The Sunday Mail
Editor’s Brief
Victoria Ruzvidzo
Last Thursday I had a meeting with United States of America-based Edward Munyaradzi, a global marketer, fashion designer-cum music promoter with immense passion to uplift his home country, Zimbabwe.
We discussed a lot of things from the availability of electricity, the existence of shopping malls and home food deliveries by fast-food outlets.
It emerged in our conversation that these were things many outside this country think are alien to us due to our supposed backwardness and economic challenges believed to have condemned us to the forests. Many think we live in the jungle and survive on wild fruit and insects. I experienced that first hand a few years ago when I visited a European country and my fellow journalists from Africa thought it was a miracle that we even had a road to the airport, to the extent that I was even able to board a plane to that country.
This is how poised the world is about Zimbabwe.
Edward said since he arrived home a week ago, he had been posting pictures and videos to his friends to show that he had electricity in his house and that it was well-furnished. Many of his friends were amazed by this reality.
But what struck me the most from what Edward said, was his firm belief that despite his 22 years away from home, he believed Zimbabwe has the wherewithal to rescue itself from current economic challenges if only we all put our minds to it. He said this country did not need a big financial handshake from anyone, but that solutions lied in its citizenry.
“Zimbabwe does not need a big loan from anyone. It just needs 200 or 300 of us who are determined to see this country through and we can make a big difference. This country has it all,” he said with confidence written all over his face.
These, he believes, can lead from the front and steer us clear of the murky waters we found ourselves in both economically and socially over the past few decades.
Edward spoke of how the music and arts industry in general could transform this country’s fortunes through investments and projects to harness the immense talent resident in the youths, among other initiatives to uplift the economy and hence the standard of living.
I tend to agree with him and these are issues that we have said over and over again. If our Diaspora has that mindset, then we are set up for prosperous years ahead of us.
Zimbabwe can use the resources, networks and experiences of those in the Diaspora in its efforts to transform the socio-economic narrative.
Yes, we have had our fair share of challenges and could do with a little less of them, but if we look at it objectively, we will come up with a different conclusion altogether and realise we are one of the most blessed, massively endowed and dare I say, richest countries on the face of the planet.
It is a sentiment l have always held and my recent conversation with Edward made me all the more aware of just how, as a country, we are almost peerless in terms of abundance of resources, talents, gifts and loads of potential to achieve what most countries cannot even dream of.
We have at least 49 known minerals, many of which are yet to be touched. We have the climate most suitable for sound agricultural and other business engagements.
Recent reports and projections by local and international financial institutions have been very encouraging, to say the least.
Only last week the International Monetary Fund projected a GDP growth of 6 percent for this, with the Government anticipating a higher GDP growth of 7,4 percent.
The Word Bank has already predicted positive growth albeit at 3,9 percent.
These are massive and highly significant projections and we can only go higher as a nation if we put our hearts and minds together and work tirelessly to realise and maximise the potential resident with our economy.
This is at a time when most people are crying foul at international money lenders for not giving us loans to resuscitate the economy, to fight and reverse the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic that has shaken the very foundations of the world.
Indeed when one looks at the abundance of wealth that we are blessed with, what we need is to be more serious with ourselves and how we perceive where we are and where we are going as a nation, observe a clear roadmap as enunciated by Vision 2030 and tow the line.
This is not a difficult arithmetic, but a formula that we can apply with resounding success.
Armed with one of the highest literacy levels on the continent, if not the world, Zimbabwe has a lot of individual and collective potential to mastermind a story of unlimited success and a changing of circumstances for the people of Zimbabwe.
Agriculture and mining, which together, form the backbone of our economy, are enjoying a boom.
We are building something of real essence as a country.
Agriculture is expected to become a US$8,2 billion sector over the next four years, is expected to grow by 11,3 percent this year, a figure that the sector may even surpass given developments on the ground.
Reports are awash of mining records being broken.
Only last Wednesday, Kuvimba Mining House achieved a 300 kilogrammes gold output in a single month at one of its mines, Freda Rebecca, breaking a 20-year record.
If this does not speak to Zimbabwe’s economic renaissance then I am not sure what will. And some in the sector believe it is only the beginning of bigger things to come.
What a beautiful threat!
We need to consolidate these achievements and spread them across all sectors of the economy so we become the economic giant that we all know we can be.
We have, as a nation, all the makings and characteristics of success.
We are hardworking, resilient and industrious and we need look no further than ourselves for the economic salvation we desire and envisage.
All over the world, wherever Zimbabweans go to, they always shine and come out on top of their peers in their respective endeavours.
A lot of economies out there are benefiting from the hard work, intelligence, and excellence of Zimbabweans and it is high time we came together as a nation, stop looking down on ourselves and come out guns blazing, chest out and shoulders high as we fight with might to achieve a status of wealth and success that we well and truly deserve.
Our challenges have only made us stronger and we should not cower when any such come our way, but we ought to embrace then overcome them with grace. Nothing is insurmountable if a people decide to confront it collectively.
Not even the sky is the limit and an assessment of our human and capital resources will tell you that even God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth has grand plans for this our beloved nation of Zimbabwe.
We need a paradigm shift and arm ourselves with a passion to perform that is unrivalled, only then can we get to the very top and stay there, only then, can the potential, that lies largely untapped, be fully realised and utilised to achieve the kind of success we can all be proud of. The signs are there and very encouraging that we are on the right part.
Let us build on that and exhort each other daily. We can achieve the impossible.
There’s an old adage which says that, “the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence”.
This statement could not have been any truer when it comes to how we view our fortunes as a country and yet it is greener this side.
You hear some folks bemoaning how we have been deprived of the riches and successes that other nations seem to enjoy and yet we have it all here.
All we need is focus on ourselves, what we have and how we can make the most of it as we step up the ladder of success.
Indeed none but ourselves.
Titbits
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the hire wire!-Oprah Winfrey
In God I Trust!
Twitter handle: @VictoriaRuzvid2; Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; WhatsApp number: 0772 129 992.
