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Today the curtains come down for the year 2019 as we welcome 2020. It is that time of the year when we take stock of our achievements and failures as individuals, families, communities and as a nation.  It is not in dispute that 2019 has been a very difficult year as the nation had to grapple with the adverse effects of drought. Many families harvested virtually nothing as a result of the drought and water levels at Kariba Dam which generates the bulk of our electricity were critically low. This resulted in the country being subjected to massive load shedding which impacted negatively on industry and other businesses. 

Commercial and domestic consumers of electricity had to endure long hours without power. Government apart from challenges of importing electricity to augment local power generation, had to import grain to cover the 2018/19 summer cropping season deficit. Consumers were during the year subjected to incessant price hikes yet in most cases their salaries remained the same. 

Government had to mobilise locally and internationally resources to reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by Cyclone Idai in Manicaland as well as take care of victims of the devastating cyclone most of whom were left homeless. 

Hundreds of people were killed and many bodies could not be located as some of them were swept down the rivers to places as far as Mozambique. There were, however, some positives recorded during the year with the country introducing its own currency in June. 

The country continued to attract investment especially in the mining and tourism sectors. Government during the year made strides in its efforts to make the country an investment destination of choice. 

One of the major stumbling blocks has been too much bureaucracy and a lot of ground has been covered towards establishing a one stop investment office as opposed to a situation whereby a potential investor is shuttled from one office to the other. Zimbabwe has declared that it is open for business and investors have already responded positively to this appeal for investment. 

Government which had introduced austerity measures in a bid to control expenditure, announced in its 2020 budget that the austerity measures are over and the thrust now is to increase productivity and create employment. Not much was done during the year to operationalise the Special Economic Zones where investors have very lucrative investment incentives and it is our fervent hope that the year 2020 will see  much work being done in this area.  

It is a fact that Zimbabweans belong to different political parties but when it comes to issues of national agenda such as growing the economy, there is a need for convergence. All efforts should be directed at enhancing national cohesion and what is encouraging is that political parties under the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) have agreed to come together to build the country.  We should not have among us individuals going against the grain and putting spanners in the works. It is incumbent upon each and every Zimbabwean to put shoulder to the wheel as we work to turn around the economy.