Voice of the people is the voice of God

Below are excerpts of President Mnangagwa’s speech at a Youth Convention organised by the Zanu-PF Youth League in Mkoba, Gweru on Thursday.

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(Salutations)

Ndafara nekundikoka kwamaita, kuwanda kwamakaita uku kwandifadza zvikuru. Ndokutanga kusangana nemwi ndave President, nemwiwo muchisangana neni ndave mukuru wenyu. The voice of the people, you are the people of God, and the voice of the people is the voice of God!

Tauya kuzosangana nemwi mandikoka muchiti imwi, Cde President, toda kumbowana nguva nemwi tikuudzei zvinotiremera nezvinotirerukira. Ini ndinofunga kuti tasangana sezvizvi izvi ndowana mukana wekurondedzera kuti takabva kupi, tiri papi, toendepi.

Iko zvino zuva rave masikati, asi kuseni kwambenge kuriko imi muri pano, richadoka. Zvitatu – mangwanani, masikati madekwani.

Unoberekwa, ugokura, ugochembera. Imwi murivadiki, vabereki vedu vakuru, isu takumadokero, saka imwi mochiteerera mafambiro atakaita kubva kuseni kupinda masikati, kubva masikati kuinda madekwana kwatave iko zvino. Kana kuchinzi nhaka kana kuti rifa renyika zvinoreva kuti vari mberi kwenyu vanofanira kurondedzera kuti nhaka munoichengeta sei. How do you keep the heritage of a country? Nhaka yenyika munoichengeta sei? Kuungana kwataita uku ndokotorairana nhaka yenyika,e-eh, ndakatanga nokuonana nemadzimambo nokuti hakuna mutunhu usina madzimambo muno muZimbabwe, saka ndakaonana nawo.

Tabva ipapo ndokuziva kuti iyi nyika zvaine vene vayo, asi ivo vene vayo ivava, havasi ivo vakaisika, ndokudana vatungamiri vemakereke ese tikagara navo pasi.

Saka ndapedza kudaro, zvobvira kuti varidzi venyika madzimambo tataurirana, ndovepanyika, vanamati vanotisvitsa kuna Mwari tataura navo. Saka zvepasi nezvekudenga zvasangana, takumikidza izvozvo, ndokuona kuti kana tichiti pamusoro penyika tinofanira kugara zvakanaka tichigadzira upenyu hwedu, ndikadana macaptains of industry and commerce vose nyika yose, tikaungana tikataurirana kuti iko zvino izvi we want to develop our country, we want our economy to develop. How do we develop our economy? We want investment in the country, both domestic and foreign, ndokutaura navo.

Tadaro ndokuona kuti iyo nyika yatakuda kudeveloper iyi yakambounzwa nani? Nema war veterans! Saka makaona takaita musangano nema war veterans kuvatenda kuti tinotenda kuzvipira kwamakaita panguva yamaiva muri mayouths.

Tichitevera zvikomana zviri pano izvi ana (VP) Chiwenga ana (VP)Kembo Mohadi, zvakanga zviri mayouths tinazvo kuhondo. Tofanira kuvatenda nokutenda mhuri nekuti we say (in) the revolution the fighters must be like fish in the water, saka mawar veterans vakararama hondo, hondo yakabudirira nokuti vana baba nana mai muno mukati menyika vakatitambira vakashanda nesu.

Tapedza kudaro, tasvika manje pakuti nhaka yatiri kugadzira iyi tombogadzirira ani? Ndopave iko zvino. Togadzirira ani…. Hallelujah! Saka tasvika pakugadzira nhaka yenyu imwi mochiteerera kuti nhaka yenyu inogadzirwa sei, asi mugoichengeta. Ndisati ndakuudzai kuti nhaka inogadzirwa sei imwi mozvipira individually and collectively how to safeguard the heritage of this country. How do we do it? We protect this heritage by voting for a revolutionary party that has liberated this country.

It is the only part in our country which knows the tribulations that we went through in order for us to enjoy the freedom we are enjoying. Kuti nhasi vanhu vafare vachituka vamwe, vafare vachishora vamwe ifreedom yakaunzwa nevakairirwa. Asi kana ukatuka, kana ukadzvanyirira, the voice of the people is the voice of God! That voice inokutonga, wotongeka wakangonyara asi woona zve kuti ndatongwa. Ndabvunza kuti how do you preserve nhaka yedu? Nhaka iyi tinoipreserver nekuvhotera Zanu-PF kuti irambe ichitonga.

So, imi mose makadai muri mayouths makadai, your burden, mutoro wenyu, ndowe kuchengetedza nhaka iyi. Isu vakuru venyu, tine mutoro wekugadzira nhaka iyi, wokugadzira nyika iyi kuti ikuzipirei. How do we do that? How do we achieve that? We must make sure we put up programmes in this country, maprogrammes anoita kuti tiite modernise nyika yedu. Modernise our agriculture, modernise our industry, modernise our commerce, modernise our infrastructure, modernise our health sector, modernise our education sector, zvose izvozvo ndozvinoita kuti upenyu hwedu huve nani.

(In) the current dispensation, we have agreed kuti (in) the next 12 years, by 2030, this country shall have per capita income of $3500 and then it becomes a middle-income country. Saka tinoitasei? Ndoda kuti tifambe tose tichionesana kuti timutse ma industry, vana vawane mabasa. Vana Ziscosteel dzinofana kumuka. Muno muGweru, eeh, six months ago hutsi hwanga husiko uhu hwamuri kuona. Zviri kumuka padiki nepadiki, ana Ziscosteel dziri kumuka. MuBulayawo, industry yanga yafa yose. Tiri kukwezva investments kubva kunze kumutsa industry muBulawayo. Railway yedu yanga yafa, tiri kukwezva investment iko kurailways ikozvino yakutanga, even the volumes of cargo is increasing by the day. Tikuita izvozvo. The mining sector, uku ndiko kwatinoda vechidiki vedu vazhinji kuti vaveko ikoko. Muri kuti makorokoza? No! These are artisanal miners, small-scale miners. Patakaenda kuChina muna April, tiri kuChina ikoko takataura nemutungamiri weko anonzi Xi Jinping. Patakasvika panyaya yemining akati pasure apoo ndakambofunga kukupai $100 million asi ndakazoimisa, handina kubvunza kuti makaimisira chii. Ndikati, haa, chiipfudzunurai. Saka kuti tiende munhoroondo yekuti yakamisigwei hazvina basa. Asi chipfudzunurai, vakabvuma kupfudzunura kuti isupporte small-scale miners. Pandanga ndichi briefwa nevakuru venyu vanga vachiti ivo divi re small-scale miners kune nyaya dzema fees. Royalties mafees amunofana kuti mubhadhare. Eeh, vakumbira kuti tinyevere ipapo mukwanise kuita mabasa aya mugozobhadhara pamberi. Ndozvakumbigwa handioni zvakaipa nekuti mese you are local people, mese muri vana vemuZimbabwe. Chatinoda, hatidi kuona mune nhamo, tofana kuona muchishanda. You must be honest and hardworking and you must improve your lives through hardworking. Isu sehurumende, we must create an environment where you can work, where you can improve your lives. That is what we are going to do and that is what we are doing. Zvinoda magetsi, electricity across the country, across the entire industry. Right, about two months or three months ago takanovhura kuKariba South 300 megawatts. This week, svondo rino – patakaenda kuChina zvakare tine inonzi Hwange 7 and Hwange 8, takanopiwa $1 billion – yakapfudzunugwa this week for a draw down, saka kwamuka rimwe basa where over a thousand people will be employed.

I can go on and on nema projects atawana. Tine, for instance, veKaro Resources vakauya, they are now busy setting up machinery yavo iri kupinda on a daily basis.

Vano invester $4,2 billion in platinum. So many projects have come within the last five to six months now. As you have been told, we have attracted in this country around $16 billion in terms of projects alone.  This must go towards the creation of employment and the bringing in of technology into our country.

Takuti isu economics, economics, business, business.  Business brings food at the table, business sends children to school, business builds roads, business builds hospitals and business builds houses.

Our roads can only be built if there is business in the country, so Zimbabwe is open for business.  Hama dzangu, I am aware that you are all fully briefed by your leadership about the harmonised elections dziri kuuya musi wa July 30.

Pamaelections arikuuya takagara pasi nevamwe tikati, no, we want free, fair, transparent, credible elections, free of violence.

Honai kuwanda kwamakaita, hamuonekwi kuti makaguma kupi. Why would you want to be violent against vanhu vamunoverenga paminwe? Ignore them! I ignore them myself. Why should you not ignore them yourself? Havapo!  Regai ndikuvimbisei, under the new dispensation, we have brought back the party to move forward following the correct line of (the) revolution.

What is the correct line of revolution? The correct line of revolution, revolutionary party continues going back to the people, continuing to address the concerns and challenges of the people. And this is what we are doing.

We are receiving your challenges, and we hear as your Government and as your Government, we must address your challenges, we must address the difficulties that you face. The new dispensation is back on rail. They have put our revolutionary party back on rail.

And the Government is now on rail because it must address the needs of the people. It must address the issues of the economy. It must address and fight corruption day and night.

Comrades, our duty, every one of us, is to be committed, is to be committed to hard work, is to be committed to honesty.  All of us be committed to our party. It is the only party that is democratic. We have introduced democracy in Zanu-PF. We are strengthening democracy in Zanu-PF, we are deepening democracy in Zanu-PF. What does that mean? It means we, the people, members of Zanu-PF, are the ones who decide who shall lead us at cell level, district level, at provincial level, at central committee level.  It is people who must decide who shall go to Parliament, not the leadership. No imposition! We agreed, no imposition! Leaders or representatives of the people must come from the people.

Nezuro takasangana nemacomrades ese vakawinner nevasina kuwinner. Panapa ndafara (Godfrey) Tsenengamu achiti isusu takambozvizama wo asi we are cadres of the party. It does not matter kuti taruza, the party is supreme. We remain in the party, we support the party, hapana mweya kana ndangariro dzebhora musango. We must continue to be united. Pazondinakidza kwanzi (na) Tsenengamu hanzi ndakuziva matricks anoitwa nevanhu kuti vahwine. Aiwa, hati hwine nematricks, ipapo ndopati poyei. Nokuti handizivi kuti matricks aarikureva ndeeyi?

Haufaniri kuwinner nematricks, unofanira kuwinner nekushandira vanhu, vanhu vachikuda. Vokusimudzira. Kuda hake ndomatricks angaachireva, it is well and good.

Mataura maprojects amunoda kuti mubatsirwe. Tagara pano almost two hours tichitereera mapresentations anga achipihwa nevarious groups.  I was so impressed. This is a new youth leadership. I am very impressed neleadership yenyu, hazvina kumboitika muyouth history kuti convention yakaita seino kuti all the various youth groups, young women coming forward “isu tinoda izvi”, “tiri kuitirwa izvi”, “isu tine izvi, tirikuitirwa izvi”. I am very very impressed with the way you are running things.

Kudzamara ndawonawo Sandra Ndebele achiuyawo nezveArts, kwahi titsigirei, we will support you, we had forgotten that you were there. We are going to support you as young women and as young men in the arts field.

You shouldn’t remain poverty stricken when you are young because when you become our age you will not value of the young who come after you, but if we empower you, you shall have the same benevolence to empower those who come after you. So it is most important we talked about it. Comrade (Pupurayi) Togarepi, you talked about the bank. We have given the bank.. what do you call it…the Empowerment Bank, we have given it $12 million from the Reserve Bank for you so that you can access funds for whatever projects you are going to do.

It is most important kuti savana vadiki itai maprojects enyu in groups. Yes, you can do your project uri wega, but its most important kuti makaita maprojects in groups, start small.

We are putting aside; in fact, we have put aside, not that we shall no, no, we have put aside funds to support you.  Manzwa comrade vachitaura kuti, ah, they are accessing funds for small businesses which keep them going, but they also grow slowly, grow slowly and maintain themselves and the possibility is that if you are focused, in no time you will find that you become a medium company and as you go on, you become an established big company which begins employing other people.

You may begin by employing yourself, next time you are five, next time you are 10, you have become a small medium enterprise as you go on.  These are the things you must take advantage of because we have put aside funds for such purposes.

The mining sector, like I have said, there are funds but in the mining sector the Minister of Mines thinks that you must congregate as groups so that they can give you machinery.

They are busy acquiring machinery, handizivi kuti dzinonzichii machinery dzacho, but they are getting machinery for you to use, basic machinery for mining purposes even those under Mai Muchinguri vari pano ava as Ministry of Environment, she has introduced, ivo neveAgriculture Cde Perrance Shiri because under the supervision yavo, vakusuperviswa naVaChiwenga, musoja, ndonhamo yavapinda iyoyo, they have to work.  There is now a programme for wildlife, a programme for livestock, and a programme for fisheries.

Kulivestock, kuda munoona paTV vaChiwenga vachitenderera vana vaPerrance Shiri.

We have given them some money so the youths can also come together and approach the Government and say tinoda kuita project yedu yemombe, right? Either munoda kubreeder, munopiwa mari yekubreeder, kana muchida kuita fatten mombe kuti dzikore mugotengesa, you get money for that.

But you can also go into industry and commerce. Again Government has created windows for you, where you can access mari dzerudzi iroro.  Mataura zvakare kuti, ehh, vakuru venyu, hanzi ikezvino we are aware kuti kune mapurazi arikuita downsize.

Kune- tine land committee, Land Audit Committee ikuitwa izvozvi.  Land Audit Committee ikuita discover kuti kune vanhu vane mapurazi more than one ari munhu one, tiri kuvatorera mapurazi. Tirikutora mapurazi acho. Kune vane more than one purazi ari munhu one or one family. tirikutora osara ne one, that’s number one.

Number two, kune vamwe vane akakurisa, anodarika the recommended in terms of the region again. We are downsizing and murikukumbira kuti panoitwa downsizing ipapo, kana takuita redistribute, we must think of the youth.

We want fairness in the distribution of land, so on that request we take it on board. We must make sure the land we are getting back as a result of vane mapurazi akawanda atichatora, mamwe takatotora vane mabig ones takedown sizer, we will put our people, but of course our land cannot grow, so we need new technology on our land, so make our land more productive per hectare, more productive. We have a programme where whether mvura yanaya kana haina kunaya, tinowana enough grain to feed our country.  Tine mapivots atakawana kubva kuSpain. Ikozvino arikuitwa assemble, tasigner another agreement again for more to come so that we have enough land under irrigation to give us enough grain in the country, whether mvura yanaya kana isina, so in that area we are okay, but we also need to develop our infrastructure, our roads and so on.

So we can see kuti we are entering a very interesting economic period in Zimbabwe.

Each day that passes, more and more of inverstors are coming into Zimbabwe, kana mahotera edu ikozvinoizvi ari 100 percent full, kushaya kuti vovata kupi, vachingouya, vachingouya, vacharamba vachingouya.

Why are they coming? Because they know that in Zimbabwe, the current dispensation is peaceful, tinoparidza rugare, toparidza kubatana, toparidza runyararo and we are focused to develop our country.  Again, I would want to emphasise kwamuri mose kuti as we move forward individually and collectively, our duty as a nation is hard work, focus. Whatever you are doing, you can be a teacher, a doctor, an economist, a lawyer, whatever you are doing, isa moyo wako wose pane zvaunenge uchiita. Isu kuhuremende day-in, day-out, we are planning to make sure we create employment for the youth and to create employment, what are we doing, we attract investment. We have gone out to South Africa. Our people in the Diaspora, as a result of us Zanu-PF being united, Zanu-PF speaking with one voice, we have received investments from South Africa, $400 million from South Africa, from our Diaspora people.

Hazvina kumboitika kare. Also now, whereever I go as I travel, I meet our people in Diaspora. They are planning to come back. They are planning to invest in housing.  We have agreed that the next five years after this election, the next five years when we put our own Government – currently of course munoziva kuti Government yatinayo iyi tiri kupedzisa makore akasiiwa na former President vaMugabe, seven months dzatiri kupedzisa, asi tinotanga edu isu neGovernment yedu yatinenge tasarudza tega after musi wa30 July ndopanotanga Government yedu – the next five years dzatakatarira kuenda mberi, we have programmes we have put down to improve housing.

We are saying during the five years coming, tinoda kuwana 1,2 million houses to be built in five years. Kune vamwe vanoti hazviitike, aiwa, zvinokwanisika kuitika izvozvo because you will not only have Government, no, we are attracting foreign companies who are willing to invest in houses because houses pay for themselves, so we will need to have housing projects in every single city in Zimbabwe. . .

We must eradicate corruption, but also let us begin to be smart, not only smart in mind, but smart where we work, smart where we travel and smart where we stay. Let our towns be smart, let our town be clean, after these elections, we are going to come town by town and city by city to ensure that cities are clean. And I appeal to you, the youths, to support me and my administration to again make our cities clean, clean and smart as we can see in other towns elsewhere.

But to do so we must make sure that our vendors, we transform our vendors and come with clean and decent places so that they can work where there is water, toilets, electricity and everything. This is necessary if we are going to grow a decent and modern Zimbabwe and the jury is upon us and more specifically upon the youths.

We are doing this so that the current generation and the future generation will say, indeed, vanamukoma nanasisi vakaenda kumberi kwedu vakatigadzirira nyika, imi renyu rova rekuchengeta zvinhu zvakanaka, we want our cities to be smart. Magraders ikezvino ane MDC, inonzi chii? hameno kuti yavakunzi chii, macouncils ane opposition.

And in conclusion, let me reiterate that you are the party’s frontline soldiers. You, the youths, are our frontline soldiers, therefore, use your youthfulness to save your families and to save your communities, save the party and last but not least, save beloved Zimbabwe.

Allow me to thank you for organising this noble event, which shows your commitment and unwavering support for the party. I challenge you to remain resolute in defending the party. God bless you all! I thank you!