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Remarks by President Mnangagwa at the 2022 Performance Evaluation Results and the Signing ceremony of the 2023 Performance contracts for Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, chairpersons and chief executives of public entities, local authorities and State Universities.

I warmly welcome you to this special event, marking the signing ceremony of the 2023 Performance Contracts by Cabinet Ministers; Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution; Permanent Secretaries; Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of Public Entities and Local Authorities; as well as Vice Chancellors of State Universities. 

This ceremony demonstrates the irreversible course the Second Republic is embarking on towards ensuring that Government systems, processes and personnel are “Fit for Purpose”. 

It is also a reflection of my Administration’s determination to deliver quality and timely services to the people. 

Our current national development epoch and Vision 2030, requires the entire Government ecosystem to be agile to achieve set targets, possibly, earlier than forecasted. 

As public officials, beginning at the individual level, collectively and cumulatively, we must all deliver the best possible results for the benefit of the people of our country. 

My Administration continues to implement a raft of reform measures, including re-invigorating the performance of Top Public Servants. 

In this spirit and in keeping with the culture of high performance and accountability for results, today we are witnessing the second round of performance contracts. 

To date, this initiative is proving to be an invaluable tool in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of Government policies and programmes. 

It is undoubtedly helping my Government to be more focused and responsive as we seek a deeper understanding of contemporary issues and services required in this new national development epoch. 

Ladies and Gentlemen; The people of Zimbabwe bestow their trust on me, as President and the ruling Party, ZANU PF, with a mandate to govern our motherland, Zimbabwe. We are a Government of the people, by the people and for the people. 

The indicators of good governance are provision of quality and timely services to the people, high performance, promotion of economic growth as well as the realisation of sustainable development. 

These can only be realised when Public Sector Officials have a high performance culture and display commitment to wholeheartedly serve the people of our motherland Zimbabwe. 

The performance of Local Authorities as outlined in the assessment report remains worrisome and a huge draw-back in our march towards Vision 2030. 

While Devolution Funds have gone a long way to accelerate infrastructure development, the neglect and failure by the majority of Local Authorities to focus on their core mandate of service delivery is not acceptable. 

Equally, the performance of State Owned Enterprises is disappointing, more so given the centrality of these organisations in aiding development and delivering public goods and services. 

As a Government, we “eat what we kill”, hence the generation and subsequent disbursement of resources are based on revenue collection. Officials are, therefore, directed to innovate around challenges.

You must achieve high impact results despite limited resources and the illegal and inhibitive sanctions which continue to be an albatross to our national growth and prosperity. 

The onus remains on us, Zimbabweans, to realise development that leaves no one and no place behind, to uplift more people out of poverty and into prosperity. 

Ladies and Gentlemen; It is pleasing to note that public sector reform measures have greatly improved the performance of Government in many sectors. 

The revamping of the National Registry Office, introduction of e-Passports as well as re-invigoration and modernisation of the Agriculture Sector, which led to the nation achieving national wheat self-sufficiency, are cases in point. 

The deregulation of the fuel sector, construction of the Harare-Beitbridge road using local expertise as well as the effective containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely through the use of our own resources, remain some of the notable examples of policy entrepreneurship and innovation by the Second Republic. 

The President hands over the Public Entities category runner up to Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) chief executive Dr Sebastian Marume while Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga looks on.

Economic stability brought through various fiscal and monetary policy reforms is also a major area of achievement. 

Meanwhile, the availability of performance data to assess Ministries, Departments and Agencies, coupled with the establishment of Monitoring and Evaluation units, has made the evaluation process more efficient and practical. 

The successes scored in the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology sector deserve special mention and must be scaled up. Our young people must be equipped with the competences and skills to produce the majority of the items, technologies and equipment we use, the food we eat as well as the shoes and clothes we wear. 

I am pleased that Vice Chancellors of State Universities are signing their Performance Contracts and are hearing this directive for themselves. Ministries, Departments, Agencies and all public entities must henceforth innovate, think outside the box and deploy science and technology to achieve a higher quality of service for our people. 

The foreign policy thrust of the Second Republic of Engagement and Re-engagement as well as our spirited quest “to be a friend to all and an enemy to none” are yielding positive results. 

These have positively impacted on our country’s Foreign Direct Investment, growth in total exports and improved Balance of Payment. Economic diplomacy implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade must have internal domestic ripple effects that transform the standard of living for Zimbabweans. 

In our journey to leapfrog the socio-economic development of our country, the importance of effective, robust and responsive communication cannot be over-emphasised. The success milestones of the Second Republic are many and evident for all to see. However, these are not reaching a broader cross-section of the citizenry due to gross short-comings in the communication and information dissemination strategy. The requisite communication models, together with the personnel with contemporary skills, must be deployed to address short-comings in this sector, as a matter of urgency. 

Additionally, the tendency to overlook the critical pronouncements I make as President, is most unfortunate. It is my expectation that as Top Public Officials, you should follow up my observations and implement directives. I hope to see greater improvements in this regard. 

Ladies and Gentlemen; By and large, there is a clear work-culture transformation across the public sector. At the highest level, the Integrated Results Based Management Compliant Strategic Plans, Annual Plans and Performance Contracts are making the process of measurement of performance and results more systematic and practical. 

To this end, most Ministries achieved the set annual performance targets with clear performance progression shown throughout the year. 

We will continually perfect this Performance Contract system to ensure that all overlaps and conflict of roles across the various levels are minimised. Capacity building, leadership development, coaching and counselling will also be prioritised. The system should be further perfected before it is rolled down to the other levels within the public sector. 

I heartily congratulate the winners of the 2022 performance cycle who exceeded set targets. 

I will be interrogating the targets set in the Contracts signed today to ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies do not set soft targets for themselves in order to achieve results easily and score high marks. 

It is integral that we are  honest  with ourselves and  set  performance benchmarks that accelerate our quest to attain Vision 2030. Performance contracts must continue to be primarily about the way Government delivers services to the people. 

Going forward, my Office will be implementing the Accelerator Model to quicken and expedite the implementation of programmes and projects across Government. 

The digitalisation of Government processes is one such area that will be given impetus under this model in order to improve efficiencies in Government. 

 With these remarks, I want to thank you all for your service to the people of our great country. Let us all strengthen our resolve to work harder than before as we build our country, brick by brick; stone upon stone and step by step, alive to the weighty responsibility we have that “Nyika inovakwa, igotongwa nevene vayo; Ilizwe lakhiwa, libuswe ngabanikazi balo”. 

God bless you. 

God bless Zimbabwe. 

I thank you.