Workers' Day Message from Oliver Mtukudzi

Fellow Zimbabweans,

About two weeks ago our country celebrated the 34th anniversary of its hard won independence. It was indeed a time for all of us to pause and reflect on the journey we have walked together over the last three decades and four years.

We come face to face with these celebrations as our country goes through some tough and trying times. I say these words with particular reference to workers like you and me on this May Day commemoration.

Every day as I travel around the country for shows and other duties, I come face to face with Zimbabweans from all walks of life. From the petrol station attendants who keep our vehicles fuelled to airtime vendors who make sure that that one dollar airtime is always close at hand, from the dedicated nurses in our hospitals, whose never-say-die attitude keeps our health institutions pumping, to our domestic workers who keep our families going in so many ways, from young entrepreneurs, going about their daily hustle to university graduates who are just starting new jobs or looking for them.

I hear their stories of struggle and triumph, of pain and overcoming and am constantly reminded that the challenges that our people face are not individual or isolated ones. They cannot be overcome by the singular effort of any one of us, but by a continued, unified pull towards solving them.

So as we commemorate workers day in the year our independence sees its 34th anniversary, I humbly urge us all, from politician to city council worker, from CEO to informal trader, to soldier courageously on; to remember that Zimbabwe will only thrive when we can share that vision of prosperity together and work resolutely towards it with integrity and with that age-old value of unhu; looking out for each other and realising that we are one.

I will spend my May Day morning talking to nurses and patients at Harare Hospital and then I will give them a little performance as my way of saying thank you to them as representatives of all the workers of Zimbabwe.

My little request to you people of Zimbabwe, is to find someone today who you know works hard in whatever way for this country, and to say thank you to them in any way you can.

God bless you and God bless the nation of Zimbabwe.
Thank you
Oliver Mtukudzi