The Sunday Mail
We have to accept it as an immutable fact that in life there are three types of people — those who always watch in consternation as things happen, the lot that often-times sheepishly and incredulously wonder what the hell would be happening, and of course the people that make things happen, the change agents.
Also, in life, you either lead, follow or get out of the way.
For people who are always blindsided by events, it gets worse especially if those who make things happen deliver change with such obscene haste that it makes their head spin.
In instances where they fail to process what would be happening they turn to cynicism and scepticism for comfort.
The construction of dams has gained momentum
It reminds Bishop Lazi of many moons ago when bus drivers used to be mythical and legendary figures in village folk tales.
They were both celebrated for their punctuality and reviled for speeding in equal measure. No matter how different their personalities would be, these creatures of habit, who often had a knack of wearing fedora hats fitted with outlandish feathers, were known for unfailingly sticking to their timetables and schedules. You see, back in the day, buses were few and far between, which meant journeys had to be pre-planned.
For long distances, travellers had to catch a bus in the wee hours of the morning, particularly at the hour when the night gave way to the morning, long before the chirping birds came to life.
There was, however, one problem: While bus drivers stuck to their schedules by using their watches, village folk used their intuition or, worse, read the stars to determine the time, which always did not work during cloudy days.
A familiar sight at village bus stops was usually of desperate village folk unsuccessfully waving down a fleeting bus zooming out of view, and, in the painful aftermath, being enveloped in a transient sandstorm left in its wake. Bitter of being left behind, folks would take turns to throw tantrums and curse the driver for being a rude maniac and speed demon.
They became cynical and sarcastic, which often betrayed their corrosive bitterness.
However, it was unreasonable but perfectly understandable. Missing a bus, particularly one that plied the intended route once per week, usually meant the unenviable ignominy of having to replan the journey for the following week.
Decisive
When ED became President in 2017, some of us knew, as many are slowly coming to realise, that he is not a talker, but a doer.
He doesn’t talk the talk, but he walks the talk, and most often in an incredibly effective and expeditious way.
Those who make things happen are usually disrupters of the status quo, which is discomforting for those who might not know what would be happening.
You see, many people fear what they do not understand and hate what they fear.
By now you should be familiar with the kerfuffle that surrounded the announcement by Government to compensate former farm owners — indigenous black Zimbabweans and those whose land was covered by Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and Bilateral Investment Protection and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) — who lost their properties during the land reform programme.
You see, the land reform was delivered through a revolution — the Third Chimurenga — which essentially, as with the nature of all revolutions, did not follow any textbook script.
So fluid are revolutions that they are disruptive in ways that cannot be imagined.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, fellow black Zimbabweans and bona fide investors were caught up in the melee.
This is precisely the reason why Section 295 of the 2013 Constitution emphasises the need to compensate these two distinct categories that were prejudiced by the epoch-defining land reforms. After seven years of prevaricating by the old administration, President ED, a lawyer and a sworn constitutionalist, has moved in swiftly to close this chapter, which was unnecessarily encumbering efforts to attract investments and increase production and productivity.
Apart from respecting property rights by delivering justice to the aggrieved and upholding the Constitution, the consummation of the Global Compensation Deed (GCD), which also covers compensation for white former commercial farmers on improvements they had made on the acquired farms, makes it possible to move to the next chapter of regaining food self-sufficiency.
You would think this is perfectly reasonable, but, alas, those who have been using the land reform as a political campaign tool by lecturing us about property rights and the need to respect the rule of law and the Constitution are now at the forefront of criticising fulfilment of the same cardinal values.
Even as they daily unashamedly gorge on morsels of sadza from grain imported from as far as Mexico — about 15 000 kilometres away from Harare — they do not see logic in closing the chapter on land reform and moving on to what matters most — production.
Bishop Lazi, however, sympathises with them; they have just had the rug pulled from under their feet. Their knickers are now in a twist. Kikikikiki.
They should budget for more pain and disappointment. By the way, the GCD has been in the works for the past three years.
In fact, ever since the late Cde Perrance Shiri — may his soul rest in eternal power — began reaching out to the white former commercial farmers.
Isaiah 32:17 always tells us: “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.”
Greenshoots
Our wise forefathers once told us that chinemanenji hachifambisi, chinomirira kuti mavara acho awonekwe.
In English, this simply means omens usually stay long enough for them to be impressionable and understood. Even as he succeeds in also confounding his critics, ED’s leadership cannot be second-guessed; all that one needs to do is to look for the signs.
During a visit to China in July 2015, then Vice President Mnangagwa told China Global Television Network (CGTN) that leadership is not about taking people where they want but where they should and ought to be.
When he assumed the reins, he followed this through on September 22, 2018, when he was in New York for the 73rd Ordinary Session of the United Nations General Assembly, by ominously warning about austerity measures that were needed to extricate the country from the financial rut it found itself in then.
“We have to be sober. It is true that our fiscal balance is bad and we must be honest to our people as to what we want to achieve and to do.
“So there is need for us to apply fundamentals that may be harsh to our people, but are necessary for us to cross the bridge,” he told Bloomberg TV in an interview.
Fast forward to September 2020, Zimbabwe’s financials look healthy, notwithstanding tough intervening periods characterised by the worst drought in four decades, Cyclone Idai last year, the debilitating two-decade-old sanctions and the current pandemic.
For the first six months this year, foreign currency inflows rose to US$3,2 billion, up by a whooping US$500 million from US$2,7 billion last year, while foreign currency outflows in the same period stood at US$1,8 billion, yielding a healthy balance of payment position of US$1,4 billion.
The currency issue, which hitherto was is a mess, has since been sorted.
Many people would have thought the President was out of his mind when he announced on June 20 last year that the country was planning to introduce its own currency.
At the time, the country was in the grip of rising inflation, but it takes vision, wisdom, decisiveness and boldness to make the right call. We now have a new currency and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) now has regained the toolkit it desperately needs to control what is happening in the market.
The raging delinquency and malfeasance on mobile money platforms has been tamed, and with it a runaway exchange rate and prices. For the past 10 weeks, prices have been soothingly stable, if not retreating in some instances.
Pedal to the metal
Bishop Lazi has often been asked: Is this current stability not a lull before a storm?
Well, ED is showing no signs of relenting.
He is actually putting the pedal to the metal.
Investment in major infrastructural projects — now proceeding with dizzying pace — is most likely to provide the stimulus and tonic needed to support economic growth, which is now the major objective especially after stabilising the economy through the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSB), whose full course runs until December.
You might need to know that journalists, who are now editors, have been writing about the Harare-Beitbridge rehabilitation project for donkey’s years, but it never took of.
It only took the resolve of President ED to cut the Gordian knot, and rehabilitation of the road, which is a major project by any stretch of the imagination, is now well and truly underway. Similar work is taking place around the country, be it construction of Marovanyati, which has now been completed; opening up insane hectares of agricultural land in Kanyemba, Binga and the Lowveld; and increasing output in mining through attracting big companies such as Russia’s Alrosa.
One of the projects that the Bishop is excited about is the imminent construction of a steel plant by Tsingshan, the largest steel producer of steel in the world.
All the preparatory work, which involves mine development at Dinson Colliery in Hwange, expansion of furnaces at Afrochine, construction of a 300 000-tonne coke oven battery and securing iron ore concessions, has since been completed.
The sheer magnitude and the scope of the steel works — valued at between US$5 billion and US$10 billion upon completion and employing about 30 000 people — would be simply breath-taking.
We need not talk about the oil and gas project in Muzarabani, the new platinum mines (Great Dyke Investment and Karoo Platinum) and many other investments in diamond and lithium mining. Many think that these projects are a joke.
Far from the madding cyber world of contrived crises created by the Zimbabwe twitterati, a lot of game-changing pieces are being moved on the ground. The signs are there.
Psalm 126:5-6 reminds us: “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”
As ED ticks the boxes and inches closer towards his vision, the political manifesto of the lunatic fringe grows ever so leaner, thinner and irrelevant. The bus is well and truly on its way and if you snooze, you lose.
Bishop out!
