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FOR most Zimbabweans of goodwill, hope of an economic turnaround engendered by the recent spate of deals between our country and long time allies, China and Russia, is riding high. The deals can only be viewed as ultra positive developments.
Naturally, this buoyant expectation is being questioned by eternal pessimists who would rather have the glass remain perpetually half-empty so they have something to grouch about.

But we cannot ignore them when they point out that this is not the first time we have heard of projects that never come to fruition in the manner promised.

The Mount Hampden bio-diesel project and the abandoned jatropha production are two instances.
Then another question on people’s minds; why have we only engaged China and Russia at these levels now, yet our countries have ideological and practical links dating back to the days of the struggle to throw off the yoke of British colonialism?

It would be fair to conclude that we forgot our true friends when we were in the thrall of new-found alliances with our erstwhile enemies and only realised that we needed our old allies when those fair weather friends demonstrated to us that they only tolerate our company when we protect their interests at our own expense.

Our preference for what should be the arch-enemies could be viewed as natural, given that we share cultural links, including language, with our former oppressors and their allies rather than our enduring friends, a minor psychological obstacle which we managed to overcome in the past.

But now that we have woken up to the need to maintain our true friendships, it is hoped that we have learnt our lesson, the hard way too. Now we need to focus on the future.

By rightly insisting on our national sovereignty, we have made it clear that we are the architects of our own destiny. We now need to zero in on what we must do ourselves to make these deals with the Chinese and Russians work.

The importance of commitment to the public good by the leadership cannot be overemphasised. Now is the time to exhibit the willpower to deal decisively with corruption, especially among people in leadership positions whose conduct should be exemplary. We should emulate how our Chinese friends deal with corruption at any level and also demonstrate that even holy cows can be culled if they forget their spiritual role.

The President has repeatedly said that corruption is our number one enemy, a position that no one can argue with. If the scourge is not rooted out, the same individuals who have stuck their fingers into every pie and sucked all the filling out will once again be the only ones smiling while the rest of the country continues to suffer.

Just as corruption and its attendant evils of a poor work ethic started from the top and has now drowned the whole structure, a new culture of productivity and pride in a job well done needs to be re-galvanised starting with those who occupy positions of responsibility.

There is no better time to move from being a nation of people who indulge in endless talk-shops replete with self-congratulatory peons about our vaunted literacy rate and other paper qualifications without assessing how these impact on national productivity.

We have the resources, we have good friends. Let’s make the deals work. More importantly, people must be made to appreciate that these are long-term projects, not miracle crusades which deliver instant results.