A new Zimbabwe – the time is now

This week we launched the new party manifesto, ‘A New Zimbabwe – The Time is Now’. For the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, a political party has produced a manifesto with a realistic, ambitious and carefully constructed action plan to turn around the fortunes of Zimbabwe. With the election date now nearly upon us, we are all incredibly excited about the future of our country and our prospects.

Our country is a great resource, and our greatest resource is our people. Our manifesto is drafted in consideration of the best interests for all the people of Zimbabwe.

Only the elite benefit

For far too long, our country has been under a regime that caters solely for the political elite at the expense of the people. We have some of the best educated and hardworking citizens in Southern Africa, and yet our unemployment rate remains at over 85 percent. This cannot be allowed to continue.

It is our responsibility to ensure that our party plan for Zimbabwe will put the creation of jobs at the forefront of our policy, and this will start from our first day in office through mobilising the financial and technical support we have available to kick-start our woeful economy. We have set ourselves as a bare minimum a target to create one million new jobs by the end of 2018.

Another key area of our manifesto is rural development and transformation. It was not that long ago that Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa with a thriving agricultural industry. Now, after the inept and poorly executed land reform programme, the majority of the once prosperous and thriving farms lie unattended and dilapidated.

A situation exists where the farmers who lost their land in Zimbabwe and have now set up farms in Zambia are exporting crops back into our country at a price grossly inflated that what it had previously been. This is shameful.

The land issue

Since the inception of the MDC, we have stressed that access to land and the enhancement of agricultural productivity is central to our development programmes. For too long our land has been a source of conflict and corruption.

We will implement a fair and equitable land policy to cultivate an efficient, just and people-driven agricultural sector which benefits local communities fairly.

The level of infrastructure technology that is available now is so great, and yet many of our producing farms are using equipment that was out of date 30 years ago; we are going to reverse this and these projects will be funded through partnerships between the public and private sectors.

We will also prioritise the development of a quality and affordable healthcare system. The fact in 2013 a child cannot access even the most basic medicines is a shameful reflection upon the Zanu (PF) regime.

A drastic shortage of doctors and nurses within the country has been exasperated by the hiring freeze placed on all nurses. We will lift this freeze immediately and strengthen the educational institutions preparing the next generation of medical professionals.

Our vision is for a healthcare system that our country can be proud of, which provides quality universal, maternal basic and emergency services. There is no reason why this is not obtainable in the near future.

For too long our country has been divided under the tyrannical regime of despotic leader. But soon, that will be in the past. We will unite the country, regardless of race, gender or religion. We will seek to move on from the past, with a new beginning in which we will appeal to all Zimbabweans, regardless of their previous political affiliations.

It is only by working together for the good of the country that we can truly move forward and establish the country we all so desperately want Zimbabwe to be and know it can be. It is time for one final push.

Post published in: Opinions & Analysis
Comments
  1. Mukanya waSvosve

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *