…Vision 2030 now in sight
By Lungile Siziba
It feels like yesterday since President Mnangagwa was sworn-in for the first time as the country’s Head of State and Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, when in fact it is now six years.
The President made a lot of promises on November 24, 2017, when he was inaugurated as the country’s second President since independence.
Some of the promises made back then include massive job creation, creating a conducive environment for rapid investment, turning around the agriculture sector, transforming the mining sector, economic stability, fighting corruption, and unleashing unprecedented infrastructure development including world-class roads, respecting the rule of law, and re-engaging countries that had cut ties with Harare, among others.
The past six years have been hectic for President Mnangagwa as he sought to deliver on his promises.
Under him, nothing has been predictable every month, as many new developments have been taking place across the country, leaving no one and no place behind.
It takes just a few people in opposition politics to deny that the country has been transformed in a short space of time, as President Mnangagwa dragged it from the depths it had sunk.
ZANU PF had an easy job at its congress last year, when it became time to choose the leader, and presidential candidate for the August 2023 harmonised elections.
There was unanimity as all delegates said the best honour they could give to President Mnangagwa was a fresh mandate to finish off outstanding projects, and embark on new ones.
Duly, the President was re-elected by the revolutionary party and subsequently by 52,6 percent of the over 4 million voters who went out to cast their votes on August 23 and 24 this year.
The second-best candidate in the presidential race had 44 percent while eight other candidates had the remainder of the vote.
Some of President Mnangagwa’s achievements include ensuring peace, transforming the agriculture sector and constructing roads, dams and provision of social services in the mould of clinics and schools.
The following are some of the projects implemented by President Mnangagwa since 2017; the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport modernisation, Beitbridge Border Post upgrade, Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway widening, Lake Gwayi Shangani construction, New Parliament Building construction, Mbudzi Interchange construction and dualisation of the Harare-Bulawayo and Harare-Mutare highways.
Other game-changing developments have been in the agriculture sector where yields of wheat, maize and tobacco have been rising.
Rural industrialisation has also been taking place at an unprecedented rate, with the lives of people completely transformed.
Mbudzi Interchange latest
Construction works at the Mbudzi Interchange are progressing well, with completion expected next year.
The project is now at 53 percent completion, as the Second Republic seeks to ensure seamless flow of traffic, especially on the critical Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge which links Zimbabwe with a number of regional countries.
President Mnangagwa’s administration continues to upgrade infrastructure as the country moves towards the attainment of Vision 2030 of an empowered upper-middle income society.
Beitbridge Border Post upgrade complete
The modernisation of the Beitbridge Border Post has been completed. In fact, President Mnangagwa commissioned the border in 2022. Since then, the amount of time taken by travellers, truck and bus drivers, to be processed, has drastically reduced.
Truckers and buses used to take several hours to be cleared, but now it takes just a few minutes.
The Beitbridge Border Post modernisation project was done under a US$300 million facility which also saw the construction of 220 staff houses for people working for the various Government agencies, a brand-new fire station, an 11,4 mega litre water reservoir and a plant and animal quarantine centre.
Traffic has been separated into three categories namely private vehicles and pedestrians, buses and trucks.
All these categories don’t interact as they are divided or closed off using a fence, which shuts out middle-men that used to “facilitate” between travellers and Department of Immigration or Zimra staffers, resulting in untold corruption, and border delays.
The 5km road from the border has been dualised while a beautiful roundabout has been constructed where Harare and Bulawayo roads separate.
So nice is the Beitbridge Border Post that South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa organised a tour of the facility and praised President Mnangagwa for a job well done.
Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway almost complete
For many years under the First Republic, many ground-breaking ceremonies to “mark the start of work” on the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway were done, with no actual work starting on the road.
But in 2018, President Mnangagwa directed that the widening of the busy highway be started and the usual critics who had doubted the capacity of the ZANU PF Government to upgrade the road, went into overdrive, again.
They forgot that on November 17 in his maiden address, the President said “masamba asiyana”. He reiterated the remarks in Chinhoyi in 2021 when he was commissioning the Chinhoyi Court Complex, adding that the time when projects were started but never completed was gone.
Now, over 470km of the 580km Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway have been rehabilitated, completed and opened to traffic.
The highway was fixed in two phases where some parts were widened and others dualised as was expertly done towards Masvingo City.
About 2 600 vehicles use the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway per day, with 1 040 vehicles using the Harare-Chirundu Highway per day, making the widening of the road critical to improve the ease of doing business and reduce road accidents.
Five local companies namely Bitumen World, Fossil Contracting, Masimba Construction, Exodus & Company and Tensor Systems, are working on the road.
All the funding is being provided by the Government.
RGM International Airport first phase complete
Expansion of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport started in 2018.
President Mnangagwa led the ground-breaking ceremony in July, and since then work has been ongoing, interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic when it broke out in March 2020.
The first phase of modernisation was completed and President Mnangagwa commissioned it on July 14, 2023. Now, work is underway at the old international terminal and the iconic tower.
Travellers, mostly those that have not been in the country for some time, always marvel at the work being done.
“Waal, is this in Zimbabwe? This is just nice. Well done to the Government,” said a woman recently who said she had been living in South Korea for the past six years.
39m of Lake Gwayi Shangani complete
This project is one of the miracles under the Second Republic.
It was mooted in 1912 by the colonisers and since then, nothing beyond foundations was done, and the foundations would always be covered by sand when it rained.
Enter the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa, the project took off like a phoenix and as of November, 39 metres out of the targeted 72 metres of the wall had been constructed.
When complete, Lake Gwayi-Shangani will eliminate water supply challenges in Bulawayo, while along the way, irrigation would be undertaken, in a development that will boost availability of food in areas where crops were not known to thrive.
A 252km water pipeline to convey water from Lake Gwayi-Shangani is being constructed.
Hwange Units 7 & 8
Yet another massive project implemented by President Mnangagwa in the last six years has been the Hwange Power Station Expansion project where two brand new units, 7 and 8, were being added.
For over a decade, the expansion project could not take off due to an absence of funds as financiers were unwilling to release funds due to sanctions and the attendant high risk profile.
But analysts say the coming of President Mnangagwa slashed the risk premium by about half, hence the release of funds.
The project has been completed and the units are feeding electricity into the national grid, reducing load shedding.
