The Sunday Mail
AROUND the world, the Chinese are known for their ant-like industry, which has helped them build an enviable highly developed modern state.
Typically, they have become popular for executing major infrastructure development projects at break-neck speeds.
This, however, has led to the misconception that as a people, the Chinese are inherently hard workers.
This is a stereotypical worldview that misleadingly and unhelpfully seeks to classify human attributes according to race.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Like many other human attributes, hard work is nurtured.
Chinese author Wu Xiaobo, in his book titled “China Emerging: How Thinking about Business Changed”, provides valuable insights.
In his work, he quotes observations made by an American journalist with the Washington Post, Jay Matthews, after his visit to Beijing in the immediate aftermath of the opening up and reform process initiated by Deng Xiaoping — regarded as the father of China’s economic miracle — soon after he took over in 1978.
“As in most factories in China, workers at the Guilin silk factory are not putting much effort into their hard work,” Matthews reportedly wrote.
“This relaxed work attitude is going to be a major obstacle to the modernisation of this most popular nation on earth.”
He also quotes the observations that were made by a Hong Kong scholar who visited Guangzhou in 1979.
“Two women were assigned to sweep leaves from an area outside his hotel window that measured a few hundred square metres. This was their entire responsibility, all day every day,” added Xiaobo.
“At the same time, he noticed that it took three people to repair the plaster on a nearby wall.
“One held the bucket, another applied the plaster, and the third stood by to watch.”
But over time, this perfunctory approach to work gave way to a formidable work ethic that has helped China to lift its people out of poverty at a scale never before seen in the world.
It has also delivered prosperity to both the nation and millions of Chinese.
And just like Deng Xiaoping, President Mnangagwa, who is known for his work ethic, has been actively promoting a culture of hard, honest work as an indispensable part of his reform programme.
In his inauguration speech on November 24, 2017, he clearly signalled the direction his administration would take.
“We have an economy to recover, a people to serve. Each and every one of us must now earn their hour, day, week and month at work. Gone are the days of absenteeism and desultory application, days of unduly delaying and forestalling decisions and services in the hope of extorting dirty rewards. That will have to stop,” he warned.
“A new culture must now inform and animate our daily conduct . . . The culture in Government just has to change, unseating those little ‘gods’ idly sitting in public offices, for a busy, empathetic civil service that Zimbabwe surely deserves.”
Since then, many things have changed.
For example, the work culture and attitude of staff at the Civil Registry, which used to be known for being needlessly abrasive, has completely changed, a development that has been welcomed by Zimbabweans.
But, as the President indicated at the announcement of the 2023 performance evaluation results and the signing ceremony of 2024 performance contracts for ministers and heads of public sector agencies at State House on Friday, more still needs to be done.
“Despite the award of trophies today to those who have excelled in different ministries, departments and agencies, overall performance across the public sector is not to my expectation,” he said.
“This demands that we all roll up our sleeves and work harder to deliver a higher quality of life for our people and realise our optimal economic potential.”
There is clearly no doubt that the continued inculcation of the culture of hard work will soon begin to bear fruit in both the public and private sectors.
There is no substitute for hard work for us to realise the lofty goals that we have set for ourselves.
We have already begun to see the results of all our efforts and all we need to do is double down to leapfrog our development.
Reforms are not an event, but a process.
