The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
Zimbabwe’s economy is poised to become stable due to measures that have been implemented and more the country will take “shortly”, President Mnangagwa has said.
Writing in his weekly column in this publication, President Mnangagwa said during his visit to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt last week for the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) meetings, where Zimbabwe’s debt clearance solution was also under discussion, African countries were in agreement that the continent must free itself from external debt. He said Zimbabwe’s US$17 billion debt and arrears must be resolved to enable the country to move forward unencumbered.
“We are determined to find resolution to this albatross which has been weighing us down. Above all, determined to pursue a development trajectory which is debt-free so we augment our sovereignty and options.
“We see tangible goodwill among creditors to carry us through. Alongside a raft of initiatives we have taken, and are set to take shortly, I foresee a stable and sustainably growing economy, anchored on her resources and a stable currency of her own.”
The President said Zimbabwe, like other African countries, has capacity to develop on the strength of her own 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.”
said “more than a century after its colonisation, and over 66 years into its Independence, Africa must begin to claim, define and assert her own century.”
The President said the road to full decolonisation was long and arduous, starting with the independence of Ghana in 1957.
“Thereafter, several African countries gained Independence, all the time widening Africa’s vistas. The toughest phase of that decolonisation process was here in Southern Africa, where colonialism had assumed a settler form, and thus got deeply and bellicosely entrenched. To dislodge it, bloody armed struggles became necessary.”
He said guns must be silenced on the continent.
“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. “
President Mnangagwa said in its Independence, Africa must be completely insulated from undue foreign interference, coercion and influence because all races are equal.
In this regard, “Africa has no masters; she should reject coercion by whomsoever”.
“Above all, she should be free to decide her own policies: who to relate to; what partnership to build for her futures; what values to espouse and promote and what development trajectory to choose and pursue. The days of coercive diplomacy are over; Africa must stand her ground.”
