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Samantha Chigogo, Harare Bureau
Zimbabwe is ready for a complete economic turnaround and there is need for economists to unpack the implications of Statutory Instrument 64 and the Government’s specialised Command Agriculture project on the economy before making unnecessary criticism, Presidential spokesperson

Mr George Charamba. said yesterday.

The SI 64 and Command Agriculture project were two cardinal points highlighted by President Mugabe in his State of the Nation Address, which some opposition functionaries were quick to dismiss.

He said this in a side interview after addressing military staff members and students at a Media Day held under the theme Identification, Protection and Promotion of National Interest at the Zimbabwe National Defence College in Harare.

Mr Charamba who is also Information, Media and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary, implored the media in the country to promote and prioritise national interests in their editorial policies.

He said there had been so much unnecessary debate over the President’s State of Nation Address. “There was a complete inability to digest the document, the President raised the issue of SI 64 of 2016, the President made reference to Command Agriculture, did people not realise that there is an implied economic strategy in those two points,” said Mr Charamba.

“SI64 blocks imports, stops us from being a trader country to become a manufacturing country. It is a means to restart our industries thereby creating jobs. So just unpacking SI64 takes you the whole way and encompasses every aspect of the economy that some people did not understand”.

Mr Charamba said Government initiatives in command agriculture and the SI64 of 2016 would help in making a complete overhaul of the country’s industries.

“When you talk about command agriculture, this is a country not only seeking to meet the requirements of its own stomach, but create raw material for revamping industry. Remember agriculture feeds the belly and also creates raw materials for the economy,” he said.

“How then in the presence of SI64 and Command Agriculture does one pretend that the President is not talking about the economy and why then behave as if a currency has a life of its own. The life of a currency depends on the strength of the economy, which is what the reference to SI64 and command agriculture are all about.”

Mr Charamba said the President, as the Head of State was not entitled to talk about bond notes in his State of Nation Address as that would pre-empt the Minister of Finance and Economic Development’s budget presentation, which in turn would not be proper and good for some economic decisions.

“In his address the President, had to remain transcendental to allow the Minister of Finance to deal with the nuts and bolts of issues to deal with the economy that is why he did not attempt to touch on the issue of bond notes,” Mr Charamba said.

“Anyway, it is not his business, this is the Head of State and he is not his own Minister of Finance. So SONA must be read and understood together with the national budget statement of today (yesterday).”

He said adopting the United States dollar as a national currency was a strategy to expose the West and their long term interests on Zimbabwe, saying it was unfortunate that dollarising had several physiological implications on the national mandate.

“Dollarisation created dependent thinking, it created an illusion of America as a foster father that’s why people will cringe and cry for the US$ as if it’s their totem,” Mr Charamba said.

“There is need for us to unlearn Zimbabweans so that they know they can draw between a tactic of survival and a strategy, ultimately we are drifting towards a national currency and as you see, it is a debate of elites who want to hold on to the US$ because their thinking is dependent on foreigners, it is not the debate of you and me which is why the bond notes have been embraced.”