Zimpapers Logo

President Mugabe

The leadership of the ruling party, Zanu-PF, and government leaders should take seriously President Robert Mugabe’s directive that they should expend their energy on discharging their duties in order to fulfil the people’s expectations.

Addressing the 289th Ordinary Session of the party’s Politburo on Wednesday, Cde Mugabe said people expected results from the implementation of the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.

He said leaders had an obligation to turn the revolutionary party’s vision of creating employment and providing decent accommodation as espoused in its 2013 election manifesto into reality. President Mugabe said the implementation of Zim-Asset and other government programmes should produce results that have an impact on people’s lives.

The President said there was an urgent need to improve service delivery across all sectors of the economy.

The leaders, he said, should have unity of purpose and there was need for ideological clarity in order to achieve set targets. Zanu-PF was, following its resounding victory in the 2013 harmonised general elections, given the mandate to preside over the country’s governance issues. It is a fact that the people were persuaded to vote for Zanu-PF because of its policies as espoused by its election manifesto. The ruling party made promises to the electorate and it is these promises that President Mugabe is asking the party and government leaders to fulfil. The leadership should stop the unnecessary fights and concentrate on its mandate of delivering on the party promises.

The people want jobs, better schools, clinics, hospitals, good roads, irrigation schemes and other such infrastructure to better their lives. It is important for the leadership to have a shared vision regarding the future of this country. At times the leaders in the party and government have wasted precious time on unnecessary fights at the expense of development.

Jostling for positions has been very costly to the party and government and its time, as President Mugabe directed, leaders spend more time on implementing development programmes that will uplift the people’s lives. The country is endowed with natural resources that include minerals, arable land, flora and fauna that is the envy of the world and resources that can be exploited for the benefit the people.

It is important for the leadership of both the party and government to speak with one voice regarding issues to do with development or exploitation of the country’s resources.

What is encouraging are the government efforts to woo foreign investors. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was recently in China to woo investors and according to him 86 global companies in China have indicated their willingness to invest in Zimbabwe. Cde Mnangagwa left for Europe today on the same mission of attracting foreign investors and these efforts should be complemented by creating a conducive environment for investment.