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Gibson Nyikadzino-Herald Correspondent

HISTORIC accomplishments by Southern African countries under the stewardship of liberation movements should lead to a continuous search for solutions to fully realise the dreams of their founding leaders, President Mnangagwa has said.

In his congratulatory to the people of Tanzania on the launch of the Julius Mwalimu Kambarage Nyerere Leadership School in Kibaha, Tanzania, President Mnangagwa said the honour bestowed on Tanzanian founding President resembles the re-articulation of the thought leadership of our Africa’s anti-colonial forebearers. 

His speech was read on his behalf by Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration, Dr Obert Mpofu.

He urged Southern African leaders to support Afrocentric systems and structures that help catalyse the realisation of the region’s rdream of a common prosperous future anchored on respect of African value systems.

“We are re-awakening the bones of those who laid the foundation of the development, unity, peace and joy we have for being a continent free from the yoke of imperialism.

“The Julius Mwalimu Kambarage Nyerere Leadership School must be deployed to strengthen and accelerate the multi-faceted African leadership strategies and programmes towards promoting and safeguarding Africa’s rich liberation heritage,” said President Mnangagwa.

The Julius Mwalimu Kambarage Nyerere Leadership School, co-founded by six liberation parties in Southern Africa which are governing parties in their respective countries is located in Kibaha, some 40 kilometres from the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

During the colonial era, Nyerere offered Tanzania as a launchpad to the liberation of African countries that were fighting imperialism by providing military training and financial support.

Along with Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Mali’s Modibo Keïta and Guinea’s Sékou Touré they were pioneering pan-Africanists and anti-colonial leaders who championed Africa’s full political and economic independence.

In paying homage to the late independence leader of Tanzania, President Mnangagwa added that pursuing the fulfilment of the dreams of Southern Africa’s independence leaders should help sharpen focus on the accelerated implementation of SADC’s Industrialisation and Economic Transformation Strategy through a cross-pollination of ideas.

“The Leadership School will play a crucial role as an apex institution, assembling all our critical intellectual resources, facilitating the cross-pollination of ideas from the region and beyond. It must help align the work of the national leadership and ideological schools. That way we are heightening our sustainable socio-economic development agenda,” he added.

The SADC industrialisation strategy is anchored on three interdependent pillars that include industrialisation as championing economic transformation, enhancing competitiveness and deeper regional integration.

President Mnangagwa also took time to thank the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the financial and technical support it extended towards the completion of the new school.

On the same occasion, Zanu PF Secretary for Administration, Cde Mpofu, said the Nyerere Leadership School is set to be the citadel of scientific decolonisation thought.

“The launch of this great school is a pride to the cause of African liberation theoretical and pragmatic predispositions as espoused in Mwalimu Nyerere’s Uhuru na Ujamaah philosophy and Kwame Nkrumah’s concept of African Consciencism,” he said.

Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), the Mozambique Liberation Movement (Frelimo), Angola’s Movement for the People’s Liberation Army (MPLA), and Namibia’s South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) were behind the Leadership School.