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Tendai Mugabe, Harare Bureau
PREPARATIONS for this year’s 37th Independence Day celebrations to be held next Tuesday are at an advanced stage and Government has urged Zimbabweans to come and celebrate the day in their numbers.

The main celebrations will be held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.

Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe, told journalists on the sidelines of preparation at the National Sports Stadium in Harare yesterday that Independence Day is the most important day on Zimbabwe’s national calendar.

It is the nation’s birthday.

“The preparations are going on very well and I am really impressed by what is taking place here,” he said.

“We are impressed of what is going to happen on Tuesday. All I need to do is to remind Zimbabweans to come in their thousands to celebrate this important day of our life. Without this day, we will not be where we are. We will not be a people, we will be a colonised people. So 18 April is the biggest date on the calendar of this country.

“This is the day when Zimbabwe came of age, this is the day we became masters of our own destiny and so we urge Zimbabweans not just in Zimbabwe but even those in the diaspora to celebrate this day because this is the day that made us what we are.”

Minister Mushohwe urged the media to highlight the importance of independence and the successes the country had registered since 1980.

Said Minister Mushohwe: “I want to urge the media especially, which is my sector, to take advantage of this day and look backwards and see the journey that this country has walked, its trials and tribulations, its successes, challenges and times of happiness and let the world know what Zimbabwe is because this is the foundation of our nationhood, this is the foundation of our sovereignty. It is your duty as the media to tell the world of the journey that Zimbabwe has travelled.”

Minister Mushohwe said the journey that Zimbabwe travelled was not easy but the country has managed to excel in many respects especially in the education sector.

“The media has a role to unite people, the media has role to tell our story not only to Zimbabweans but also to our neighbours and globally because we have a rich history of our liberation struggle,” he said.

“We have a rich history of the journey we have travelled since 18th of April 1980. All that needs to be told to the world. Our children must know who were not there at the time.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Cde Saviour Kasukuwere said: “We are here back again as part of our national independence celebrations. The preparations are underway. The stadium is ready and across the country preparations are also being held by various Government departments in preparation of the celebrations of national our independence. We look forward to this day.

“It is a very important day in the history of our country and our people. We want to call upon all Zimbabweans across the country to gather at their traditional independence gathering points and give the nation again that rousing endorsement.

“Government has been carrying out programmes that have been changing the lives of our people in a big way, agriculture, the economy and the consolidation of our independence, and I think we must celebrate the leadership of President Mugabe, we must celebrate the era that we are living in where we are free as Zimbabweans. We are a sovereign people and are people pursuing our own ambitions as a nation. We look forward to all Government departments coming out in their numbers and supporting the organisation. We are also looking at some of the areas where we have challenges with water to try and ensure that they restore water especially in Gwanda for the water who will be gathering there as well as the preparation to proceed smoothly.”

Cde Kasukuwere highlighted several successes Zimbabwe had achieved under the stewardship of President Mugabe saying: “Look at our education system.

We are leading in terms of education. We have gone further now. We have got the STEM programmes that are entrenching the training, giving people skills in terms of technology, science and so forth. We have done very well in terms of agriculture. The land is in the control of our people, our tobacco production this year has risen, Command Agriculture, we look even at the Presidential Inputs Scheme, the cotton crop this year is also phenomenal and actually the Government has consolidated our control on the agricultural sector. We go beyond that, the housing development programme that we are going to be undertaking this time around is also going to further strengthen the success of our Government.’’

Cde Kasukuwere said despite the imposition of illegal sanctions by the West, the country had registered remarkable success in various sectors such as industry, media and military development.