The Sunday Mail
Well, for starters, we must begin by congratulating President Mugabe for being elected AU Chair.
What the blaze is happening in this republic, and yonder?
What is all this brouhaha I hear that the President “fell”?
Well, let’s hear the words of my favourite Biblical prophet, Papa Micah (in the contemporary parlance).
“Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I shall arise” (Micah 7:8).
This is the Scripture I want to give to President Mugabe to read to the doom sayers who were adolescently fuelling the brouhaha and unremittingly bantering that the President has fallen.
Talk of majoring the minor – the footage is ironically unequivocal that he didn’t fall, but slipped and managed to break the fall. But the Scripture above would still do justice to those doom sayers by “answer(ing) a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:4).
There is a reason why I must emphasise the above.
By dedicating our absolute focus on images of a mere slip, while choosing to give the President’s new continental role and its meaning the slip – 263 (international code that identifies Zimbabwe) will soon be left out in the take-off of the flight Agenda 2063.
More about Agenda 2063 later.
We don’t want to be people who are always left out as others are getting to the horizons that usher them into the realm of pastures of green.
At a conference on Africa held by the International Monetary Fund in Mozambique in May last year, under the theme, “Africa Rising – Building to the Future”, the Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, highlighted that there has been phenomenal and sustainable economic growth by many countries on the continent.
She, however, noted that: “And yet, the tide of growth has not lifted all boats. Poverty remains stuck at unacceptably high levels—still afflicting about 45 percent of the region’s households.”
We are one of the “boats” that have not been lifted by that growth tide.
Then you have the Mass Public Opinion Institute hallucinating that life was sweet under the inclusive Government than it is under the incumbent dispensation.
Our boat, as far as I am concerned, had not been lifted amongst the rest largely thanks to the inclusive Government era – where growth was characterised by jobless, futureless, ruthless and rootless tendencies.
In fact, a Poverty, Income and Consumption and Expenditure Survey which was done by ZimStat in 2013, at the twilight of the inclusive Government, actually revealed that 72.3 percent of Zimbabweans were poor.
Zimbabwe’s Gini coefficient in 2012 was also noted by ZimStat to be “within the range of countries considered to be highly unequal”.
Thus, inclusive Government growth did not translate into enhanced quality of life for the Motherland’s citizenry.
Even if you will look at the consumer basket, you will realise that it rose sharply during that era from levels as low as US$427 in April 2009 to US$571 in April 2013.
The incumbent Government, upon assumption of power, actually hastened to increase the salaries of civil servants, to increase the consumption levels of the people who were no longer affording basics.
What we can, therefore, learn from the seemingly impressive growth rates attained during the inclusive Government era is that economic growth in and of itself is futile if it does not give highest priority to poverty reduction, productive employment and social integration.
Growth needs to be accompanied by an expansion of people’s choices and enabling them to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives.
Armed with the wisdom above, the Zanu-PF Government launched ZimAsset – in the very few months of its election victory – to bring sustainable socio-economic transformation, which was absent in the inclusive Government era.
Growth of the inclusive Government era did not put people at the centre.
It was characterised by competition amongst political players in the stead of complementing each other.
Each political party was pulling in its own direction, which earned that Government the nickname “a three-headed monster”.
In their Letter of Intent to Mrs Largage, dated July 1, 2014, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr John Mangudya and Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa – who countersigned the letter – actually conceded that: “The July 2013 harmonised elections delivered a victory for President R.G. Mugabe and Zanu-PF… our new Cabinet, which was appointed in September 2013, is a more cohesive body than its predecessor.
“We are confident that this cohesiveness will translate into strengthened policy formulation and implementation.
“This will enhance our ability to vigorously pursue our reform agenda.”
We now expect this to take effect this year, especially following the resolution of factional issues in the ruling party.
Minister Chinamasa has also told us already that for this country to be at its best, we need to grow at about eight percent for the next 10 years.
That has not been happening and we now need to look at accelerating ZimAsset implementation while looking at President Mugabe’s new role in Africa with some level of seriousness.
We now need to zero in 263 with Agenda 2063.
Now let’s talk about this Agenda 2063 monster.
Well, for starters, we must begin by congratulating President Mugabe for being elected AU Chair.
His being the only sitting Head of State and Government who participated in the founding meeting of the Organisation of African Unity back in 1963 surely makes his election the proper thing to do, especially coinciding with him launching Agenda 2063 – the continent’s vision and action plan for the next jubilee.
Agenda 2063 is a call for action to all segments of the African society to work together to build a prosperous and united Africa based on shared values and a common destiny.
In their 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union rededicated themselves to the continent’s accelerated development and technological progress.
They laid down the vision and ideals to serve as pillars for the continent in the foreseeable future, which Agenda 2063 will now translate into concrete objectives, milestones, goals, targets and actions and measures.
We now need to focus on the Robert Mugabe that is saying: “We are now for integration, working together, doing things together, undertaking programmes of development together.’’
The growth of South Africa, for instance, is futile if Zimbabwe is sinking, due to contagion effect.
We, therefore, have to integrate our economies on the continent in such a way that we ameliorate our risks and external shocks.
That is why we have spoken as a country – in Section 12(2) of the Constitution – that: “The State must promote regional and pan-African cultural, economic, and political cooperation and integration.”
Many doom-sayers, knowing that President Mugabe knows the right buttons to press to liberate Africa from continued exploitation, tried as much to throw spanners in his elevation to the position, albeit to no avail.
Amongst the very first few buttons already pressed by the new AU Chair is busting the heavy dependency of the AU budget on donor-funding to retain sovereignty, ownership and control of the continent in the hands of its rightful owners.
Now, may those who want that in the West show by raising their hands?
I see no hands in the air!
Thus, no longer shall we continue to be dictated to on the priorities to focus on by foreigners, while drifting from the trajectory which we have mutually charted ourselves as a continent.
Now that we are disinfecting the AU budget and consolidating our areas of convergence, amongst a cocktail of other measures; we have a role to play as citizens of Zimbabwe by supporting our national policies feeding into Agenda 2063.
It will be to the detriment of our economy if we are to disconnect ourselves from national processes
that require our participation as citizens.
There are notable parallels between some outcomes of the AU Summit and our very own national policies, which I wish to reconcile with a view to highlighting why 263 is just but a “0” away from Agenda 2063.
Firstly, the theme of the just-ended Summit, “Women’s Empowerment Year and Africa Development for the Concretisation of Agenda 2063,” is in line with our strong desire to empower women as a country.
We are actually mulling to establish a women’s bank this year, which will improve credit availability to women.
Agenda 2063 was also born out of an intensive people-driven process guided by the AU Vision, just like our new Constitution (crafted the very year the African leaders were mooting Agenda 263) was people-driven.
“We, the people,” as our Constitution’s preamble begins, should, therefore, not betray the implementation of our own aspirations, as they were not dictated to us.
Agenda 2063 is also driven by the values of “unity, peace and development” matching congruently with the ruling party’s motto: “Unity, peace and development”.
The ruling party, having been driven by these values since time immemorial, must, therefore, not disappoint in charting the way that takes 263 to the destiny of Agenda 2063.
It also proves why our President had to be elected to be Chair to pioneer the implementation of Agenda 2063.
I will close with a couple of stanzas from the AU anthem:
“Let us all unite and toil together
To give the best we have to Africa
The cradle of mankind and fount of culture
Our pride and hope at break of dawn.
“O Sons and Daughters of Africa
Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky
Let us make Africa the Tree of Life.”
