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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter

ZIMBABWE has adopted Africa’s aspirations of self-determination through the ‘Nyika inovakwa nekutongwa nevene vayo’ mantra and is open to foreigners coming in as partners to assist in the country’s development agenda, President Mnangagwa has said.

He said this yesterday in his weekly column in The Sunday Mail, adding that it was now time for Africa to define its own development agenda in this century as espoused in Agenda 63 and the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“The African Century is built on self-belief and belief in the resources and capacities of Africa. Already, Africa has expressed all this in her continental blueprints, foremost Agenda 63, and the African Continental Free Trade Area. Both blueprints aim for continental integration, predicated on African resources, on African agency, partnerships and trade.

“Here in Zimbabwe, we have domesticated this continental thinking and aspiration through our mantra, Nyika inovakwa nekutongwa nevene vayo! We govern ourselves, eschewing anything that derogates from our full sovereignty; we build our own country, brick by brick, stone upon stone and step by step, with outsiders coming in to support, or to participate through skills, capital and technologies, in development options we will have freely chosen, and we will have set for ourselves,” he said.

The President said the country and Africa were rich in natural resources and that it was time that Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general, use them for their own development.

“We develop our country and continent on the strength of our resources. Africa has abundant resources; many of these resources are yet to be exploited. They should be exploited by us Africans, for the benefit of our continent and her posterity. We thus reject the notion of Africa as “a new frontier” for a second scramble by foreign interests.

“Africa is its own frontier, and is ready to claim its century on the basis of its God-given resources. This is what Agenda 63 means and entails. It rests on a country-to-country, subregion-to-subregion African nexus; indeed, on the combined strength and ingenuity of Africa’s billion-plus population,” President Mnangagwa said.

The President also said the Continent must harness its historic victory over entrenched multinational colonial imperialism to set upon a new course leading to an African Century.

“Today we build on the legacy of our resistance as a Continent to catapult ourselves forward towards a new destiny in which the African is his or her own master,” he said.

President Mnangagwa however, said armed conflicts on the Continent should be stopped as they hampered development.

“First, the guns must be silenced on our Continent. Guns of fratricidal conflicts of whatever hue or complexion. Violent internal contradictions; insurgency, inter-state conflicts or surrogate wars: all these must give way so our continent consolidates peace and cohesion for it to move forward. Africa cannot continue to fritter away her resources on guns, instead of spending them on butter,” the President said, adding that Africa must work to restore peace in Sudan.

“The fratricidal war in the Sudan is of great concern to Africa; to Zimbabwe especially. African Union’s Peace and Security Council, PSC, to which Zimbabwe is currently a member, must redouble its efforts so peace returns to the Sudan. Sudan, alongside Egypt, is an important symbol of Africa’s and the world’s riverine civilisation; indeed, a great symbol of resistance to colonial encroachment and occupation. She is a valuable part of our union; she must be helped to regain her peace and stability, so she contributes to the vision of our continent; indeed, to the African Century we envisage.”