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Prof Moyo

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ZIMBABWE’S biggest asset is its Independence whose essence exposes charlatans who foolishly believe that illegal and unconstitutional political demonstrations are the solutions to prevailing economic challenges, a Cabinet minister has said.
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has been holding rallies in various parts of the country in a bid to consolidate his tenuous hold on the party presidency amid growing calls for his resignation in the wake of successive debilitating electoral losses and embarrassing personal scandals.

Mr Tsvangirai has been calling on his supporters to mobilise for unconstitutional regime change before harmonised elections due in 2018.
In a statement yesterday ahead of the 34th Independence Day commemorations on Friday; Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said Zim-Asset, Government’s economic blueprint, was the country’s celebratory song and people would not heed discordant voices keen on harvesting cheap political capital.

“This is a historic moment to be happy and merry as we jive for our sovereignty over both our national politics and our natural resources through our economic empowerment and indigenisation law and policy that are now irreversible, come rain or shine,” he said.

The 34th Independence celebrations will be held under the theme “Zimbabwe @34: Defending Our Sovereignty and Providing an Enabling Environment for Sustainable Economic Empowerment and Social Transformation”.

The main celebrations will be held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Friday, cascading to provincial, district and ward levels.
Prior to that, President Mugabe will host the Annual Children’s Party at the City Sports Centre in Harare tomorrow.

Prof Moyo said this year’s celebrations are unique because of President Mugabe and zanu-pf’s resounding victory in the 2013 harmonised elections.
President Mugabe garnered 61,09 percent of the vote to Mr Tsvangirai’s 33,94 percent with zanu-pf clinching 160 seats out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies to land a crushing 76 percent dominance of the lower house of Parliament. After factoring in 60 women’s quota seats elected by proportional representation of six for each of the 10 provinces, the final composition of the National Assembly stood at 196 seats for Zanu-PF, 70 for MDC-T, two for the MDC, and two independent giving Zanu-PF just under 73 percent of the total seats in the National Assembly but well over the two thirds majority of 180 seats.

The picture is replicated in the Senate which is chosen on proportional reprisentation.
The revolutionary party also dominates local government with 1 501 wards to MDC-T’s 442 out of the country’s 1 958 wards spread across 92 local authorities countrywide.

“This year’s Independence commemorations are unique in a very special way beyond the 34th number due to the palpable fact that there’s something in the prevailing national sentiment that took root before and found consolidation after the 31st July 2013 harmonised general election, overwhelmingly won by Zanu PF, which is reminiscent of the spirit of 1980. The spirit of 1980 is the summary and content of our independence.”

He added: “Over the last 15 or so years, Zimbabweans had been deeply polarised along very negative political lines as the British government and its Anglo-Saxon allies recruited and colluded with quislings among us to seek illegal regime change while imposing illegal economic sanctions that devastated the livelihoods of ordinary Zimbabweans and cost our economy some US$44 billion between 2001 and 2013.”

Prof Moyo said Zimbabwe had come of age and the polarisation of years past would be closed with this year’s celebrations.
“Against this divisive background, and with the benefit of our new Constitution which indelibly confirms Zimbabwe’s status as a constitutional democracy founded on the values and ideals of the liberation struggle, our country has today come of age, thereby making this year’s Independence commemorations not only unique in that they remind us of our freedom achievement in 1980, but also historical in that they mark the closure of the 15-year-old polarisation of national discourse and the turning of a new page of mutual tolerance by Zimbabweans to find each other across the political divide,” Minister Moyo said.

“It is, therefore, no wonder that Zimbabweans are paying deaf ears to any discordant voice that still wants to divide the people in the vain hope of harvesting cheap political capital to satisfy personal ambition to the detriment of the national interest whose pursuit was made possible by the selfless and gallant sacrifices of the heroes and heroines of our liberation struggle.”

Prof Moyo described national unity and cohesion as the hallmarks of Independence.
“Second, the unity that our country has enjoyed against all odds, especially over the last 15 years, has made it possible for us to uphold peace and stability in our country in ways that are exemplary, after all has been done and dusted,” he said.

“The fact that the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army have contributed their numbers to various peace-making and peace-keeping forces around the world is not an accident, but a confirmation and acknowledgement of our national competency and capacity as a peaceful and stable nation notwithstanding the challenges we have experienced over the last 15 years.

“Third, and most fundamental, we have managed to cherish our national unity and to keep peace and maintain stability in our country for 34 solid years because of the remarkable and iconic leadership of President Mugabe who has remained a living example of the selfless sacrifices of the veterans of our armed liberation struggles whom he heroically led before independence in the same way and under the same principles he has led our country since that independence, especially over the last 15 years, to overcome the evil Anglo-Saxon objectives of illegal regime change and illegal economic sanctions sought by our erstwhile colonisers.”

The celebrations will be held under the theme “Zimbabwe @34: Defending Our Sovereignty and Providing an Enabling Environment for Sustainable Economic Empowerment and Social Transformation”.

The main celebrations will be held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Friday, while other events will be held at provincial, district and ward levels.
Prior to that, President Mugabe will host his annual Children’s Party on April 17 at the City Sports Centre in Harare.

Zimbabwe became a sovereign nation on April 18, 1980 after a 14-year liberation struggle in which tens of thousands of freedom fighters died to free the country from British settler colonialism.