will typically wish you good luck, and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that and I will tell you why.

“From time to time, in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.

“I hope that you will suffer betrayal, because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.

“Sorry to say, but I hope that you will be lonely from time to time, so that you don’t take friends for granted,” he said.

He went on: “I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time, so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life, and understand that your success is not completely deserved, and that the failure of others is not completely deserved, either.

“And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope, every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship.

“I hope you will be ignored, so you will know the importance of listening to others. And I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion.”

And then the clincher: “Whether I wish these things or not, they are going to happen. And whether you benefit from them, or not, will depend on your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”

Put simply, John Roberts tells us that we must take everything that comes our way – both the good and bad – and make the most out of it.

Our success in 2019 will depend on our collective effort.

It is time to close ranks and build our beautiful country. Political tribalism, which is now driving some political parties to wish the country ill in the mistaken belief that the resultant tide of discontent will drive them to State House, is futile.

It will only slow – but not derail – our efforts a tad. As the New Year dawns, let us commit ourselves that notwithstanding the challenges that lie ahead, we must, just like the Chinese, Mauritians and Singaporeans did, determinedly put our shoulders to the wheel and change our circumstances.

Let’s look up, Zimbabwe, the future is bright!

Kieron Monks
The performance of some of Africa’s largest economies in 2018 does not inspire confidence for the year ahead. Nigeria has endured a slow recovery from a recession caused by falling oil prices, as has Angola. South Africa entered recession for the first time in a decade. But away from the flagship economies, emerging powers and international trends offer the prospect of new success stories.

Global management consultancy McKinsey & Company’s new book “Africa’s Business Revolution” identifies areas of potential progress and opportunity across the continent based on original research and interviews with hundreds of CEOs from leading African companies.

The authors find regions that recall China before its own period of explosive growth, and suggest pathways that could yield similar gains. Rapid urbanisation will greatly expand the consumer class with disposable incomes, the authors predict, which will lead to a massive increase in business and consumer spending – rising from $4 trillion in 2015 to $5,6 trillion in 2025.

In the same period, increased Internet penetration will add $300 billion to the continent’s GDP – roughly equivalent to South Africa’s output. With the help of Acha Leke, co-author of “Africa’s Business Revolution” and chairman of McKinsey’s Africa office, we pick out some of the major trends and stories to watch in Africa in 2019 and beyond.

The ascendent middle powers
When McKinsey surveyed the top 30 African economies in 2011, they found 25 were experiencing “accelerated growth”.

In the most recent survey of the same countries, the figure was just 13.

Rather than the continental powerhouses, it is the mid-sized economies such as Ethiopia and Ivory Coast that offer the greatest promise.

Leke picks out Ivory Coast as a model of stable progress, having recorded steady growth since emerging from a civil war and financial crisis around the turn of the decade.

He cites high levels of government investment and infrastructure development in partnership with Chinese firms as key factors in the country’s performance, and suggests that “huge investor interest” from the private sector can keep the economy buoyant.

The coming years should see growth become more inclusive with progress in sectors such as health and education.

A closer union
While the European Union is under strain from resurgent nationalism within member states, African countries are choosing closer alignment.

The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) will create one of the world’s largest free trade blocs, with 44 countries now signed up.

Of the major economies, only Nigeria has abstained, and Leke believes that position is likely to change in the near future.

Progress on the deal will be supplemented by the easing of travel restrictions between African nations.

McKinsey research shows 21 of the 54 states now allow visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to all African nationalities – up from just three in 1983 – which has led to increases in business and tourism visits.

Rwanda and Mauritius are among the leading beneficiaries.

Leke cites ongoing progress with business-friendly reforms as a cause for optimism in the coming years, with faster processing times for permits and registrations and reduced tariffs becoming continent-wide trends.

Four African nations feature among the World Bank’s top 10 most improved for ease of doing business. With unprecedented numbers of major businesses in Africa seeking to expand and diversify in multiple countries, Leke believes it is imperative that barriers are further lowered – and that governments recognise this too.

Manufacturing surge
“Africa’s Business Revolution” projects the value of manufacturing across the continent will double to $1 trillion by 2025, and create up to 14 million jobs in the same period. This should ensure greater self-sufficiency as well as a healthier trade balance with a shift towards exports.

Leke points out that in some cases falling commodity prices have forced governments to embrace diversification of their economies, breeding long-term resilience. Nigeria’s oil price crash led to greater emphasis on manufacturing which should lead to scaled-up exports in the coming years.

McKinsey research suggests the greatest gains are to be made through advanced manufacturing, citing Morocco’s burgeoning car industry as an example.

Ethiopia’s industrial parks are also delivering strong returns and could be profitably imitated elsewhere.

Developing partnerships with Chinese firms, drawing on their resources and expertise, will be a major asset for African manufacturers in the coming years.

Big pharma
Progress in the pharmaceutical industry is associated with multiplier benefits such as technology advances and improved health indicators. From a low base, pharmaceutical companies in Africa could see rapid gains in the coming years.

McKinsey estimates the sector could be worth $65 billion by 2020 – triple its value in 2013.

To realise such gains will require a more easily-navigable regulatory system, scaled-up production infrastructure, and shrewd specialisation.

Not all African countries have the resources to deliver in the sector but McKinsey suggests that regional hubs in more advanced economies such as Nigeria and Kenya could be “viable if carefully executed”.

Local production could lower the cost and improve the quality of medical drugs, as well as aiding the development of high-value skills and technology.

Off-grid energy
Rural electrification remains one of the continent’s major challenges, with around 600 million people in Africa still unconnected.

But one of the continent’s most encouraging technology stories is that entrepreneurs and start-ups are stepping into the breach.

Kenya-based company M-Kopa’s home solar energy kits have already connected an estimated 600 000 households, financed by mobile money, and that figure is likely to soar in the coming year with heavyweight investors supporting the venture.

The company expects to pass $100 million a year annual revenue in the coming years.

M-Kopa’s success is being followed up by Uganda-based Fenix, which had sold 140 000 solar kits by 2017, and BBOXX which distributes kits in 10 African countries.

New start-ups are rapidly proliferating to fill the space.

These initiatives have created jobs and stimulated economic activity in rural areas.

But their true power lies in “opening a whole university of opportunity” for marginalised people, says Leke.

From allowing children to do their homework at night to the new possibilities of the Internet, off-grid energy could go a long way to releasing potential across the continent.