PHILLIMON MHLANGA
Nyanga South legislator, Supa Mandiwanzira, has made a strong call for Zimbabweans to support President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s vision.
President Mnangagwa has been running with the Zimbabwe is open for business mantra and has been calling on offshore investors to invest in the country.
Mnangagwa has also declared the desire to re-engage international businesses and lure investors after years of economic malaise.
Contributing to President Mnangagwa’s recent State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Tuesday, the former ICT, Postal and Courier Services minister applauded Mnangagwa saying the president was ‘very clear that this is the direction that we need to go’ .
“By just listening to His Excellency’s address, you cannot miss the clarity, vision, trajectory and the progress that the country is on under the new dispensation.
“Clearly, the address by His Excellency demonstrated the government’s commitment and serious determination for economic progress. I am suggesting that as we support His Excellency’s vision, clarity as expressed in his State of the Nation Address,” Mandiwanzira said.
He said Mnangagwa’s statement had many examples of real milestones that the government has achieved in taking the country forward, that the “majority of the people here would agree with me that we are moving from one point to another on an uphill trajectory.” Mandiwanzira also called upon the government to support an aggressive implementation of the import substitution strategy as well as the local content policy which are pillars of economic growth.
“Not only can we achieve success economically but we can substitute imports or substitute the exportation of dividends by ensuring that a lot of the products are being made locally,” the lawmaker said.
Mandiwanzira said his constituency has some of the most attractive tourist destinations, among them the Troutbeck Resort and Montclair which were serving purified water from outside the area despite having the most amount of natural springs in the country.
“Those natural springs produce pure water that has export value. I believe that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, through the budget process, must make available resources for the importation of machinery for water bottling for every district that has those springs,” he said.
He said some offshore investors were coming into Zimbabwe to ‘bottle our water so we can drink it’.
“They purify our water, they sell it to us, when they get their profits, they change the money and ship those profits outside the country yet we can employ our young Zimbabweans in Nyanga and many other districts where we have water to produce for consumption by Zimbabweans.”
Mandiwanzira added: “I think it is embarrassing to have water coming from Harare so that the people in Nyanga can drink, yet we have the finest water that is reputed in the country.
“I believe that the President’s vision can be supported in this particular way.”
“The same applies to timber; we have huge forestry in Nyanga but we buy furniture in Harare, from China and South Africa. When you look at the price of some of the machinery to produce furniture, it is not
expensive,” he said.
“When we look at the work that is being done by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education in terms of training the skills that are able to use basic machinery to produce furniture and when you go to some of the most active industrial places here in Harare, you will see individuals making furniture. It will honestly be embarrassing that we are importing furniture.”
He said there was a need to make resources available to young men and women who are in desperate need of employment to buy the machinery, make available the foreign currency in order for them to be able to import the machinery for timber harvesting.
Mandiwanzira said the President was not just talking, but was demonstrating that we were not just talking about being open for business.
“We are putting the building blocks to ensure that those who are coming to invest have access to the power that they require,” he said.
“We must applaud His Excellency the President and the government for that effort.
He mentioned in his address that investment is going into Hwange to make sure that we produce more thermal power because we have huge resources of coal and we still have the time to make use of our coal
to generate the electricity that we require.”
Added Mandiwanzira: “At the same time, the government has also been promoting the use of solar energy and we must continue to support the government and His Excellency on the need to use solar energy. Here lies another opportunity that we are missing which I believe all of us as Zimbabweans, government, parliamentarians and the private sector should actually take the lead in promoting.”
