Opinion / Columnist
If Mnangagwa wants to know what 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' really means, he should learn from Rhodesians!
2 hrs ago | Views
Sometimes, words are cheap, and it is often those who boast the most who achieve the least.
When the late Robert Mugabe popularized the phrase 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' - and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has since elevated it into a national slogan-it was meant to convey the idea that a nation can only be developed by its own people.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
On paper, this is a noble idea.
It places the responsibility for national development squarely on the shoulders of citizens, particularly the leadership entrusted with guiding a nation's destiny.
Yet, when one examines Zimbabwe's reality today, one cannot help but notice the glaring contradiction between rhetoric and practice.
While the government continuously extols the virtues of 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', the nation's streets tell a different story.
Industries lie in ruins-textile factories once employing thousands stand idle, and sugar estates produce far below capacity.
Agriculture, which should be the backbone of national development, struggles under mismanagement, with irrigation schemes collapsing and commercial farms plagued by corruption and debt.
Infrastructure crumbles, with roads, hospitals, and schools deteriorating despite repeated government promises.
Basic services such as electricity and water supply are erratic, leaving citizens to bear the brunt of systemic failures.
The human cost is equally stark.
Unemployment has reached shocking levels, forcing the majority of our youth into the informal sector just to survive.
Many operate street vending stalls, wash cars by the roadside, or run small backyard projects.
Yet, in a bizarre twist, the government portrays this forced improvisation as a sign of 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', as if survival under economic collapse equates to genuine national development.
The reality is far harsher: the country's potential is stifled, and the very people meant to build the nation are trapped in cycles of precarity, struggling to make ends meet.
If any nation ever came close to truly embodying this principle of building itself through its own people, it was certainly not Zimbabwe under Mugabe or Mnangagwa.
Remarkably, it was Rhodesia under Ian Smith-a country facing far harsher international isolation yet managing to create a functioning, self-reliant economy.
Rhodesia, after declaring unilateral independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965, was placed under stringent United Nations sanctions.
The embargo was intended to cripple the white minority regime, isolate it from the global economy, and pressure it into conceding to majority rule.
Almost every nation in the world cut ties with Rhodesia, depriving it of international trade, aid, and investment.
In today's Zimbabwean political discourse, such conditions would be described as unbearable "sanctions" that render development impossible.
And yet, despite these restrictions, Rhodesia managed to become one of the most industrially advanced and agriculturally productive countries on the African continent.
The Rhodesians achieved this by relying on themselves.
They innovated, industrialized, and developed local capacity at an extraordinary pace.
Far from sitting back and crying about sanctions, they turned adversity into an opportunity to strengthen internal resilience.
They achieved this almost immediately, in stark contrast to Zimbabwe under the ZANU-PF regime, which-more than 25 years after targeted sanctions were imposed on a handful of individuals and entities-continues to wail to the world, using these limited measures as an excuse for the nation's ongoing economic decay.
Under Rhodesia, the manufacturing sector thrived, producing everything from textiles to machinery.
Companies such as David Whitehead Textiles, Cone Textiles, and Bata Shoes became household names, ensuring local supply of clothes and footwear.
The steel industry, anchored by RISCO Steel in Redcliff, became the backbone of industrialization, while vehicle assembly plants like Willowvale ensured Rhodesians drove locally-assembled cars despite the embargo.
Rhodesians also built their own oil pipeline and refinery to bypass international sanctions.
The Feruka Refinery near Umtali (now Mutare), managed by CAPREF, processed imported crude delivered via a 294-kilometer pipeline from Beira, Mozambique.
Lonrho, led by Roland ‘Tiny' Rowland, played a key role in keeping this supply flowing despite sanctions.
This strategic feat ensured energy security, kept industries running, and showcased Rhodesians' resourcefulness and technical skill under extreme pressure.
Agriculture, spearheaded by white commercial farmers, was highly mechanized and efficient, producing enough to feed the nation and export to the region-even under sanctions.
The Cold Storage Commission kept beef exports flowing.
Tobacco farmers in Mashonaland sustained the country's largest foreign currency earner, while maize and wheat output made Rhodesia the breadbasket of southern Africa.
Individuals like Jack Malloch, through Air Trans Africa, even defied sanctions by flying in critical imports and exporting cash crops on clandestine routes, keeping the economy connected to the world.
Mining was another engine.
Rhodesia exploited its rich deposits of gold, chrome, asbestos, and coal.
Rio Tinto Zimbabwe and Anglo American invested heavily, turning Rhodesia into a significant exporter of minerals.
These industries didn't just produce raw materials-they developed beneficiation capacity, refining and processing locally to reduce dependence on imports.
Energy infrastructure also stood as a testament to Rhodesian resilience.
The Kariba Dam hydroelectric project supplied abundant power not only for domestic needs but for export, ensuring industries and homes were electrified at a time when other African states still struggled with access.
What Rhodesia demonstrated was that ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' is not a slogan but a practice.
When denied access to foreign imports, they built local industries to substitute those imports.
When international finance was cut off, they developed creative ways to sustain their economy through regional trade networks, barter agreements, and smuggling routes that kept vital supplies flowing.
In fact, Rhodesia's economic resilience under sanctions became a case study in how nations can survive-and even thrive-under international isolation.
Contrast that with "independent" Zimbabwe.
Since 2001, when targeted Western sanctions were imposed on a handful of ruling elites and state-linked companies supposedly for human rights abuses and lack of democratic reforms, the government has blamed every economic failure on these measures.
For nearly 25 years, Zimbabwe has been drowning in excuses, as if sanctions alone could explain why industries collapsed, why agriculture was destroyed, why infrastructure is in ruins, and why millions of citizens have fled abroad.
If sanctions truly paralyze a nation, then how did Rhodesia build itself into a powerhouse under far more severe UN sanctions?
The truth is simple: Rhodesians understood that national development depends on leadership that harnesses local talent, resources, and ingenuity.
Zimbabwe's rulers, on the other hand, use sanctions as a convenient scapegoat for their own corruption, mismanagement, and looting.
Today, when Mnangagwa invokes ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', the phrase is stripped of meaning.
Instead of citizens building their country, Zimbabwe is being plundered by its own.
Those closest to power-figures like Wicknell Chivayo, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, and Paul Tungwarara-have enriched themselves through opaque deals, inflated contracts, and state capture, all while the economy bleeds.
Billions of dollars in natural resource revenues disappear through illicit financial flows, leaving ordinary Zimbabweans to tighten their belts and endure untold suffering.
Unlike Rhodesia, which, despite relying on smuggling to circumvent sanctions and employing locals to manage fuel provision, did so to ensure the country's survival and development, Zimbabwe's schemes have been a sordid exercise in self-enrichment.
Investigations like Al Jazeera's Gold Mafia documentary reveal how gold smuggling by those with proximity to power has been conducted purely for personal gain, with no meaningful benefit to the nation.
Besides, Zimbabwe's gold has never been subject to sanctions, as confirmed by then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya.
Similarly, Tagwirei's dominance of the fuel sector through Sakunda Holdings has enriched him personally, rather than contributing to Zimbabwe's energy security or economic progress.
What Rhodesians did under sanctions was about national resilience; what today's elites do is about personal aggrandizement at the expense of the very country they are meant to serve.
The irony could not be greater.
Under Rhodesia, a tiny white minority, in the face of global isolation, managed to construct a functioning economy, industries, and infrastructure that still form the backbone of Zimbabwe today.
The power stations, dams, roads, hospitals, and factories we inherited were built during that era.
That infrastructure, despite being neglected for decades, continues to carry the weight of the nation.
Under "independent Zimbabwe," however, those assets have been run down, looted, and left to rot, with little to show in terms of new development.
To make matters worse, Zimbabwean leaders take pride in playing victim on the global stage.
They cry sanctions at every turn, even as the real destroyers of the economy are seated in government offices and presidential entourages.
They refuse to confront the reality that Zimbabwe's decay is not imposed from abroad but engineered from within.
If we are to be brutally honest, the Zimbabwean experience shows that ‘nyika inoparadzwa nevene vayo'-a nation is destroyed by its own people-is the truer reflection of our reality today.
We do not need foreign powers to sabotage us when those entrusted with national leadership have perfected the art of self-destruction.
Rhodesia, for all its injustices and oppression of the black majority, at least demonstrated what it means to mobilize local capacity and innovation for national development.
Zimbabwe, by contrast, has shown how greed, corruption, and incompetence can ruin even the most promising of inheritances.
This is not to glorify Rhodesia's system, which was founded on racial exclusion and exploitation.
The majority of the population was marginalized and denied political rights.
That is a fact that cannot and should never be sanitized.
However, the undeniable reality remains: the economic model and development strategies employed by Rhodesians under sanctions exemplified the very principle Mnangagwa and his government claim to champion today.
If anything, Zimbabwe's current rulers could learn from that era-not in its politics of oppression, but in its resilience, pragmatism, and determination to develop against the odds.
Until Zimbabwe embraces accountability, transparency, and a genuine commitment to nation-building, no amount of sloganeering will deliver development.
'Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' will remain an empty chant, masking the uncomfortable truth that Zimbabwe is being destroyed, not built, by its own people.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
When the late Robert Mugabe popularized the phrase 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' - and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has since elevated it into a national slogan-it was meant to convey the idea that a nation can only be developed by its own people.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
On paper, this is a noble idea.
It places the responsibility for national development squarely on the shoulders of citizens, particularly the leadership entrusted with guiding a nation's destiny.
Yet, when one examines Zimbabwe's reality today, one cannot help but notice the glaring contradiction between rhetoric and practice.
While the government continuously extols the virtues of 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', the nation's streets tell a different story.
Industries lie in ruins-textile factories once employing thousands stand idle, and sugar estates produce far below capacity.
Agriculture, which should be the backbone of national development, struggles under mismanagement, with irrigation schemes collapsing and commercial farms plagued by corruption and debt.
Infrastructure crumbles, with roads, hospitals, and schools deteriorating despite repeated government promises.
Basic services such as electricity and water supply are erratic, leaving citizens to bear the brunt of systemic failures.
The human cost is equally stark.
Unemployment has reached shocking levels, forcing the majority of our youth into the informal sector just to survive.
Many operate street vending stalls, wash cars by the roadside, or run small backyard projects.
Yet, in a bizarre twist, the government portrays this forced improvisation as a sign of 'nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', as if survival under economic collapse equates to genuine national development.
The reality is far harsher: the country's potential is stifled, and the very people meant to build the nation are trapped in cycles of precarity, struggling to make ends meet.
If any nation ever came close to truly embodying this principle of building itself through its own people, it was certainly not Zimbabwe under Mugabe or Mnangagwa.
Remarkably, it was Rhodesia under Ian Smith-a country facing far harsher international isolation yet managing to create a functioning, self-reliant economy.
Rhodesia, after declaring unilateral independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965, was placed under stringent United Nations sanctions.
The embargo was intended to cripple the white minority regime, isolate it from the global economy, and pressure it into conceding to majority rule.
Almost every nation in the world cut ties with Rhodesia, depriving it of international trade, aid, and investment.
In today's Zimbabwean political discourse, such conditions would be described as unbearable "sanctions" that render development impossible.
And yet, despite these restrictions, Rhodesia managed to become one of the most industrially advanced and agriculturally productive countries on the African continent.
The Rhodesians achieved this by relying on themselves.
They innovated, industrialized, and developed local capacity at an extraordinary pace.
Far from sitting back and crying about sanctions, they turned adversity into an opportunity to strengthen internal resilience.
They achieved this almost immediately, in stark contrast to Zimbabwe under the ZANU-PF regime, which-more than 25 years after targeted sanctions were imposed on a handful of individuals and entities-continues to wail to the world, using these limited measures as an excuse for the nation's ongoing economic decay.
Under Rhodesia, the manufacturing sector thrived, producing everything from textiles to machinery.
Companies such as David Whitehead Textiles, Cone Textiles, and Bata Shoes became household names, ensuring local supply of clothes and footwear.
The steel industry, anchored by RISCO Steel in Redcliff, became the backbone of industrialization, while vehicle assembly plants like Willowvale ensured Rhodesians drove locally-assembled cars despite the embargo.
Rhodesians also built their own oil pipeline and refinery to bypass international sanctions.
The Feruka Refinery near Umtali (now Mutare), managed by CAPREF, processed imported crude delivered via a 294-kilometer pipeline from Beira, Mozambique.
Lonrho, led by Roland ‘Tiny' Rowland, played a key role in keeping this supply flowing despite sanctions.
This strategic feat ensured energy security, kept industries running, and showcased Rhodesians' resourcefulness and technical skill under extreme pressure.
Agriculture, spearheaded by white commercial farmers, was highly mechanized and efficient, producing enough to feed the nation and export to the region-even under sanctions.
The Cold Storage Commission kept beef exports flowing.
Tobacco farmers in Mashonaland sustained the country's largest foreign currency earner, while maize and wheat output made Rhodesia the breadbasket of southern Africa.
Individuals like Jack Malloch, through Air Trans Africa, even defied sanctions by flying in critical imports and exporting cash crops on clandestine routes, keeping the economy connected to the world.
Mining was another engine.
Rhodesia exploited its rich deposits of gold, chrome, asbestos, and coal.
Rio Tinto Zimbabwe and Anglo American invested heavily, turning Rhodesia into a significant exporter of minerals.
Energy infrastructure also stood as a testament to Rhodesian resilience.
The Kariba Dam hydroelectric project supplied abundant power not only for domestic needs but for export, ensuring industries and homes were electrified at a time when other African states still struggled with access.
What Rhodesia demonstrated was that ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' is not a slogan but a practice.
When denied access to foreign imports, they built local industries to substitute those imports.
When international finance was cut off, they developed creative ways to sustain their economy through regional trade networks, barter agreements, and smuggling routes that kept vital supplies flowing.
In fact, Rhodesia's economic resilience under sanctions became a case study in how nations can survive-and even thrive-under international isolation.
Contrast that with "independent" Zimbabwe.
Since 2001, when targeted Western sanctions were imposed on a handful of ruling elites and state-linked companies supposedly for human rights abuses and lack of democratic reforms, the government has blamed every economic failure on these measures.
For nearly 25 years, Zimbabwe has been drowning in excuses, as if sanctions alone could explain why industries collapsed, why agriculture was destroyed, why infrastructure is in ruins, and why millions of citizens have fled abroad.
If sanctions truly paralyze a nation, then how did Rhodesia build itself into a powerhouse under far more severe UN sanctions?
The truth is simple: Rhodesians understood that national development depends on leadership that harnesses local talent, resources, and ingenuity.
Zimbabwe's rulers, on the other hand, use sanctions as a convenient scapegoat for their own corruption, mismanagement, and looting.
Today, when Mnangagwa invokes ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo', the phrase is stripped of meaning.
Instead of citizens building their country, Zimbabwe is being plundered by its own.
Those closest to power-figures like Wicknell Chivayo, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, and Paul Tungwarara-have enriched themselves through opaque deals, inflated contracts, and state capture, all while the economy bleeds.
Billions of dollars in natural resource revenues disappear through illicit financial flows, leaving ordinary Zimbabweans to tighten their belts and endure untold suffering.
Unlike Rhodesia, which, despite relying on smuggling to circumvent sanctions and employing locals to manage fuel provision, did so to ensure the country's survival and development, Zimbabwe's schemes have been a sordid exercise in self-enrichment.
Investigations like Al Jazeera's Gold Mafia documentary reveal how gold smuggling by those with proximity to power has been conducted purely for personal gain, with no meaningful benefit to the nation.
Besides, Zimbabwe's gold has never been subject to sanctions, as confirmed by then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya.
Similarly, Tagwirei's dominance of the fuel sector through Sakunda Holdings has enriched him personally, rather than contributing to Zimbabwe's energy security or economic progress.
What Rhodesians did under sanctions was about national resilience; what today's elites do is about personal aggrandizement at the expense of the very country they are meant to serve.
The irony could not be greater.
Under Rhodesia, a tiny white minority, in the face of global isolation, managed to construct a functioning economy, industries, and infrastructure that still form the backbone of Zimbabwe today.
The power stations, dams, roads, hospitals, and factories we inherited were built during that era.
That infrastructure, despite being neglected for decades, continues to carry the weight of the nation.
Under "independent Zimbabwe," however, those assets have been run down, looted, and left to rot, with little to show in terms of new development.
To make matters worse, Zimbabwean leaders take pride in playing victim on the global stage.
They cry sanctions at every turn, even as the real destroyers of the economy are seated in government offices and presidential entourages.
They refuse to confront the reality that Zimbabwe's decay is not imposed from abroad but engineered from within.
If we are to be brutally honest, the Zimbabwean experience shows that ‘nyika inoparadzwa nevene vayo'-a nation is destroyed by its own people-is the truer reflection of our reality today.
We do not need foreign powers to sabotage us when those entrusted with national leadership have perfected the art of self-destruction.
Rhodesia, for all its injustices and oppression of the black majority, at least demonstrated what it means to mobilize local capacity and innovation for national development.
Zimbabwe, by contrast, has shown how greed, corruption, and incompetence can ruin even the most promising of inheritances.
This is not to glorify Rhodesia's system, which was founded on racial exclusion and exploitation.
The majority of the population was marginalized and denied political rights.
That is a fact that cannot and should never be sanitized.
However, the undeniable reality remains: the economic model and development strategies employed by Rhodesians under sanctions exemplified the very principle Mnangagwa and his government claim to champion today.
If anything, Zimbabwe's current rulers could learn from that era-not in its politics of oppression, but in its resilience, pragmatism, and determination to develop against the odds.
Until Zimbabwe embraces accountability, transparency, and a genuine commitment to nation-building, no amount of sloganeering will deliver development.
'Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo' will remain an empty chant, masking the uncomfortable truth that Zimbabwe is being destroyed, not built, by its own people.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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