AS is becoming the norm under the new dispensation, all things in the country are looking good, buoyed by an economy that is on the mend as well as the many infrastructure rehabilitation and development projects across the board.

The year 2022 will be no exception.

Here is why:

Once again the heavens have opened up, with yet another bumper harvest expected.

This is a boost for an economy that has taken a battering from Western-imposed illegal economic sanctions for two decades now.

The West has shown remarkable determination to keep those sanctions in place.

This is despite numerous efforts that have been made by Harare for normalisation of relations with that arrogant part of the globe.

Those efforts, as one would expect, have been hitting a brick wall due to the simple reason that the West does not want ZANU PF to remain in power.

For all their pretence that they are champions of what they call ‘democracy’, they insist on subverting the people’s will through their frantic but fatalistic pursuit of illegal regime change in the country.

This is where we differ with them.

ZANU PF has been endorsed time-and-again by the masses and, despite all that, the West, through their local cohorts in the opposition and the so-called ‘civil society’, have yet to embrace that pervasive fact.

They want to install a puppet Government in the country; a Government that panders to their whims through the reversal of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000 as contained in their sanctions document, ZDERA, which clearly states that Zimbabwe must revert to the pre-1998 land tenure and ownership patterns.

Prior to 1998, the majority of the country’s land — 87 percent to be precise — was in the hands of a paltry 4 000 white commercial farmers.

This is why those of a progressive disposition are impressed by the heavy rains that have been hitting the country.

These rains mean much more than a bumper harvest.

They stimulate activity in the manufacturing sector which is likely to grow  about 5,5 percent in 2022.

“The growth is being sustained by relatively high consumer demand, mainly from increased incomes from agricultural activities, infrastructure spending, increased mining activity and general reopening of the economy,” said Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube during his 2022 National Budget presentation in November last year.

Professor Ncube also announced that Government would increase support to capacitate companies in the agricultural, mining and service sectors to implement value addition activities.

To that end, the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) will be funded to the tune of $2,3 billion for the entity to provide medium and long-term financing to local companies in the manufacturing sector.

“Subsidiaries of the IDCZ which span across the sectors of mining, car assembly, real estate, fertiliser manufacturing, cement production and food processing presents an opportunity for the Government to directly drive the value addition agenda by growing locally manufactured goods,” said Professor Ncube.

Government, said Professor Ncube, was also working on reviving the defunct ZiscoSteel as well as its subsidiary Lancashire Steel, while capacitating value chain entities such as the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and Hwange Colliery in order to save more than US$1 billion in steel imports.

These companies are key enablers of increased economic activity as well as job creation.

Already the country has secured US$1 billion required for the first phase of a steel project in Chivhu from Chinese firm Afrochine Smelters, a subsidiary of the world’s biggest steel producer, Tsingshan Holdings.

The project, the biggest of its kind in the country’s history, will have sites in three provinces, namely; Mashonaland East, Midlands and Mashonaland West.  

It is expected to create 14 000 jobs, with 4 000 direct jobs while the other 10 000 will be from downstream and upstream activities.

Also, the Mvuma Rural District Council has already announced plans for the establishment of a new city which will accommodate 15 000 residents.

The project will be commissioned in December this year.

With projects like these, the country is surely headed for bigger things.

The infrastructural projects, especially roads rehabilitation, are without doubt a marvel and it can only get better.

Crucially, most of these projects are being funded from local resources.

And, of course, we will leave out the politics.

Our bone of contention is with the ugly politics from the opposition and the civil society, particularly their anti-Zimbabwe antics premised on tarnishing the country’s good image for a few pieces of silver.

We will never tire of taking aim at them and we will also never tire of giving lessons on patriotism.

They are, after all, our own people who have simply deviated from the national cause in order to please their masters from the West.

Which is why the March 26 2022 by-elections are crucial in sending the perfect message to the West and the opposition that Zimbabweans are not about to give up on their motherland.

We will give extensive projections in due course but indications so far are that it will be a smooth sail for ZANU PF.

The opposition is headed for an embarrassing drubbing in those polls which are a precursor to the annihilation they will encounter in the 2023 harmonised elections.

As the country slowly gets back to normal business, it is critical for every citizen to put shoulder to the plow and embrace the fact that we all have a job to do.