There are calls to allow President Mnangagwa to preside over the management of the country’s affairs for five more years to finish various projects he started.
A hashtag, #FiveMoreYears, is now trending on social media.
Neutrals say there is need to maintain the present economic
growth trajectory and the infrastructure development projects that include
construction of roads, schools, clinics and hospitals, dams, revival of
irrigation schemes and provision of potable water even in rural areas. Roads
that were impassable for years are being reopened, while irrigation schemes
that had collapsed over 20 years ago, and new ones, are being rehabilitated.
In terms of agriculture, farming inputs are getting to
farmers on time and in the 2020/2021 summer cropping season, a bumper harvest
of 2,7 million tonnes is expected.
Farmers are still sending their maize to Grain Marketing
Board depots across the country while in terms of wheat supply, Zimbabwe
achieved wheat self-sufficiency last season after producing enough for nine
months, for the first time since 2005 as Government is implementing the
Agriculture Recovery Plan in line with Vision 2030.
Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and
Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana, says the President deserves another
five years.
“Reasons for #FiveMoreYears are very clear. He needs to
finish what he started,” he tweeted.
Mr Mangwana’s remarks followed indications by Innscor
Africa Limited, which is Zimbabwe’s biggest consumer goods producer that its
annual volume sales rose considerably, with the bakery division jumping 36
percent, National Foods 15 percent, Irvine’s eggs hitting a record high sales
of 8 percent, Colcom 34 percent, groceries (rice and salt) 74 percent, stock
feed 33 percent, chicken 21 percent and day old chicks 29 percent.
So big is the demand for day old chicks that many people
are struggling to get them, especially ahead of Christmas.
Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza told The
Herald that it was important for President Mnangagwa to continue as he launched
the national blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and gave
industry the mandate to move up the value chains from 2021 to 2025.
“The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has developed
strategies to implement strategies in leather, pharmaceutical, steel, soya,
cotton, motor vehicle and other sectors.
“The President has visited several companies and witnessed
the increased productivity, retooling and creation of jobs,” said Dr Nzenza.
Pan-African Chamber of Commerce board member Mr Langton
Mabhanga said it was important that President Mnangagwa continued to fulfil his
Vision of an upper middle income economy by 2030.
“A vision is not as short as a political plebiscite season
of five years.”
“This country is a young nation that has been taken in a
defined and specific direction espoused by a vision for the first time,” said
Mr Mabhanga.
“President Mnangagwa, the founding father of the Second
Republic, pioneered Vision 2030 and it will be both strategic and
institutionally prudent to allow the strategy journey to be traversed by the
visionary and author.
“All nations that transformed their economies, did the same
as General Park in South Korea, Lee Kuwan Yew and Deng Xi Ping in China. Vision
2030 is more than partisan, it’s cross-cutting, it is national and to some
extent international, if placed in the context of the international
transactional diplomacy unleashed by Vision 2030.”
Mr Mabhanga said within Vision 2030, Zimbabwe is open for
Business, import substitution, the National Economic Competitiveness, smart
agriculture with productivity and beneficiation thrusts, were birthed.
He added that infrastructure renewal and construction have
been initiated without external borrowings.
“Development does not happen by default. It is
conceptualised and such is what Vision 2030 has done as President Mnangagwa
seeks to deliver upper middle income dignity on the people of Zimbabwe.
“A stabilised currency and inflation in an economy is not
magical. It takes a leadership and we all need to rally behind President
Mnangagwa and Vision 2030 for the greater good of Zimbabwe. Away from our
political biases, we can lend positive support to nation building and it is the
time.
“Unifying political protagonists under POLAD and
championing political reforms all are part of transforming a nation that
require the time variable,” said Mr Mabhanga.
Economists Mr Persistence Gwanyanya said it is “only fair
to give credit where it is due”.
“We have so far made significant economic progress under
the leadership of President Mnangagwa. When he come into power in 2017, the
country was going through rapid economic decay,” he said.
“We were literally pushed out of dollarisation and currency
volatility had reached crisis level, with bond notes in free fall. The people
had lost hope.
“But upon assuming office in 2017, the President
immediately implemented measures to stop the bleeding and put back the economy
on course. He rallied people behind the economic rebuilding agenda, which he
led diligently and we are beginning to see the results.”
Mr Gwanyanya said progress has far been registered on
economic recovery, macro-economic stability and infrastructure development.
He added that because Zimbabwe’s challenges have become
permanent and structural in nature, they cannot be permanently solved through
short-term intentions.
“The President should be highly complemented for realising
the need to take such an economy through the reform journey in 2018, under
Vision 2030.
“The sequencing and prioritisation of Vision 2030
deliverables just demonstrates the greatness of this vision. Under the
Transitional Stabilisation Program (Oct 2018-Dec 2020), which was the first
part of Vision 2030, we made significant progress regarding restoration of
stability.
“Supporting this stability is a significant progress
towards fiscal rebalancing, which can only happen with support of the
President. Without political support, rationalisation of Government expenditure
is very difficult,” he said.
Mr Gwanyanya said after getting the foundations of
stability right, it is imperative that Zimbabwe builds fundamentals to support
this stability and grow the economy, which is what the NDS1 is all about.
He said Zimbabwe has so far done well under NDS1, with the
economy now expected to grow by 7,8 percent this year, with growth expected to
average 5 percent in the rest of NDS period.
“Given the progress made so far, it’s only fair to give
credit to President Mnangagwa for his visionary leadership and support. It’s
also fair to suggest that he needs more time to finish what he has started. By
nature, reforms take time, they cannot be accomplished over a short period of
time,” said Mr Gwanyanya. Herald
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