Tearing up the Pejorative “Periphery” Tag Cde Simon Khaya Moyo

Stephen Mpofu

WHEN the coronavirus pandemic now ravaging economies across the globe finally wanes to become history, it will leave in its wake nations in formerly advanced economies limping and searching in the rubbles for signs of life to run with towards full economic recovery.

On the other hand, people in formerly less advanced or underdeveloped economies particularly in Africa, with Zimbabwe belonging in one of the two categories, will be crawling on their bellies at worst and at best clutching on survived life supports to doddle on in hopes of a better future with full bellies.

Luckily, Zimbabwe is endowed by God with life supports in the form of various minerals with gold the most precious metal among them and with every person dying to lay their itchy hands on it for a better future and with such other endowments as platinum, chrome, nickel, asbestos et al, having the potential to boost this country’s economy through exports to earn much-needed forex.

Unfortunately, and even tragically ironic, gold dug up by small mines is reportedly being smuggled out for sale to our neighbours somewhere in the Sadc region who then flog it to the international market as their own product for better monetary value than the peanuts that the smugglers palmed in the first place while impoverishing their own motherland for that matter.

The reported bluing of gold from this country is not a new phenomenon however. Once upon a time, in the 50s and early 60s, Mberengwa West in the Midlands province became famous for the gemstone emerald, but which is not known today to have benefited the majority there in the form of better schools or better health facilities or on improved infrastructure such as roads or bridges among other things in the province or elsewhere in the country as a national asset.

What is known by people in that part of the country about emeralds is that individuals such as shop owners, teachers and others benefited from sales of the emeralds which became virtually extinct, so to speak, at independence in 1980 along with colonialism.

Which suggests that emeralds were dug up and smuggled out of the country with little or nothing left to help with Zimbabwe’s national development as all other minerals must of necessity do.

Not only minerals are known to have surreptitiously been taken out of this country as millions of dollars were reportedly stashed away in foreign bank accounts by unnamed political wigs during the First Republic for their personal benefits while back home every cent was needed to support development initiatives.

Much of the smuggled money has reportedly been repatriated, thanks to the Second Republic for a job well done in that respect but which must see every dollar that belongs in Zimbabwe returned.

When asked two days ago by this writer for a Zanu-PF comment on reports about Zimbabwean gold being smuggled to a neighbouring country, the ruling party’s spokesperson, Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo said: “All kinds of smuggling are anathema.”

He could not have been more on the mark since smuggling of any form amounts to sabotaging a country’s development agenda.

What this therefore suggests is that the ruling party’s members and other, unmitigated patriots are, and should regard themselves as the eyes of the Government they put in power.

But not just mere eyes, but eyes wearing binoculars in the form of devolution and Vision 2030 and other Government policies to sharpen their own vision regarding a brave new future for all and towards which our Government is shepherding this nation.

In this regard, it is not mere propaganda by this pen to say that devolution or the deputisation of central Government power by rural state authorities in particular, comes in handy in efforts to shred the colonial pejorative “periphery” label attached to rural areas in colonial Rhodesia where the majority of blacks live and which white racist rulers neglected, preferring instead to develop urban areas where the whites lived with Africans offering slave labour for measly pay.

Growth points ostensibly meant to serve as pivotal centres for rural economic development must now be made to live to their full expectations under devolution.

This communicologist suggests the setting up, for a start, of facilities where alluvial and other, pedestrian gold miners can sell the minerals they dig up for a lucrative price so that they do not smuggle the gold or minerals to other countries where payment is made in currencies stronger than our own. Zimbabwe can then export that metal or other minerals to international countries for the foreign currency badly needed to drive our economy.

Uranium deposits have been sited elsewhere in the country and that strategic mineral might end up in the hands of smugglers if the country lacks a proper facility for its mining and export.

All in all, growth points should be made to live up to people’s expectations by also storing agricultural products there in silos for businesses in town to travel to the development centres to buy the goods, and not vice versa, so that rural folk are handsomely rewarded for their sweat and in that way encouraged to produce more for the country’s overall advancement economically and socially.

Such collective rural and urban development initiatives cannot fail to see our motherland becoming an advanced economy and the envy of those sitting on their backsides elsewhere in the global village.

You Might Also Like

Comments