The late Pan-Africanist and Son of the soil bequeathed to us by Ghana, the late Kwame Nkurumah left a legacy and vision of a great continent. A continent which proudly look after its own and stand ready to partner the whole world in our never ending march towards the progress of mankind.
The 25th of May is a day we reflect on the state of our continent and together share our collective story of success and failure as a people. We take pride in our hard won political independence which we collectively and gallantly fought for. We are however not oblivious to the fact that political independence is nowhere near enough to address the fundamental contemporary questions facing us.
Some of our member states like Rwanda and Ethiopia have set a trajectory for sustainable economic growth and development and they appear to be ready to embrace the 4th Industrial Revolution as they march forward. We take immense and unreserved pride in their correct achievement. However, this is sadly not the story for the majority of African countries in general and Zimbabwe in particular.
Africa and Zimbabwe can not continue to be the poster child of poverty, civil war and political instability. Zimbabwe continues to wallow and roam around the trough of its business cycle. Unemployment is high. Healthcare is in tatters. Political polarisation has reached toxic levels. This statua quo is unacceptable as much as it is unsustainable. Africa is endowed with natural resources. It is high time we transform these gifts of nature to high standards of living for our suffering people.
How do we go about it? I sincerely submit that the journey should start in Zimbabwe and now. It was Mwalimu Julias Nyerere who christened Zimbabwe as the jewel of Africa. Now we need to do justice to the praise and confidence bestowed on us by this great African giant.
We need to start appreciating that ideas are the seed for development. Development is seldom accidental. It is planned and worked for. We need to start embracing leaders with bankable ideas, not rhetoric and revised and distorted history. In our way, at Zimfirst we have assembled a team of men and women with great practical ideas meant to turn around our collective fortunes. We call for a political culture based on issues not personalities.
Since the late 1990s, Africa and indeed Zimbabwe has been exporting human capital around the globe. These human assets have gained valuable experience and expertise in virtually every field and I talk from first hand exprience when I posit that they stand ready to come back home and join their compatriots in rebuilding their motherland. We simply need to make a sincere call through our actions of reform to bring them back. A clear and transparent repatriation program and plan is long overdue in Africa and indeed Zimbabwe.
The inverse or negative relationship that obtains between the availability of natural resources and poverty in Africa and Zimbabwe is saddening. We need to take stock of our natural resources and start to account for how they are being used. These secretive deals with foreign investors are not helping anyone. Our growth trajectory should be aided by value addition, beneficiation and job creation along the value chain. Africa can not continue to export jobs through exporting raw materials.
Corruption is a cancer that has destroyed our core social, moral and economic systems. At Zimfirst we stand ready to face and decisively deal with this monster that has visited untold suffering on our people.
I conclude my message with this poem from an unknown African rural mother Sithembinkosi Ncube:
THE SOIL.
The soil
Of Africa is for Africans
On which to grow cotton, tea and sugar
Against the primitive millet and rapoko
The soil
Of Africa is for Africans
Fron where cotton is woven into clothes and flags for the world
And African children roam around nacked.
Africa, our motherland, may she survive till eternity through the sheer courage of her sons and daughters.
Thank you.
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