'Don't feel defeated,' Mnangangwa tells Tsvangirai

Zimbabwe can only take full control of its resources and enjoy the fruits of the indigenisation of the economy by making use of its new constitution, Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa said.

Addressing guests at a Midlands Show Society Exhibitors' reception held at a local hotel in Gweru on Friday evening, Mnangagwa said indigenous Zimbabweans had the capacity to own and manage their own resources leading to the prosperity of the country.

"We gained political authority in order to indigenise our assets and natural resources of our country. People should be empowered to enjoy their resources and wealth. In the Midlands province for example, the locals should lead in the ownership and exploitation of resources," he said.

Mnangagwa who is the Patron of the Midlands Show said the Zanu-PF led Government had a role to create an environment conducive for business. He said the Government should also create finance windows that complement economic indigenisation and empowerment programmes through funding.

"The Government should create funding windows that enable people to exploit their resources. When you want to venture into mining ask whether there is a window created for those who want to venture into that sector. But you can't be empowered if the resources are not yours and this is the reason why we want to make sure that all foreign owned companies are indigenised first," he said.

Don't exploit people who work under you because these are the same people who vote for us (politicians).
Mnangagwa said the economic empowerment and indigenisation programmes can only be fully implemented through the application of the country's home-made constitution.

He said all foreign investors willing to invest in the country should do so with a Zimbabwean as a principal beneficiary.

"We will use our own constitution to indigenise the economy, not the foreign owned laws. A country that controls its resources is bound to develop. In the process of development employment is created," he said.

Mnangagwa said people should guard their resources jealously.

"You should protect your resources and country because you were only given one country by God. Guard against people who want to take your country away from you. Each race was given its own country. You cannot go to England and expect to be given land there. The same applies here. The land between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers is yours and yours alone," said Mnangagwa.

The Defence Minister said the Government will face no major challenges in implementing most of its policies following the death of the inclusive Government.

He said there was a lot of discord in the inclusive Government that made it difficult for policies to be implemented because the three parties in the government then had different ideologies and backgrounds.

"Parties were always after claiming credit for the positives registered by government. Everyone would want to claim responsibility for a single positive development. It was such discord that resulted in Ziscosteel failing to be revived. There were so many 'bulls in the kraal'. Now following the Zanu-PF landslide victory, we are in a position to implement our policies as spelt out in our campaign manifesto," said Mnangangwa.

He applauded Zimbabweans for voting in peace and urged MDC-T members to accept the harmonised election results for the good of the country.

"There are no losers in this race (elections). Those who lost in these elections are not losers as such but participants. They participated in a race and in a race one crosses the line earlier than the other. I happen to belong to a party that did well in the elections. Don't feel defeated, tell yourself you are a participant in a race," he said.

Mnangagwa urged business people to think outside the box and be flexible in their planning.