OUR friends and relatives from the Diaspora are going back to their respective bases.
It was an interesting festive period.
It was one that defiantly withstood all adversity and the evils and ills detractors wish to befall this country.
The festive season gone by was without doubt the hallmark of the resilience our people and country have carved for themselves over the years.
Those visiting us thought they would find starving, dying people, dilapidated infrastructure and no cars on the streets.
They thought they would find shops with empty shelves or in the unlikely event that the shops were fully stocked there would be no shoppers.
They cannot be faulted for their thinking.
Grounds for those thoughts had been laid by advocates of the anti-Zimbabwe agenda.
The Western media had talked about a Zimbabwe that had ground to a halt.
But alas they were surprised, both the hostile media and our diasporans.
Especially our brothers and sisters coming from across the Limpopo, bringing the rand which has in recent times taken a tumble.
Yes we are presently facing a myriad of challenges.
We have obstacles in our paths.
We continue to struggle.
Our path to success is replete with impediments.
These threaten our ever bright prospects for prosperity.
But our vision is clear, our objectives we have laid and our intentions are known.
Our resilience has brought down the edifice of the anti-Zimbabwe agenda.
We have become an unusual nation because very few nations and people survive the onslaught we have faced.
Many have buckled under the pressure of supercharged hostility from the West.
And this is what separates us from the rest.
This is what makes us Zimbabweans.
We should cheer our resoluteness.
We should celebrate our efforts to ward off both internal and external pressure.
This is why our much talked about Diasporans were stunned to see a Zimbabwe ticking.
What fascinated many of our brethren, some of whom have not been home for years, is how we are surviving, even thriving.
A remark by one of my relatives based in the UK made me feel for all our people in the Diaspora.
“Who thought land would transform lives,” he asked or rather mused to himself.
The pieces of land given to us by Government have been an oasis amidst the difficulties.
Zimbabweans are forging ahead relentlessly supported by these very pieces of land.
We are surviving and like I stated above, some of us are thriving supported by the land.
The story of the land, the success story, will not be announced by the megaphones of the West.
Zimbabwe is a country suffering; a nation on the brink of collapse is what the world is being told.
But our brethren saw a different story.
And many of them expressed a desire to be home.
They saw opportunities that they have not come across in the foreign lands they are dwelling.
Innovative Zimbabweans on their pieces of land are engaged in projects that are not only altering lives at the individual or family level but national as well.
There are farmers who have struck deals with regional and international supermarkets.
They are the epitome of the empowerment agenda.
They are our hope.
They are our future.
They are our saviours.
They are the torch that lights our dreams and aspirations.
They are the engine that spurs our growth.
When our friends and relatives return home this year for the festive season they will see us harvesting the seeds we planted in 2015 through the mega deals.
There is no turning back in our quest to revive, restore and rebuild our economy.
2015 was the beginning.
2016 will be about delivery.