The Sunday Mail
Teddie Bepete
In historical times, no state prospered without interdependence with other nations.
President Mnangagwa’s recognition amongst world leaders defines the importance that our country has on the international stage.
It appears after US President Donald Trump, President Mnangagwa was second in line for global attention in Davos.
I reflect on the “freedom train” days with much nostalgia. A surge of life always overcame one despite the debilitating economic hardships of that 2007-8 hyperinflationary era. On one ride from Harare’s Mufakose suburb to the CBD, a vicious dog occasionally attacked the train around Budiriro 5.
That dog was formidable in its reproaches. It looked as though it had an intrinsic conviction that it would someday derail the train with one gigantic push.
But day after day, as I rode on the freedom train, the gigantic push never came.
The grim dog continued to pounce, sweating alongside the railway line. Never did a day come when I witnessed a train derailed by a barking dog.
Sometime later, we suddenly stopped at Budiriro and hoped to see our canine friend who had mocked the freedom train for so long from close range.
It emerged he had died in a freak accident with a bicycle.
When I was a young boy, an old man came to me and said, “In future, when you see a dog howling at the round moon, somewhere nearby some master is dead.”
But I digress.
The intention is not to write about dogs that bark at the moon because their master is no more and when the locomotive of the people is actually on its way to the future.
The 48th World Economic Forum meeting in Davos came at the most critical time when Zimbabwe is showcasing an array of opportunities to foreign investors.
The Zhuwaos – once corrupted by a familial power project – and the sly but silly Prof Moyos of this world (wherever they are hiding) must awaken to the fact that the new dispensation has successfully taken rejoining the international community as a priority.
The fact that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is the first Zimbabwean Head of State to be invited to such a platform is quite telling.
It requires the nation to join hands in supporting ED so that this leap from poverty becomes reality.
To speak with a negative voice at such a life-saving moment is tantamount to treason.
It is too late for agents of retrogression because President Mnangagwa has already taken the new era to the doorstep of the modern world.
Change has begun, and change is our only choice as a country. Decades of poverty under corruption and economic mismanagement are already a thing of the past.
According to the man who engineered China’s modern status, Deng Xiaoping, “poverty is not socialism; to be rich is glorious”.
The liberation struggle was fought to extract our people from the york of colonial barbarism and poverty.
The nourishment of our hardwon freedom has to go hand-in-glove with economic prosperity.
In historical times, no state prospered without interdependence with other nations.
President Mnangagwa’s recognition amongst world leaders defines the importance that our country has on the international stage.
It appears after US President Donald Trump, President Mnangagwa was second in line for global attention in Davos.
Alex Magaisa who has always been caustic towards Zanu-PF says, “His invitation is symbolic of the generous goodwill Mnangagwa is enjoying. . .the majority of the West, with Britain taking the lead, seem to have largely embraced the Mnangagwa administration.”
And there is need to change the perception that land is more important than capital. Inspite of all the abundant labour we have, our land cannot be productive without adequate capital to utilise it the modern way.
This is how the Chinese evolved into a modern economy.
They stopped abhorring the efficacy of capital and instead embraced it to the salvage of the communist ideology.
Deng Xiaoping said during those days, “We mustn’t fear to adopt the advanced management methods applied in the capitalist countries. . .The very essence of socialism is the liberation and development of productive systems. . .Socialism and market economy are not incompatible.”
We always refer to the Chinese experience as the Oriental nation’s political history is similar to Zimbabwe’s.
If capital comes to the succour of the ideals of our liberation, then it is welcome. We don’t want a situation where capital is used to loot our resources for the benefit of the world’s richest elite.
Xiaoping said in allusion to capital, “No matter it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.”
This year’s WEF meeting themed, “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”, urges cooperation among nations to reduce inequality.
Our country is part of that fractured world that needs emergency healing.
We believe world leaders who gathered in Davos will seriously consider President Mnangagwa’s appeal as genuine for it truly represents the aspirations of the majority.
