Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Liberating our economy, a generational challenge

Liberating our economy, a generational challenge
by Davison Gomo
29/12/2010 00:00:00

AT ITS recent 11th National Conference in Mutare, Zanu PF lived up to its historical and central role in providing a genuine people-centred leadership to its membership and the whole nation at large.

Our beloved country has been and still is under siege for the wrong reasons both in political and economic terms. Should we move forward without our past, abandon everything we fought so hard for at a huge expense in terms of human life and livelihoods? The question of whether the people of Zimbabwe should have, not just access to but total control of their resources, remains a fundamental question that needs to be resolved once and for all for the benefit of this and future generations.

As a nation, we must be seen to be exercising our inalienable right to self determination as enunciated in the UN Charter: the right of our people to freely choose their own leaders without being manipulated by powerful nations through the use of internal conduits and the so-called non-governmental organisations that wear a philanthropic cloak while bent on preying on the vulnerabilities of our people in advancement of their self interests.

We continue to experience the endless meddling into Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, the use of sanctions to effect regime change -- a practice that is illegal under international law. We have seen the havoc caused by the systematic and brutal plan to isolate Zimbabwe by spreading pathological lies through the global mass media controlled by western governments.

Part of this evil scheme has been the establishment of radio stations hostile to Zimbabwe and its people and various diabolical machinations designed to prevent the development of Zimbabwe like the continued denial of our country to sell its diamonds despite there being no justifiable case for doing so, and a whole range of issues that have been raised against the country and the person of President Robert Mugabe albeit without good cause.

The Affirmative Action Group, being a wholly Zimbabwean organisation and driven by the need to have our people benefit from their political independence and the resources that Zimbabwe is endowed with, hereby declare our total support for all resolutions that came out of the Mutare Conference in support of restoring the dignity of our people by giving them unfettered access to and control of the resources through the indigenisation and empowerment programme.

While we recognise that the country is coming from a low economic base and that the government is currently facing challenges related to recurrent expenditure, we urge our leaders to continue to put faith in their own people. Although collaboration with people in other parts of the world is most welcome, true and lasting development is that thus done by the Zimbabweans themselves.

We applaud the decision by the National Conference to put people first as is reflected in the nature of the resolutions that were adopted. The Affirmative Action Group stands for the broad economic empowerment of the people and the rights attendant thereto. We are, therefore, very pleased that the National Conference was themed around affirmative action and that President Mugabe did not mince his words regarding the place and future of both indigenisation and empowerment in current and future public and development policy.

The AAG takes pride in this stance and pledges its unwavering support until Zimbabweans are fully integrated into the mainstream economy. Our pride as a people can only mean something to us when we are in full and total control of both our political and economic space.

Davison Todson Gomo is the executive director of the Affirmative Action Group

Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), NEOCOLONIALISM, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 5:40 PM