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Simon Khaya Moyo Special Correspondent
As  the dark cloud filled with grief and shock overshadowed the Southern Hemisphere in the recent past following the devastation by the unkind Tropical Cyclone Idai which ravaged parts of our great nation of Zimbabwe along with Malawi and Mozambique, we must as a people remain optimistic about our present and the future.

Cyclone Idai is reportedly one of the worst storms ever recorded on the African soil in memorable times.

May I extend heartfelt condolences to our great nation on the painful loss of our strong and exemplary giants of the liberation struggle; Professor Callistus Ndlovu and Retired Brigadier-General Emilio Munemo.

May the dear souls of the departed rest in eternal peace.

It is indeed long overdue that we touch base in this manner and connect, so that we can share national objectives and move forward together as a united national family with the cause of serving national interests as this is the very purpose of our existence; to serve, safeguard and protect those values, ideals and principal objectives for which the liberation struggle was prosecuted.

That is the common denominator which should bind every Zimbabwean irrespective of their political and social divide. Zimbabwe is the only country we can all proudly call our home, hence we must in all our actions take this into consideration.

As we continue charting our course as a nation, we must do so undeterred, outside the imperial orbit of our erstwhile adversaries and holding onto our consciences that the ideals of the freedom struggle must never be forgotten, but rather jealously guarded and the legacy of freedom, sovereignty and total emancipation should live into posterity.

We are coming from a very busy and delicate period of elections which concluded in July 2018.

Naturally, this period is characterised by hostilities, resentments and toxicities among politicians where opposing parties often speak out of turn against each other.

But the 2018 harmonised elections fared quite differently as they were unarguably the most free, fair and credible polls ever held in Zimbabwe as enunciated by SADC, AU and so many domestic and international observer missions.

These elections ushered in a “renewed” ZANU-PF Government, which is set to deliver its promises to grow the economy and significantly improve the people’s livelihoods and that should be everybody’s pre-occupation.

I am grateful that our party ZANU-PF entered into elections well-prepared, with no other mindset than that of a decisive win, winning by a landslide margin.

Shoulders having been put to grinding at every level of the party structure focusing on prominent issues, the victory attained was foreseeable. That is the nature of ZANU-PF.

Be that as it may, elections must now remain behind us and we must assign our collective efforts towards developing our nation; we must now move full throttle in the development mode, never to turn back again.

As we shift our eyes to focus on the much-needed economic development, we must also keep on the radar, neo-colonial regime change agendas and the multiplicity of problems that the opposition MDC-Alliance and its puppetry have invited onto this land, including sanctions which are a brute strong arm tactic meant to remove the Government from power.

However, we will not lose the main focus, the people, the very ones who have given us the mandate to rule and whose wishes, aspirations and security we should unreservedly fulfil in line with the electoral promises we made.

The twin challenges of sanctions and corruption should be dealt with decisively.

All tools should be placed on the workbench to ensure that the menace caused by these evils are finally eradicated.

The fight against corruption is not only an obligation for the Government and the ruling party, but it is a collective responsibility of every Zimbabwean; be it in Government, churches, workplaces and all social spheres alike, to fight the scourge of corruption and call for the unconditional removal of sanctions.

The nation should work as a collective to combat these evil phenomena to ensure that people live in conditions of trust, prosperity and development.

Development of a nation anchors on four strategic pillars; Government, Business, Labour and the Social Sector — the ordinary people. These pillars must remain intact and every stakeholder should take stock of their collective participation to the attainment of our national development goals.

Business and labour should work up-in-sleeves with Government and pull towards a common direction for the attainment of the Zimbabwe of our choice.

Opposition parties should not oppose for the sake of their identity, but must make positive contributions to the development of our country; they must be realistic, patriotic and bear the sense of belonging.

The National Dialogue Platform put in place by His Excellency President E.D Mnangagwa should be taken seriously by all progressive Zimbabweans. It is a chance that the MDC-Alliance should not put to waste.

Another serious matter for development is the need to shift from producing a highly skilled labour force to stimulating creativity and development.

Indigenisation should not be viewed as the beginning and end of our efforts, hence the Government’s noble decision to engage and re-engage with the international world to stimulate Foreign Direct Investment into the country.

We need to consciously pursue science and technological skills, especially in the areas such as medicine and ICT.

Without a concerted effort to offer the world such skills, Zimbabwean children will become permanent secondary citizens in the world.

Ambassador S.K Moyo is the ruling party ZANU-PF Spokesperson.