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He said it was time for indigenous people to be masters of their own destiny.
“But some of you are afraid to be empowered. You are comfortable in being workers. Mukai! Mukai! Mukai! muzvishandire. Those who were empowered through land and are now sub-letting farms be warned: we will take back those farms and give them to deserving Zimbabweans who are willing to work on the land,” he said.
The President said this when he addressed a sell-out crowd at Gokwe Town on the occasion to mark the International Day of Co-operatives. He also officially opened a Women’s Development Savings and Credit Union Village bank at Gokwe Town.

This year’s International Day of Co-operatives commemoration, which is usually marked in July, was held under the theme “Co-operative Enterprise Empowers Women”.
Cde Mugabe said Zimbabwe still maintains the doctrine of socialist development policy as it empowers people at the grassroots and promotes unity among communities.
With the advent of independence in 1980, various factors which included unemployment and the prevalence of other racially skewed economic practices, led Government to quickly adopt a political commitment to equity and social justice.

President Mugabe, who is also the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, commended the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development for breathing life into SMEs and cooperatives premised on the doctrine of socialism as it was key to the development of the country.
“Njake njake haina kunaka. We share in good ways the benefits that come our way. The doctrine of socialism, is a policy that we have always cherished and entertained. Mabasa evazhinji aitwe nevazhinji. I have followed the work done by cooperatives and realised their potential contribution to the indigenisation of the economy.”

President Mugabe said the theme for this year was in harmony with the works of the Ministry of SMEs and Co-operatives Development whose projects inculcated a culture of savings in people.
The President, however, took a dig at banks which he said were no longer giving clients quality service as was the case in the past.
“Banks are now behaving like they are the depositors. They charge us interest for keeping our money. Ukabvunza kuti mari yangu yaendepi zvinonzi yaenda kubasa redu. This proves that the banks do not have cash. So we need to save in order to invest and I would like to applaud the ministry for encouraging the Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies, thus teaching our people to invest their money more wisely.
“We need to start savings accounts where we can earn interest from our money and use current accounts only for running our businesses,” he said.

The President bemoaned the adverse economic environment that befell the country which affected agricultural co-operatives, thus affecting the economy as well since agriculture forms the back borne of the economy.

“We have always said that our manufacturing sector needs agriculture support. Without agriculture, the manufacturing sector cannot survive. We need raw materials to sustain this sector.
“This is why it is important to co-operate. We can farm as families, or as commercial farmers or A1 farmers but we need to co-operate on how we sell our products. In areas where there were co-operatives in the past prices were low.”

He applauded the Ministry of SMEs for empowering women as they were key to nation building.
He said gone were the days when people would not send the girl child to school arguing that the girl child would get married and enrich another family.
“Women deserve to be respected. They have a better culture of saving, they unite people or families and they remain strong even in the face of social challenges like HIV and Aids. Men are quick to succumb to HIV and we shudder to think what would happen when the opposite was happening, a situation where more women were dying due to Aids related illnesses. The extended family would suffer. We are often reminded if you ‘empower a woman you have empowered the nation’. There is need for the country to accept the rise in the number of women-headed households and the attendant challenge to capacitate them for the role of being a family head,” he said.

The President first toured Gokwe Cheziya Vocational Training Centre which benefited from part of the US$5 million worth of machinery given to the Government by India.
He also toured stands belonging to different SMEs from all over the country which converged at Gokwe Town for the commemorations.

Present at the commemorations were Minister of Defence, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Minister Nyoni, Minister of Youth and Empowerment Development, Saviour Kasukuwere, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Olivia Muchena, Midlands Governor, Cde Jason Machaya, and former Governor Cde Cephas Msipa, senior Government officials and chiefs from the province.
Chief Khumalo of Nkayi in Matabeleland North drew a round of applause from the crowd for leading 115 SMEs from his area to yesterday’s commemorations.