Zimpapers Logo

Gibson Nyikadzino-Correspondent

Zimbabwe is 42 today! 

Underlying these milestone celebrations to be held in Bulawayo is the theme “Zimbabwe @ 42: Leaving no one and no place behind”.

The maxim — “Leaving no one and no place behind” — is a thrust that is driving Zimbabwe’s development agenda under the New Dispensation as it moves on this commitment through a pledge to reach the furthest places first. This theme is one that wants to address poverty. 

Theologians often say that confession is the first step towards repentance. 

Over the years, main Independence Day celebrations were starting and ending in Harare. Harare had become a “centre of development” while other centres appeared in the “periphery”.   

Admittedly, after years of severe challenges, Zimbabwe’s 42nd independence anniversary is another timely moment to advance a broad and pragmatic promise to address the pervasive and damaging problems of inequality and exclusion.

On the political front, opposition political leaders, former Government ministers and all officials who served in Government in one way or another have all been invited. 

Political tolerance and showing love to another citizen is a shared national prize. When it comes to independence, political ideologies, left wing or right wing, do not matter. What matters is being Zimbabwean.

We are not enemies, but friends, and though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of affection. 

As the nation soldierly marches ahead to attain an upper-middle-income economy status by 2030, the idea of “leaving no one and no place behind” is meant to represent equity. It is an acknowledgment that the benefits of development processes have to be felt by those who have been previously disadvantaged.

More so, the twin-relationship of Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) echoes the recognition that the dignity of all Zimbabweans is made possible politically, economically and socially.

To achieve Vision 2030 together, Zimbabwe is seized with a moral regeneration which seeks to re-unite aspects of the nation that include the traditional and modern, agriculture and industry, through returning to the creative life-principle that happened before. 

The devolution process by Zimbabwe’s central Government has taken us this far. Devolution is that process in which the power of governance is assigned to local people.

Furthermore, the devolution approach has increasingly made citizens of Zimbabwe more participatory while the Government has been made more democratic and people-friendly. 

It explains how the rebuilding exercise of the country should be understood on the opening of development and democratic paths which cement our national values. 

In implementing the devolution principle, Zimbabwe under the Zanu PF Government is emphasising the equitable distribution and redistribution of resources and promotion of citizen participation in the development praxis.

All of the country’s 10 provinces are benefiting one way or another from the development emphasis unfolding under the Second Republic from infrastructure, healthcare facilities at district and provincial levels, access to potable water, empowerment projects in Binga, road rehabilitation programmes, mining, agriculture and innovation hubs.

Fishing rigs at Binga Centre after their commissioning by the President last week.

These programmes have been determined by people through the process of participating in their own development.

A significant re-conceptualisation of democratic development has since emerged in association with the resurgence of Zimbabwe’s cultural nationalism with a fusion of political nationalism to provide a matrix economic revival. 

Even those in the Diaspora, a constituency exposed to international business and technological markets, have been encouraged by Government to remember that “Zimbabwe is home to everyone”.

Forging a national economic and political identity through these 42 years of independence is the business of all Zimbabweans and should not be abrogated.

More investments in agriculture and mining have seen a huge Diaspora population embarking on such. Women, the elderly, young men and women in their prime and also people with disabilities (PWDs) are also getting their pound of flesh.

Women face a lot of challenges that cannot be rectified in their entirety but with the right mindset, the equitable access to opportunities between men and women is being realised under the Second Republic. 

Poverty among women remains a key issue that cannot be explained simply by attempting to understand the structure of the national and international political economy. In terms of “leaving no one and no place behind” Zimbabwe is reconfiguring its poverty-ending mechanisms to premise issues of development based on equity and equality. 

As a key takeaway, all Zimbabweans no matter their race, religious inclination, creed, political association and diverse backgrounds, are to benefit from the development initiatives being pursued.

Before and after independence, Zimbabweans have always been a big family driven by the common good. It will remain inconceivable to have a claim to love Zimbabwe while denigrating this independence and failing to appreciate the sacrifices by our fallen and living heroes.

When it comes to our independence and peace, as usual, all things should be in bloodless fashion. We cannot make Zimbabwe great if we are in error, disunity and poverty. Only an equitable access to opportunities is opening a new book for everyone.