President Mugabe makes his keynote address at the National Heroes’ Acre yesterday (top). President Mugabe and First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe arrive for the Heroes Day commemorations in Harare yesterday

Lloyd Gumbo Harare Bureau—
THE government will establish a body to spearhead the repealing of laws scaring away investors as the country seeks to lure more investment but those in leadership should work hard for economic transformation, President Robert Mugabe said yesterday. Delivering his keynote address during the National Heroes Day commemorations at the National Heroes’ Acre in Harare, President Mugabe also outlined some of the achievements that the government has scored through the implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

He said the government would establish a National Competitiveness Commission (NCC) to address the challenges faced by local industries.

“The commission will be responsible for reviewing business related legislation and the repealing of old laws, which tend to impact negatively on business activities,” said President Mugabe.

“Being a country that observes and respects the rights of investors, as the government, we’re prepared to listen to all investor concerns, and address them, with the aim of making sure that we bring the cost of doing business in Zimbabwe to the barest minimum.”

President Mugabe said sacrifices by the gallant heroes who lost their lives during the liberation struggle could only be consolidated through the building of a vibrant economy that empowered all people.

“This should remind us all, particularly those in leadership positions in all spheres of our society, to focus all our energies in ensuring that the economy is fully recovered, for the prosperity of all Zimbabweans,” he said.

“In our quest for sustainable social and economic development, the government is pursuing, since 2013, the accelerated implementation of Zim-Asset, which is certainly yielding fruits.

“Having registered a growth rate of 3,1 percent in 2014, economic performance, to date, indicates some modest growth, which is driven by key sectors such as agriculture, mining, tourism and hospitality, construction, financial services as well as the public service.”

President Mugabe said the low growth rate was as a result of the last agricultural season that was affected by drought due to climate change.

As such, he said, there was a need for drought proof mechanisms to avert the adverse effects of climate change.

“In a bid to adopt strategies that improve and boost food production and to ensure Food Nutrition Security, both at household and national levels, the government has secured a $98,6 million loan facility from Brazil under the More-Food-for-Africa Programme,” said President Mugabe.

“The loan is for the acquisition of new agriculture machinery and irrigation equipment, which is targeted at enhancing small holder farmers’ capacity to produce food crops.

“Because Zimbabwe is drought-prone, we should employ all strategies that help us to avert the consequences of drought and subsequent starvation.”

President Mugabe said the mineral output during the first half of 2015 was on the increase, especially with gold, nickel, platinum and palladium.

The President said Zimbabwe’s tourism sector continued to grow and develop, with projected arrivals expected to reach two million by the end of the year.

He said Zimbabwe’s tourism sector continued to receive international recognition as evidenced by the international awards that the country has won in recent years.

President Mugabe said while colonial education for Africans was shallow, inferior and inappropriate, the revolutionary Zanu-PF government’s thrust was to provide quality education for all.

To achieve that, he said, the government had undertaken a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the foundation, relevance and the quality of education.

“In line with the new Constitution, the revision of the curriculum recognises the use of indigenous languages as a medium of instruction,” said President Mugabe

“The government has also embarked on teacher capacity development programmes for both primary and secondary school education personnel, in order to address training gaps and the quality of education.

“The government is also prioritising and strengthening Early Childhood Development in order to inculcate skills at an early age.”

President Mugabe said the government has always been committed to providing the youth with requisite technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

He said as part of the youth empowerment initiatives this year, about 8,400 youths have been empowered with technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills through the Integrated Skills Outreach Programme (ISOP), Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) and informal apprenticeship.

The President said in pursuit of promoting decent accommodation for all, the government was implementing the new National Housing Delivery Programme that aimed at delivering the Zim-Asset target of 313,368 urban housing units and serviced stands by December 2018.

He said it was expected that about 23,000 housing units would be provided in urban centres, while rural housing programmes were being resuscitated in order to improve rural living conditions.

President Mugabe said plans were under way to introduce a rural housing loan fund that would provide loans to communal, A1 and A2 farmers.

“In the health service sector, we’re pleased that, as reflected in the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, there’s a remarkable decrease in maternal, child and infant mortality,” said President Mugabe.

“In addition, full immunisation of children has improved from about 36 percent to nearly 70 percent.

“Measles immunisation is at 82 percent. The country has also recorded a remarkable increase of clients accessing treatment for HIV from 565,675 to 825,978 in March 2015.

“Despite the budget constraints, the government will continue to mobilise resources to cater for the 500,000 who still need to be put on treatment.

“Cognisant of what our heroes suffered and died for, the government has since Independence, made and will continue to make, improvements targeted at raising our people’s quality of life.”

President Mugabe castigated the sacking of employees on three months’ notice, saying the government would amend the laws to ensure workers were protected.

“We’re worried, of course, that recently there has been that freedom on the part of the private sector to get rid of workers,” he said.

“Workers who I understand now are in their thousands in the streets. We don’t accept that even though it’s in accordance with the law.

“But as I said, the law can be disadvantageous to certain sectors, as I quoted (Charles) Dickens who said ‘the law is an ass’. I think that part of our law is a stupid ass. So, really we’re amending it. I think we’ve proceeded already to draft a Bill and introduce it in Parliament.

“We’ll ensure that there’ll be fairness. Fairness yes, on the part of employers because they must be served by honest people, sincere people and hard working people. But also fairness that they shall not just dismiss workers anyhow because they want to widen their margins of profits.

“No, no! That we say no to it. We will protect workers legally.”

President Mugabe implored Zimbabweans to be vigilant to ensure that white former commercial farmers do not come back to reclaim the land that was redistributed to the indigenous landless majority.