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Kennedy Mavhumashava Political Editor
Zanu-PF will invest $5 billion in social and economic infrastructure in the next five years to consolidate economic recovery if it wins the harmonised elections to be held in the next 20 days. The revolutionary party says in its 2013 election manifesto that economic infrastructure like roads, railways and electricity, are decisive economic enablers while social infrastructure like education and health are prerequisites for human development and economic prosperity.  It plans to invest $3 billion in economic infrastructure and $2 billion in social services.

“Economic infrastructure refers to investments in roads, railways, airports, power and the ICT (information and communication technologies) sector,” the manifesto says.

“Soon after independence in 1980, Zimbabwe earned international recognition for investing in a sound infrastructure network. According to a 2011 World Bank study, Zimbabwe’s infrastructure: A continental perspective, notable achievements included a national electricity network with regional interconnections, an extensive and international connected network as well as a sound water and sewer infrastructure.

Partly reflecting these infrastructure investments, in the early 1990s, Zimbabwe’s economic infrastructure was ranked among the best in Sadc in terms of coverage and quality. During the era of illegal economic sanctions over the past decade or so, however, the quality of infrastructure assets had deteriorated progressively due to inadequate levels of public expenditure for maintenance.”

The manifesto titled: “Taking back the Economy: Indigenise, Empower, Develop and Create Employment” was officially launched by President Mugabe in Harare on Friday.  With the slogan — Team Zanu-PF, Bhora Mugedhi/Ibhola Egedini, the document is a five-year social and economic plan that the party would implement after the elections it is tipped to win resoundingly.

An African Development Bank study whose results were published in 2011 said the share of the total road network of almost 90 000km in fair to good condition declined from 73 percent in 1995 to about 60 percent over the past 10 years or so.  About $1 billion is required to rehabilitate the network.

On railways, the bank said the volume of freight the National Railways of Zimbabwe is carrying declined from 14 million tonnes annually in the mid-1990s to only 2,7 million tonnes in 2009.  In addition, per capita electricity consumption has fallen from 738kW in 1995 to about 600kW in 2009.

“Against this background,” the blueprint says, “it is not surprising that Zimbabwe did not score well on infrastructure in the Global Competitiveness Report 2012/2013, coming 128th out of 144 economies in the international survey. Given that economic infrastructure is a key and indeed decisive economic enabler, Zimbabwe’s deteriorated infrastructure is a critical barrier to accelerating economic prosperity while reducing poverty in the country.”

Zimbabwe, according to the AfDB study, requires $14 billion to rework its infrastructure. The Government is spending about $800 million per year through its budget, state enterprises and local authorities on infrastructure.

A Zanu-PF government would rehabilitate the existing electricity grid and add more generation capacity, rehabilitate roads and railways and upgrade airports.  Water infrastructure like dams and water storage and transport would also receive great attention so as to enable it to meet increasing demand from agriculture, industry and households.

Social infrastructure, the election manifesto says, complements economic infrastructure and is necessary for the overall recovery and development of the economy.

“This is because the state of social infrastructure in Zimbabwe has also mirrored the decline in economic infrastructure,” the 108-page five-year plan says.

“For instance, in 2005, more than 85 percent of the people had access to safe water while by 2008; access to safe water had declined to 74 percent.  A key result of this decline was the cholera epidemic which occurred in 2008, affecting more than 100 000 and killing more than 4 000 people.”

Urban housing is another pressing social need which the party would attend to given the high national housing backlog.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF said it would deepen the Presidential Agricultural and Presidential Scholarship programmes. At least $300 million would be spent on the highly successful Presidential Agricultural Input Support Scheme while $19 million would be used under the Presidential Scholarship Programme, benefiting 9 320 students.

The President would introduce two new initiatives — the Presidential Youth Initiative and the Presidential Chiefs Support Programme with $5,9 million being used over five years under the former and $27 million in the latter scheme.

In recognition of chiefs’ important role as custodians of culture, tradition and values and the support they rendered during the liberation struggle and the land reform programme, President Mugabe would provide each of the country’s 272 chiefs with $20 000 per year over five years to enable them to undertake community development projects like rehabilitation and maintenance of clinics, boreholes and schools.