INDEPENDENCE DAY celebrations are around the corner and will be held under the theme: ‘Zim@42: Leaving no-one and no place behind’.
The big day is April 18 and it’s Zimbabwe’s 42nd Anniversary.
For the first time, the main celebrations will be at Barbourfields Stadium, Bulawayo, unlike previous editions that were held at the giant National Sports Stadium in Harare.
This is another first from the new dispensation being led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa whose mantra is: ‘Leaving no-one and no place behind’.
Indeed, the journey of our nation has not been a primrose path although in the last decades we have also followed a thrilling history.
As a country, we have gone through major life-transforming exercises, some of which we were not expected to live to tell the tale.
Our erstwhile enemies and quislings in our midst wanted our country to crumble but it did not.
The West wanted to bring the country’s economy to its knees, but we are still standing.
We were put through the furnace; screws were tightened, but we are still going strong.
We have pushed, we have fought and we continue to conquer, in spite of the odds stacked against us.
That is what defines us as a people.
We are a determined lot and we have learnt, over the years, to put our country’s interests first.
We have gone through the highly successful Land Reform Programme and we continue to put our land to good use.
Empowerment programmes that promote the black majority are bearing fruit and lives are being transformed for the better.
As a country, we make no apologies for taking back our land from the white minority.
After all, that is the reason thousands waged the liberation war that culminated in the independence we all enjoy today.
The new dispensation continues to pursue policies that seek to uplift the masses, policies that will transform the country to become the jewel of Africa.
The massive projects being spearheaded by President Mnangagwa are there for all to see and, as Zimbabweans, we must fully support. We must never give up.
We must always remain open for business as much as we must always fight for our past, present and future.
Zimbabwe is a gem blessed with abundant natural resources that the world is in dire need of, from lithium to diamonds.
We have plenty of gold and platinum reserves.
We even have the sun (solar energy) on our side.
That is why we must protect our country from vultures.
We have to safeguard it at all costs. Our 42nd Anniversary must be a reminder to all Zimbabweans that we have a special country that we must continue to treasure.
As we celebrate Independence Day, let us remind each other how far we have come and why we must never falter regardless of the difficulties and challenges we always come across.
We have had challenges and we have always faced them head on.
Of course there are some misguided elements, blinded by the love of money, who sell-out for individual benefit.
Such people are wicked and must be reminded that quislings have no place in Zimbabwe.
After all, quislings usually have a miserable end.
Remember who and what guided us in our liberation war in order to attain independence and also remember kuti, nyika inovakwa nevene vayo.