So, I submit Mr. Speaker Sir, that we allow politics to dominate our discourse to the expense of development. It is time that we find each other so that we can subordinate politics and talk about development issues. There is no reason why Zimbabwe cannot be an Asian tiger. There is no reason why we should not skip developmental phases. Singapore in 1965 was one of the poorest countries on the globe. It was part of Malaysia and Malaysia mainland refused to accept it as part of it in 1963. They said we do not want you because you are too
small. You are just a little tin pot island but the leaders of that country said ‘what do we do, we are left on our own, we have to accelerate development’. So, they had a social contract with workers and they said to the workers, you accept that we are going to pay you low wages but we are going to look after you. Just give us time.
Thirty years later Mr.Speaker Sir, Singapore’s exports are $600million dollars but it is just a
little island. Harare to Chegutu is bigger than the whole of Singapore. Its per capita income is higher than that of the United States of America at US$9 000. If you go to Botswana, you will not recognise Francistown, it is getting bigger than Harare but they have one mineral
called diamond, which they have maximised and used to their benefit.
We have 63 minerals. We have gold, diamonds, platinum, chrome and now we have lithium all of world class standard but what do we have to show for that? We have nothing, zero. We are suffering yet our legs are inside the mineral mines. We have the Great Dyke, which is one of the richest granite formations in the world. It stretches over 575kms from
Mberengwa all the way to Mhangura. You can get anything on the Great Dyke. Now lithium is coming out everywhere like goblins but we have nothing to show for that.
However, we have thieves who are benefitting. There are a few things that are being built on the minerals of Zimbabwe. When I was in Government in 2010, I went to India to a
small town called Gujarati. There were 76 000 Indian women making a living from polishing diamonds. I saw it myself.
So, God gives us resources but we are too foolish to use those resources for the national interest. If you get a million, you are happy,you are okay but the nation is suffering. Look at the state of our roads. I know Mr. Speaker you come from Buhera. Look at the state of Chivhu Road, particularly when turning at that shopping centre and you turn left.
If you wake up Mbuya Nehanda, she will think it is still during her era because nothing has changed. There is absolutely no gross capital. So my appeal is that it is important to have democracy, to be different but I think let us put our people first. Let us build this country
through a democratic developmental ideology and philosophy. This country needs a radical transformation and it starts with modernisation of infrastructure. It starts with the issues that are captured in Hon. Gabbuza’s report, issues of State failure, lack of coordination, lack of
competence, and I do not care attitude.
We have normalised the abnormal. If you drive into a pothole you think it is okay. If a person is involved in an accident and dies because of a pothole, it is seen as dying in God’s time. God is not a God of poverty. So, we should be fatalistic and we have lowered standards so much. We deserve better and with that, we demand better. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
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