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President Emmerson Mnangagwa

Zimbabwe yesterday celebrated 38 years of independence and the main celebrations were held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare while those who could not make it to the capital gathered at either provincial or district venues for the Uhuru celebrations.

This year’s celebrations were very unique because they are the first Independence celebrations to be held under the new political dispensation ushered in last November following the resignation of former President, Mr Robert Mugabe. In his message to Zimbabweans ahead of the celebrations, the President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had entered a new period in its history, a period of freedom, openness and opportunity.

He said in the new era, Zimbabweans must be liberated not from without but also from within from hate, prejudice and discord. He urged the citizens to remain united and work together to build a prosperous Zimbabwe to be enjoyed not only by the present generation but by future generations as well.

Cde Mnangagwa’s Government has indeed hit the ground running and within the few months that it has been in office, the country has witnessed remarkable progress.

Last February, the National Railways of Zimbabwe received the first batch of locomotives, wagons and coaches leased from South Africa’s rail company, Transnet, marking a new chapter in the revival of the parastatal. Under the agreement between NRZ and the Diaspora Investment Development Group (DIDG) Transnet Consortium, NRZ will lease 13 locomotives, 200 wagons and 34 coaches from Transnet as part of measures to capacitate the parastatal.

The leasing of the equipment is part of the $400 million recapitalisation deal sealed between the Zimbabwe Government, Transnet and DIDG. The interim solution equipment will enable the NRZ to boost its capacity to move freight while it awaits the conclusion of the $400 million recapitalisation deal.

Last month President Mnangagwa commissioned the $533m Kariba South Hydro Power Station Extension Project that added 300 megawatts to the national grid. The project implemented with the assistance of the Chinese government, is one of the benefits of the Sino-Zimbabwe relations.

Zimbabwe has in the past four months achieved a lot in terms of attracting foreign investors to the country and we have no doubt that economic growth will be accelerated in the coming few months. Last month again, Government signed a $4,2 billion platinum investment agreement with a Cyprus-based company, Karo Resources.

The agreement, the largest to date in the mining sector, was signed by Mines and Mining Development Minister Mr Winston Chitando and Karo Resources chairman, Mr Loucas Pouroulis. The mine will be located in the Mhondoro-Ngezi area and the deal also includes the establishment of a 600MW thermal power station in Matabeleland North province and chrome mining. It is a fact that the country has since last November recorded many economic positives but we want at this juncture to implore Zimbabweans to be patient as the economic turnaround cannot be achieved overnight.

Workers in both the public and private sectors should therefore not expect an immediate upward review of their salaries. It is unfortunate that those in the health sector seem not to appreciate the fact that the economy is yet to get to a stage when it is able to pay commensurate salaries.

The President Cde Mnangagwa yesterday also appealed to civil servants to be patient saying Government was committed to improving their conditions of service based on the performance of the economy. We want to once again urge Zimbabweans to have a shared vision as we work as a team to turn around the economy which, as already alluded to, cannot be achieved overnight.