We’ve resolved the question of food security

Here we reproduce excerpts of President Mnangagwa’s speech at the ZANU PF election campaign launch at Mutema Secondary School in Chipinge.

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President E.D. Mnangagwa

Let me begin by giving due respect to all our chiefs who are here with us today and those who did not manage to attend this event, especially Chief Mutema, under whose jurisdiction we are today.

We are here after taking time to think long and hard about exactly where to hold our first rally. Here in Zimbabwe, the sun always rises from the east; so whenever a country is looking for light, it looks to the east.

And, in Zimbabwe, our east is right here in Manicaland. That is why we are here for this launch because this is where our light comes from.

My friends, Zimbabwe precedes all of us.

There is no one among us who can claim to be founder of this country. This is Munhumutapa’s land. Even when Munhumutapa looks back and sees us taking good care of the inheritance he bestowed upon us, he will be a happy man.

We are gathered here to assign each of us duties as sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.

And the duty is to safeguard our inheritance; and the revolutionary party, ZANU PF, is the sole custodian of that inheritance.

There is no other political party in this country that can claim that legitimacy except ZANU PF. Our party, ZANU PF, has its founders and before we proceed any further, we must lay out in the open the exact people who founded this party.

Dr Chiwenga touched on that subject for just a bit, but let me fill in the gaps.

Our forebears Munhumutapa and Mbuya Nehanda were unhappy that we had been put under the yoke of colonialism. That is why Mbuya Nehanda said her bones would rise to free her people. This is why we must all follow in the footsteps of the revolutionaries that came before us, including the likes of Cde Joshua Nkomo, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Cde Robert Mugabe, Cde Simon Muzenda and Cde Joseph Msika, among many others whom I cannot list here.

Wherever they are today, they are looking back at those whom they left in their stead to see whether we are safeguarding the inheritance of freedom that they left for us.

That burden lies on all your shoulders today. The burden is not on my shoulders alone, but also yours.

If I fail to follow in the party’s teachings, then I am not one of you.

Also, if you fail to follow those same teachings, then you are not part of ZANU PF.

Our freedom came at a huge cost; many young boys and girls died for our freedom.

When we started this war, we had ZANU and ZAPU.

ZANU was led by Reverend (Ndabaningi) Sithole and ZAPU was led by Cde (Joshua) Nkomo. All these other heroes whom I have mentioned followed behind the footsteps of these two men.

Some of us were just young boys who were being given minor tasks to perform by these giant revolutionaries. This is why you must use your vote to safeguard that inheritance.

We have come here and we see that all provinces have representatives here.

We have seen our Secretary-General (Cde Obert Mpofu) calling upon each province, one after the other, and we are happy that everyone is here with us.

But I want to thank Chief Mutema, who has allowed us to gather here in his land, where the sun rises. So, the sun has risen for the party and it is time for us to rise and work.

Since the onset of the Second Republic in November 2017, we want to look back at all that we have achieved together and also at the few areas we have failed.

Firstly, the task we had at hand was not a one-man job. I have come here with the party leadership to call upon you to join us as we commence our work.

At the onset of the Second Republic, as your leaders, we looked back at what our party stands for and where it comes from.

Our party, ZANU PF, is a colossal revolutionary party and everyone is welcome to join.

There is no one who owns ZANU PF.

If you see any of your leaders saying they own ZANU PF, stay away from them because they will lead you astray.

Before coming here, we were undertaking another important task. My Deputy, Cde (Constantino) Chiwenga, who was here recently at St Peter’s Hospital, was given a list by officials of what they required at the institution.

They had a list of things that would help them provide services to the local communities. They wanted hospital equipment.

So, I directed Cde Chiwenga, who is our Minister of Health (and Child Care), to make the necessary arrangements and ensure that all the needs were catered for.

So, all those things they requested were bought and we delivered the equipment today.

While coming from Mozambique in 1980 after the war, we had the body of our commander, Cde Tongogara.

So, we sat down with the leadership and decided that we must accord him the honour of being our hero.

As a result, we built the National Heroes Acre. We agreed that all leaders who die defending our country and revolution will be buried at the Heroes Acre.

We had leaders from here, the likes of Cde Chitepo, whom we gave that honour.

We recognised all those who fought for our liberation, including the likes of Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo and buried them there; also the Lion of Chirumhanzu, Leopold Takawira, is also there.

Cde Joshua Nkomo, Cde Muzenda, Cde Msika are also buried there.

They are there because they are gallant sons of Zimbabwe, who gave their lives for the freedom of Zimbabwe.

We then realised that others had been overlooked, so we sat down and decided that every son and daughter of Zimbabwe who helped liberate this country must be honoured.

Most of you are young and may not know that the likes of Rev Sithole, Chikerema fought for this country, so we honoured them by according them national hero status.

This is because we are ZANU PF and we are principled. We follow the principles of the party; we are revolutionaries.

And this party will remain in the hands of the revolutionaries.

It is ZANU PF which brought about independence and freedom.

We cannot have other people teaching us about freedom or democracy. No!

We fought for our democracy; we know what we want in this country.

Our predecessors, we respect them, and among them is Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole.

There is no other party in this country with a history of bringing independence to this country, but other parties are known for being sellouts.

This is why I am so happy with this gathering. It shows that you are all true patriots and that you love your country.

In order to safeguard your country, I will tell you what you must do.

Many died in the war while many others lie in unmarked graves because they died fighting for this country.

Today, you heard the Vice President telling us that our Constitution enjoins us to hold elections every five years.

There is no other party that speaks of protecting our freedom other than ZANU PF.

ZANU PF brought independence and democracy; independence and sovereignty; and the dignity of the African person through the armed liberation struggle. But today, when we need to preserve our legacy, we vote.

No one dies when voting; in fact, you will not even break a sweat when voting.

You just put a marking on a ballot paper and you are done.

Now, what is it that is required first and foremost by any country?

The first and most important thing in a country is peace.

We want peace, unity and harmony.

All of us, we should commit ourselves to preserving our peace, our unity and our harmony as a people.

We may come from different communities but we are one. We belong to the kingdom of Munhumutapa.

Today, we are a Republic in terms of our Constitution, but the country remains a Zimbabwe that was built by Munhumutapa.

We must, therefore, individually and collectively, young and old, weak and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the tall and the short, pray and work for the prosperity of this nation.

We are responsible for the prosperity of our country.

Our principle grievance when we went to the war was to repossess our land that had been taken from us by the colonisers.

We fought so that people would get their land back. We beat the white man, who went back scurrying to their motherland.

This angered them very much because they failed to understand why the children of Munhumutapa would do such a thing.

But we were adamant that the land belonged to us because the farms we took over were not in Scotland, but were here in Zimbabwe. So, we took the farms and they will remain in our hands whether they like it or not because they are ours.

That is why they imposed sanctions on us.

Tony Blair, who was Prime Minister in the UK, and George Bush, who was president of the US, joined hands to punish us.

George Bush wanted to fight against Saddam Hussein, who was leader of Iraq, accusing him of having weapons of mass destruction, which was a lie.

Tony Blair wanted to fight President Mugabe because he had taken back our land from the colonisers.

So, they agreed to support each other in invading Iraq and sanctioning Zimbabwe; that is how ZDERA (Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act) came about.

They thought, because of the sanctions, you, our people, would rise up against us, your leaders, and remove us from power so that they would impose their puppets.

We thank you because you stood by your country. We remain Zimbabweans during times of hunger and those of abundance.

Even in the cold, we are Zimbabweans, which is why we say “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo”.

You are all aware that heaven is led by the Holy Trinity: God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son.

Even here we have our trinity — Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo; igotongwa nevene vayo; igonamatirwa nevene vayo.

After seeing that they had imposed sanctions on us, we sat as the Second Republic to look at what we must do to blunt the effects of the sanctions.

At that time, we were suffering every year because of food insecurity.

We were importing food from other countries. We realised that here in Zimbabwe we have very good soils and rivers with abundant water resources.

We asked ourselves what we must do in order to be food self-sufficient.

That is when we introduced Pfumvudza.

Pfumvudza was designed to guarantee food security at the household level.

Families that follow what they are taught by agricultural officers, such as Minister Masuka, will be food secure.

We have resolved the question of food security. We are currently giving free inputs to three million households. They include seed, fertilisers and chemicals.

We also have large-scale farmers whom we give loans.

For the past three years, we have been food secure and the grain that we have is enough for everyone.

So, if there are areas that do not have enough grain, Government will soon distribute free grain to those areas.

From now on, we know that this country will never again be food insecure.

The country has also been affected by climate change, which has affected rainfall patterns.

Thus, to mitigate against climate change, the Government is building dams across the country, province by province.

These dams have irrigation infrastructure systems. These guarantee a source of water for our fields.

We have also compiled the number of hectares that we need for irrigation purposes.

Thus, even if we receive little rainfall, we are guaranteed of food security.

The country also experienced fuel shortages, which the Second Republic has managed to resolve.

We had electricity challenges and we went to our Chinese friends, who gave us US$1,4 billion. We managed to build Hwange units 7 and 8, which are now generating over 600MW.

For the past two to three weeks, there has been no load-shedding.

We are building and refurbishing other units. That is what we mean when we say Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo.

In the past years, we used to call for international tenders whenever we wanted to build our roads; we are now working with local contractors.

For those who have been traveling, you have seen the work that has been done on the roads.

The Beitbridge-Harare or the Harare-Bulawayo roads have been done so well.

We are building roads and dams and recently we started installing solar boreholes in every village across the country.

We have procured about 40 drilling rigs to date.

These boreholes are being installed at each chief’s homestead in every village.

Inside two to three years, every village should have a solar-powered borehole where we create a horticulture garden, and that programme is ongoing.

As a result of that model of agriculture, between 2017 and 2018, our agriculture sector was valued at only US$3,8 billion, now our agriculture is above US$8 billion.

The Lord loved this country so much that he gave Zimbabweans this land that is between Zambezi and Limpopo.

Zimbabwe is blessed with good land and minerals. Yes, there are illegal sanctions, but we have said we will build this country with the resources that we have.

In 2018, when we came in as the Second Republic, our mining sector was only US$3,7 billion.

We are now above US$12 billion and it will continue growing because we are now focusing on what we have. No one is coming to build our country for us.

I always say, Germans built their own country, the Americans built their own country, the Japanese built Japan, the British people built their country.

We have the responsibility of building our country as Zimbabweans.

As you stand here, make it a point that I am a Zimbabwean man; I am a Zimbabwean woman. My responsibility . . . is to be remembered for having contributed to my country’s development. You must be remembered for your good works.

I have talked about agriculture, energy, mining and roads.

However, development requires education.

We have introduced innovation hubs at every State university in this country.

As Government, we fund these innovation hubs; we also construct infrastructure where young men and women are encouraged to dream.

They dream of producing a product; dream of producing a service. Whether they succeed or not, it does not matter.

What we want our boys and girls to do is to dream and produce products.

The countries in the First World and the countries in the Second World, they developed their countries through science, technology and innovation; producing goods for themselves; goods for their communities, goods which they needed.

So, here in Zimbabwe, we want people to produce their own goods, we don’t want our people going to Japan to look for things like shoes.

They must be manufactured here.

Everything we want here, we must find a way of manufacturing it locally.

We have our young people who we sent outside to learn in other countries. When they return home, we must support them.

We now have industrial parks at every university, where every day and every week we are testing new products produced by our talented young boys and girls.

The children of Zimbabwe are talented; very talented.

We should support them to build their motherland.

We had no way of forecasting long-term weather patterns, something that affected us very much in 2019, when we had Cyclone Idai.

We came here to Chimanimani and Chipinge, where over 650 people perished and another 600 we don’t know what happened to them.

But in terms of the law, we declared that they also perished.

We then took our scientists and created a space agency. After that, I’m sure you heard that we sent a satellite into orbit.

Through that satellite, we can now do our own weather forecasts and we no longer depend on other countries to do that.

So, the philosophy Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo is what we are following as ZANU PF.

We are preparing for our elections, and as we prepare we have urban local authorities that are being run by the opposition.

This year, we are voting them out and voting for those who have the people at heart.

We will not vote for those who go into council only to do corruption.

In Harare, where I live, there is no collection of waste. People struggle to get water. CCC or other parties should go. We must vote for our own councillors so that ZANU PF, which has the focus and people’s interests at heart, will deliver. We are a people-centred party.

We don’t get instructions from anybody.

No other country or leader outside Zimbabwe can tell us what to do; we decide for ourselves for the good of our country and for the good of our people.

We are committed to develop our country.

Before we go, we are saying to you, the young who are here, look at how we are committed.

You heard that since 1962 I have never been employed to work for any company.

I have only worked for the party.

Those who have gone before us are happy because they know that they left committed cadres in charge.

I want you all to support all our candidates.

There were others who fell short in our internal selection process, please unite with those whose names we have put forward for the election.

None of you here formed this party, so we must all follow the laid-down rules and regulations.

When you lose, you must support the winner. And those who win must be gracious in victory.

You must unite!

We want to win all the seats.

We have already won 74 seats in local authorities, even before the election.

Here, Mutema-Musikavanhu constituency must come to ZANU PF.

We have a programme where we don’t want any of our people to go hungry.

This is because ZANU PF is for the people.

It is the party that brought us Independence.

I want to say to you now that we want peace as the people of Zimbabwe.

ZANU PF fought for one man, one vote.

We say no to violence, before, during and after elections.

ZANU PF is a peace-loving and democratic party.

We are consolidating our constitutionalism, governance and the law.

Once again, thank you, the people of Chipinge and members of the party who have come from across the country.

I thank you sincerely.

ZANU PF is unstoppable . . .

I repeat, ZANU PF is unstoppable and will remain in power until kingdom come.

Pamberi ne ZANU PF!

Pamberi ne ZANU PF!

Pamberi negwara remusangano!

Pamberi nekubatana!

Pamberi nekubatana!

Pamberi nekuhwina maelections!

Phambili lokubambana!

Pasi nemhandu!

God bless you and God bless Zimbabwe.

I thank you!