THE inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday, September 5 2023, brought to an end successful harmonised general elections and marked the beginning of a new era of expected accelerated development.
President Mnangagwa won 52,6 percent of the presidential vote against his nearest rival Nelson Chamisa of the CCC who got 44 percent.
But the findings of the Chairman of the SADC Observer Mission, Dr Nevers Mumba, read more like an incitement to violence in a neighbouring country than an observation report.
Taking advantage of the discredited Mumba report and the traditional Western support, Chamisa has rejected the voters’ verdict.
He has done it before.
However, this is unlikely to alter the development trajectory promised by President Mnangagwa in his inauguration speech.
Remember this is the same Chamisa whose promise to throw spanners (kudira jecha) into the Second Republic’s programmes after he lost the 2018 presidential election came to nought.
But this does not mean lowering of the guard, for the West is relentless in their desire to effect regime change through their proxies.
As President Mnangagwa embarks on his second term, he must be aware that people’s expectations are very high.
This is based on his showing during his first term.
The President has already set the bar high in the implementation of countrywide people-centred projects.
The resounding victory in the just-ended elections bears testimony to that.
Come 2028, the same electorate is again going to pass its verdict at the polls — this time based on the President’s showing during his second term.
Remember, we are our own liberators, dependent entirely on our own God-given resources.
With illegal sanctions and lending institutions refusing us any access to cash, we have to look at none but ourselves as we forge ahead.
We already have defined objectives.
Our National Development Strategy demands us to achieve an upper-middle income economy by 2030.
In 2018, 2030 was a distant 12 years away.
As the President embarks on his second term, it’s now only seven years away.
Time is not on our side.
We should endeavour to perfect enablers which help us to achieve this goal.
We expect greater impetus in the modernisation of our transport infrastructure, like roads and our rail system in particular.
Water supply is so critical.
Thus, apart from the drilling of more boreholes, we expect dams, in particular Gwayi-Shangani and Kunzvi, to be completed soonest.
We are happy with the food security situation both at household and national levels, what with wheat and maize self-sufficiency!
And let’s not look backwards in the area of tobacco production.
We expect even a lot more in these areas with surplus for export to boost our foreign currency inflows.
With more produce from our agricultural sector, we expect some of the products to be processed locally, thereby helping in the industrialisation of rural areas as well as job creation.
As the country is rich in mineral resources, we also expect rural industrialisation growth with value addition and beneficiation of our precious heritage.
But industrial growth works in tandem with our power generation capacity.
With Hwange Units 7 and 8 at full throttle, the upgrading of Units 1 to 6 should be immediate.
More power from solar projects, with independent power producers chipping in, should do the trick.
We believe before the end of the second term our currency will have been fixed.
We want our own stable currency which does not fluctuate at the behest of the greedy black market.
It won’t be an easy second term, but with the President’s ability to unite the nation, we should be looking forward to a prosperous 2030 and beyond.
