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NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

2020: Year of modern strategies or renewed minds?

Opinion & Analysis
In a week’s time, 2019 will be closing and with high spirits, people will be anticipating the opportunities and challenges for 2020. For Zimbabweans, the end of 2019 could be a relief, yet the coming year is a sad reminder of long and unfulfilled pledges.

guest column:Gibson Nyikadzino

In a week’s time, 2019 will be closing and with high spirits, people will be anticipating the opportunities and challenges for 2020. For Zimbabweans, the end of 2019 could be a relief, yet the coming year is a sad reminder of long and unfulfilled pledges.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the Zanu PF government popularised an agenda, Vision 2020, whose goals and objectives no one wants to talk about anymore.

Under Vision 2020, launched in March 2000, government targeted economic revival, which was to be spearheaded by good governance and political stability, sustainable macro economic growth, regional and provincial management of human and capital resources.

A few years later, in the Government of National Unity, former deputy prime minister Arthur Mutambara confessed: “Vision 2020 is nowhere to be found and is probably gathering dust somewhere. We are now running with Vision 2040 that will dump the old, but not used Vision 2020.”

As evidence becomes clear that policies pronounced by government are rarely checked and measured based on progress, Zimbabweans remain political and undevelopmental to nation building. Leaders are never held accountable.

Without adequate explanation why the government dumped Vision 2020, there is a lot of skepticism around the government’s commitment to fulfill objectives of its Vision 2030 agenda.

Meanwhile, innovative governments attract talent, perform efficiently and continually upgrade their systems and services. They empower citizens to cultivate their collective energy to meet national goals.

Alliance for the People’s Agenda (APA) leader Nkosana Moyo once said: “People join structures of political parties to become insiders because they want to benefit from that. In many ways we must not blame Zanu PF because for nearly 40 years we have allowed them to do silly things unto us because of our failure to determine the future that we want.”

There is a fresh impetus that APA as a political entity in Zimbabwe brings if the electorate wanted to be more policy oriented than be bought with food, t-shirts and cheap sloganeering when choosing leaders. There is need for citizens to holistically consider and determine the future they want.

There is nothing wrong with the Zimbabwean’s mind, the problem is the Zimbabwean’s mindset. It is not a lack of resources, but a deficit of resourcefulness.

Globally, statisticians have concluded that African resources (land, minerals among others) if properly extracted, can feed two-thirds of the world’s almost eight billion citizens.

Unfortunately, the continent is one of the poorest.

Of the 870 million people who are living in global poverty, an estimated 660 million are said to be in Africa.

In the midst of these statistics, one of Zimbabwe’s worst enemy is ignorance on the part of the citizens. As a result, many lives have been lost because of ignorance.

A dysfunctional economy today shows there are no fortunes turning for Zimbabwe’s economic revival, in all facets.

For example, despite being the first country to host a first ever international solar conference in 1996, since then, government did not take a path of innovation in trying to harness solar as a source of energy.

To pacify people, placation is what the government does.

As all facets crumble, citizens’ ignorance cannot be eradicated by political ideologies, but only by education and the ability to have credible, merit-based and inclusive socio-economic institutions where all people are treated as equals.

Zimbabwe has a young, growing population eager to learn, innovate and invest their knowledge in national development, but the absence of mechanisms for innovation by those in power remain a major hindrance. Despite strides made in Zimbabwe’s education sector, if there are no fundamental and clear reforms, then the heart of Zimbabwean problems is the Zimbabwean hearts.

“Just when it seemed that news was filtering through about a rising middle-class, better educational opportunities and progressive global aspirations, Africa has become a continent of disease and wars,” wrote British scholar Stephen Chan.

In 2020, the nation needs re-branding, innovative thinkers, failure to do so, ours will be a legacy of sanctions, travel bans, cries for foreign direct investment and a corrupt leadership if something doesn’t change.