mbulelo smpofu
Stephen Mpofu
THE Southern African Development Community’s chairmanship must not be merely decorative but a catalyst for economic and social change in the regional bloc, making it a true game-changer.
Zimbabwe assumed the rotational chairmanship in August last year for a year, and one hopes that the country will proudly have something to show for its tenure when it vacates the chair this coming August. Otherwise, a country’s tenure in that chair translates into a vanity of vanities if other countries that assume the chair have nothing to emulate from their predecessors.
Fortunately, in Zimbabwe, we boast a policy by our Second Republic government that exhorts not only Zimbabwean nationals but also fellow SADC members and others elsewhere to improve their lot with: ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ ilizwe lakhiwa ngabaninilo/ a country is built (developed) by its owners’.
In his address at the National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service in Bulawayo on 29 December last year, the current chairman of SADC, President Mnangagwa, called on every Zimbabwean to play a part in building our nation.
This obviously sets an example of the kind of indefatigable determination that other people in the regional bloc should demonstrate to transform their economic and social well-being, thereby enhancing national and ultimately regional peace and stability for people elsewhere in the global village to emulate.
In his Thanksgiving address, President Mnangagwa said: “In the year ahead (this year), unflinching focus on our national vision, goals and aspirations, coupled with hard honest work; production and productivity; should see us live up to the instruction given to us in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 28”:
‘Then God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”’
It therefore behoves each and every government assuming the regional bloc’s chairmanship to spearhead political, economic, and social change in fellow member states by following God’s commandment as spelt out in the book of Genesis, as demonstrated above.
As such, and as the current SADC chair, Zimbabwe is determined to set an example for other states if reports about Harare, our capital city and seat of Government, finally coming up with long-awaited solutions to housing needs, as well as to water pollution solutions currently haunting people in the capital, not to mention residents elsewhere in Bulawayo where borehole water is reportedly contaminated.
Above that, our country’s agro-based economy seriously needs to be complemented industrially so that the current scourge of smuggled goods from outside the country comes to an end and free trade among SADC countries takes centre stage as regional economies grow. Let Zimbabwe’s agenda lead the way for the SADC bloc in everything stated above.
In the final analysis, therefore, each SADC country’s tenure in the bloc’s chair should be memorable by the tangible and lasting innovations it leaves behind for citizens of the region as part of the global village.
Siphakeme .Mnindwa
