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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
A UNIQUE exhibition dubbed “Gushungo Moments” showcasing President Mugabe’s iconic images is running at the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo.The Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services is showcasing the historic photos that Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said should propel youths to follow in the statesman’s footsteps to ensure the socio-economic development of the country.

Prof Moyo, speaking to journalists at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre yesterday, said President Mugabe has never missed any government commitment and would officially open the ZITF tomorrow. He said the iconic Gushungo Moments being exhibited were a reminder of the achievements made by the country in many sectors such as education.

Thanks to the President’s leadership, said Prof Moyo, education was giving Zimbabwe a comparative advantage through the creation of a human resource base and an endowment of professional skills that young people possess.

He said it was no accident that the ZITF was emphasising on innovation as people who are innovative are people who are also skilled and  educated.

“This is not just an exhibition of the President. It is an exhibition of iconic moments of the President which is why we are calling them Gushungo Moments. And this of course is against the background of three significant developments on our national calendar; first against the background of a resounding election victory that many Zimbabweans have interpreted as equivalent or similar to the resounding victory of the nationalist movement in 1980 after 15 years of the liberation struggle,” he said.

“Now this one, the recent one is also as fate would have it, after some 15 years of quite an onslaught against our independence, our existence as a country, summarized by the so-called regime change agenda propelled among other things by sanctions and so forth, so there are some parallels between the last 15 years leading to the elections on July 31 and the 15 years between 1965 and 1980 of the struggle for our independence.”

Prof Moyo added: “That time we were struggling to get our independence and we got it under the leadership of the President in 1980. Now over the recent 15 years, we were struggling to defend it because it was being attacked. Before it was don’t get it, we got it then now it was lose it and we defended it and kept it. So this is the first background, resounding victory some 63 percent of election outcome in the presidential election and some two thirds majority in parliament and then of course on February 21 the President turned 90. It’s a milestone.”

Prof Moyo said Zimbabweans should cherish that President Mugabe provided leadership not only to win the liberation struggle but also to defend it when it came under attack from the same people who had taken away our freedom.

Thirdly, Prof Moyo said the country was still in the spirit of commemorating independence on April 18, which coincided with the celebration of Easter.

He said President Mugabe had shown that people could not be proud of political independence alone but also of the control of their natural resources.

“These three things are more national. Now here we are at ZITF where our nation is displaying to the larger world its resources, talent and the opportunities of its economy to attract investment under a very far reaching policy programme, Zim Asset and this with the leadership of the President and now focusing more on creative cutting edge, ideas that can take us to the kind of new heights that everybody believes our economy should get to with the understanding this requires the full length and breadth of the country to be innovative particularly young people, you professionals,” he said.

“Yes, we say we are proud of our sovereignty, our control of the natural resources.  We understand that it is important to be independent but that you can’t defend it unless you control your economy and it is one of the things that has come from the leadership of the President but the truth is the minerals we have, natural resources we have are not unique to us.

“Others have them. But we can proudly say thanks to the leadership of the President, we are the only ones with a skilled population and education is something we claim to have not arrogantly but from a policy point of view.  Even the waste of time during the last 15 years we still maintained highest literacy rate in Africa,” said Prof Moyo.