what Mugabe said on 18 April

‘‘It would have been my wish and that of government to mark this very special day in an equally special way. After all, 20 years is a significant marker in the life of any young nation, more so ours which, phoenix-like, emerged from the cauldron of war into the relative peace we have enjoyed over the two decades gone by.

By all counts therefore, this is a date rich in meaning and thus one deserving very special recognition indeed...

I remind you today that our independence followed over 90 years of oppressive settler colonial rule imposed on us in 1890 when the British occupied our country.

Our independence followed years of bitter and protracted struggle. Ask yourselves how many had to die for this great day to come.

Apart from our well-known national heroes of the struggle such as Comrades Leopold Takawira, Herbert Chitepo, Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, Nikita Mangena, Josiah Magama Tongogara, we recall on this day freedom fighters who perished inside and outside the country.

We also cannot forget the refugees and others — men, women and the children who were cut down in cold blood, often tattered book in hand, at Nyadzonia, Chimoio, Tembue, Mkushi, Luangwa, Solwezi, where to this day, they lie buried in mass graves. Even in their death, we could not grant them the dignity of a grave each. How could we, given their severed limbs, their bodies burnt and charred beyond recognition?

The 20 years we have lived as an independent people have, by and large, been years of security and harmony, itself a foremost achievement of our independence.

Against dire predictions, we managed to integrate the hitherto three hostile armies from the war into one cohesive, professional national defence force which is a source of national pride at home and a dependable player in global stabilisation, peace-making and peace-keeping missions: Mozambique, Somalia, Angola and currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The conflict which marred the early part of our independence was overcome by the 1987 Unity Accord which ushered in the peace and sense of national cohesion and belonging which abide in our nation.

Today there is no sense of alienation among Zimbabweans who feel free to go and even settle in any part of the country. This is truly remarkable given the history of failed, imploding nations on our continent, and of course given the sad turn of events in the early part of our independence. This is an achievement we dare not let slip, now and in the eternal future.

The white community

The bitterness of our colonial experience could have so easily driven us into a pogrom against the white community, most of whom diligently served and sustained UDI. Yet our high level of political consciousness soared above bitterness and had long made us see the Rhodesian problem as a system of racial injustice, and not in the colour of the skin of those who manned that system.

Except of course for those who did not know our politics, it came as no surprise that humanism and magnanimity prevailed by way of the policy of National Reconciliation which I declared in 1980. That policy proved the wand of peace at home and a priceless export in the region as it found a replay in Namibia and South Africa.

While all within the white community welcomed and benefited from the policy, not all felt the compulsion to reciprocate this gesture of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace across the colour bar. All the same, that policy gave our society the multiracial character for which Zimbabwe has been applauded.

What we reject is the persistence of vestigial attitudes from the Rhodesian yester-years, attitudes of a master race, master colour, master owner and master employer.

Our whole struggle was a rejection of such imperious attitudes and claims to privilege. That is why we launched the policy of National Transformation alongside that of National Reconciliation. We saw the two operating hand in hand in achieving our goal of reconciling and transforming attitudes for a new nation. We remain sworn to that goal.

The sacrifices we have made for our country and independence simply mean that as Zimbabweans, we cannot settle for nominal sovereignty.

It is not sufficient to have a national flag, a national anthem and a black president. These are mere signifiers and symbolic accoutrements of our independence and sovereignty as a people. They need content, and content is what we have been struggling to give in the past 20 years.

We successfully consolidated people’s political power by gaining control and transforming instruments of governance. We also ensured that the majority of our people who had been disenfranchised by colonialism got back and exercised their vote in choosing who governs them.

We had free and fair parliamentary elections in 1985, 1990 and 1995. We had presidential elections in 1990 and in 1996. We are set to have both parliamentary and presidential elections next month [May] and in 2002 respectively.

The elective principle has also been entrenched in local government politics and even in internal party politics. The democratic ethic has thus been deepened and consolidated and we congratulate none but Zimbabweans for that achievement. All these developments gave political content to our independence and sovereignty.

The concrete achievements

The past 20 years have also seen enormous developmental changes that have touched practically every life. Dramatic and unmatched strides have been made in education at all levels. We have universal education and our children go to school.

In sharp contrast to the 2,401 segregated primary schools with a combined enrolment of 81,958 pupils in 1979, now we have over 4,500 with a combined enrolment in excess of 2,274,178 pupils.

The mere 177 secondary schools with 66,215 pupils we had at independence have grown to 1,548 schools, with a combined student population of nearly 700,000.

Overall, compared to 1979, there are now three times as many children in primary schools and 12 times as many in secondary schools.

Teacher training colleges which at independence were a mere four with a combined intake of 1,000 trainees, have now risen to 15 with an intake of 17,000. Technical colleges have risen from two with an intake of 2,000 to the current 15 with an intake of 20,000.

The sole university we had in 1980 with 2,000 students is now sharing the load with seven others, all carrying a student population of over 30,000. Our professionals: doctors, teachers, nurses, managers, engineers, academics, etc, are respected and in great demand throughout the region and in Europe.

The 62% literacy level we had at independence has risen to 82%, the best on the continent and among the best in the world.

We are leaders in education and skills development, and we continue to introduce changes to our educational system to ensure we remain among the best and broad enough to meet our manpower and skills requirements. Again this is a resounding achievement for which we make no apologies.

In the past 20 years, we have constructed or upgraded 456 health centres, 612 rural hospitals, 25 district hospitals as well as one provincial hospital in each of the country's eight provinces. I am happy that as I address you today, over 85% of our population is now within eight kilometres of a health facility. The 25% coverage of immunisation at independence has now been boosted to 92%, while ante-natal coverage rose from 20% at independence to the present 89%.

We have done remarkably well in respect of rural food security, building a general awareness of nutritional food intakes at household level, as well as ensuring clean rural water supplies.

Whereas the country had a mere 1,226 boreholes, currently we have 34,538 boreholes; 10,536 deep wells and 520 piped water schemes, up from a mere 26 at independence.

In terms of infrastructure, the investment has been extraordinarily heavy. At independence, we only had 121 dams, most of which serviced the commercial farming and rban sectors. Today the country boasts of 2,438 dams, most of them linked to thriving irrigation schemes. We achieved this by pursuing a policy of one major dam per district, and as I speak to you today, work is underway at Wenimbi, Biri, Dande, Dotito, Mundi, Mataga, Mutawatawa and Mpudzi dams.

Having completed the Pungwe Water Project which I commissioned a few weeks ago, focus is now on major water projects for Matabeleland in general and Bulawayo in particular.

Many roads were also either built or upgraded in the past 20 years. I also recognise the enormous strides done by our power utility, ZESA, in bringing electricity to many rural centres through its laudable rural electrification programme.

Agriculture

Another area which is a source of national pride is that of agriculture. I have already referred to infrastructure-related developments, as well as the vital area of skills development. These gains have a direct bearing on agriculture. Early on in our independence, we recognised agriculture as the engine of growth and deliberately directed resources towards its boost. The number of agriculture training institutions has risen from four to seven, and the coverage of extension work has greatly improved with the ratio of extension worker to farmers improving from one per 1,200 at independence to one per 800 currently.

This growth has shown by way of increased output in practically every crop yielding the current position of surplus which we enjoy, and which has made us chair the SADC region's food security portfolio.

Phenomenal growth has been registered in the crops of maize, cotton, tobacco and horticulture, as well as in beef production. All this in spite of the hard years of drought when we suffered serious setbacks in practically all sectors.

More needs to be done especially in the area of the economy where gains have been both lean and erratic. Growth has been marginal and unemployment has risen, accounting for current hardships. The resources available to sustain the high level of development we have achieved since Independence are diminishing. Some businesses are faced with closure although some, especially in the financial sector, are doing remarkably well. Interest rates are high, as is also inflation, making life quite difficult for many people, especially our workers.

Our export performance has been dismal, made worse by the depressed nature of prices of those commodities we trade in on the international market. Government is concerned about this negative turn in the economy, and hence its new Millennium Recovery Programme.

The vexed land issue

The issue of land remains both emotive and vexed. It has always been so and many will recall that negotiations for independence almost got bogged down over this matter. Between 1980 and 1995, we were able to resettle 71,000 families on about 3.3 million hectares excised from the commercial sector. This was a far cry from the 162,000 families we had hoped to settle on 8 million hectares of land.

We resumed land reforms under what we have termed the Second Phase, and to this day over 2,422 households have been resettled on 66 farms. The Second Phase of Land Reforms envisaged the excision of about 5 million hectares of land from the commercial sector, with a million hectares set to be delivered for resettlement every year. We had hoped that this would start with nearly a thousand farms we had designated for acquisition.

Sadly this was not to be as the commercial farmers contested the matter in the courts, forcing government to abandon the acquisition process.

The process of land delivery has been both slow and frustrating. Between 1980 and 1990, we were slowed down by the "willing-seller, willing-buyer" clause in the Lancaster House Constitution.

Equally, the resources which the British and American governments had pledged to make available at Lancaster House either stopped or were reduced to a trickle.

Even after removing the constitutional barriers, we were still faced with the issue of diminishing resources against ever rising prices. After 1997, we also had to content with the reluctance of the new Labour Government which did not want to honour commitments made by previous British governments on the land issue.

We also faced greater commercial farmer resistance whose manifestations included not just the legal challenges I have already referred to, but also resistance to the land clause we had introduced in the rejected draft constitution. Naturally, this created frustration leading to the current spate of farm occupations by the war veterans, and sporadic clashes in which two lives have regrettably been lost.

We can understand the frustrations of the war veterans just as we appreciate the pressures faced by the commercial farmers. Yesterday and today I have been meeting with the leadership of the farmers and the war veterans so we can reach some understanding. We should be able to find a way forward, but one that recognises the urgent need for land reforms. It is the last colonial question heavily qualifying our sovereignty. We are determined to resolve it once and for all...”

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