Zanu-PF birthed a free Zimbabwe, claims Mnangagwa

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday said every Zimbabwean has the DNA of the ruling party, Zanu-PF which gave birth to a free Zimbabwe.

President Mnangagwa, who was addressing multitudes of party supporters who thronged Mbizo Stadium in Kwekwe for a Presidential Star Rally ahead of the March 26 parliamentary and local authority by-elections, said while it was everyone's democratic right to form their own political parties, the opposition should always bear in mind that Zanu-PF was the source of those freedoms that Zimbabweans were enjoying.

"We must all remember that the mother to the birth of this Zimbabwe was Zanu-PF and this is all our mother, it's all our home, a warm home," he said.

He said the road to the birth of a free Zimbabwe was mooted in 1964 in Gweru when a resolution to take up arms to liberate Zimbabwe was passed.

The President said every Zimbabwean was now enjoying the fruits of the liberation struggle with the Second Republic now taking it upon itself to develop the country across all sectors of the economy.

"In 1964 at Mtapa Hall in Gweru, we made a resolution of the armed struggle.

This was after we had realised that the coloniser was determined to be in power.

So this is where the journey started and today everyone who is here, every Zimbabwean is the offspring of this resolution, you are sons and daughters of this resolution," said the President.

President Mnangagwa said the revolutionary party will not be intimidated to lose focus by empty threats from the opposition but was forging ahead with its development agenda of achieving an upper middle-class economy by 2030.

President Mnangagwa said the opposition had failed in urban councils with all roads rendered impassable by years of neglect and corruption but the Second Republic was tackling the problem.

"We realised that the people in urban areas remain our people since Zanu-PF gave birth to all and we have taken it upon ourselves to redo the roads.

Harare for example is regaining its lustre as we are working on our roads, the same with other cities, we introduced the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation programme," he said.

The President reiterated that the country could only be built by its citizens, adding that brick by brick, the Second Republic was working towards achieving an upper middle-class economy by the year 2030.

"We are progressing brick by brick and in our universities, we have established industrial and innovation hubs for our youths, every State University is being funded to spearhead innovation.                                                  

We also have a youth's bank after we have established a women's bank," he said.

The President said the Government was also establishing industries in rural areas while creating opportunities for everyone.

He said in the Midlands, a new Iron and Steel company in Mvuma was set to be the biggest in the country with over 6 000 employees.

He said the country was undertaking all the development from its own coffers.

"We are doing all this on our own, we have not borrowed any money, it's money from our own coffers," he said.

President Mnangagwa said development could, however, only come when the country is peaceful.  He said Zanu-PF was a peace loving party and urged party supporters to remain peaceful.

"Go out there and tell everyone to vote resoundingly for the revolutionary party but remember we are a peace loving party, we don't want violence, we can only develop when we are peaceful," said the President.

He also said the country has scored highly on the re-engagement drive.

"Recently Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and Philip Sibanda (Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General)  were removed from sanctions.

This shows how we are doing as Zimbabwe to build the bridges with our European partners.

The sanctions have, however, given us the impetus to make our own solutions and we have done so much to show how much we can do as a country.

We have the potential and we are exhibiting it," said President Mnangagwa.