President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave his first State of the Nation Adress today at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC). Here are the highlights from his speech:
- Allow me to thank the Zimbabwe Defense Forces for their role in ensuring a peaceful transition.
- My government will operate on clear performance targets for each ministry in 100-day cycles, as we seek to bring relief in the shortest possible time.
- The government welcomes short to media term credit facilities to stabilize the economy in the short term.
- We are determined to remove any policy inconsistencies of the past, to make sure Zimbabwe is an attractive investment destination.
- We have made the growing of economy key priority, adds that government will provide timely updates and information to people on government programmes.
- The government will soon unveil a robust reengagement plan in our bid to rejoin the family of nations.
- The long queues before patients are attended to at our hospitals will be dealt with within the first 100 days.
- A network of local and foreign syndicates have been robbing Zim of revenue by smuggling gold out of the country. Government is going to work on our borders which are porous to stop smuggling.
- Zimbabwe will soon embark on a national branding exercise
- I appeal again to businesses to show restraint. High prices will only increase the attraction of imports, which will undermine efforts to revive the industry.
- The reforms I’m leading will need a skilled public bureaucracy and better run parastatals
- Corrupt parcelling of land to land barons and the building of houses in restricted areas must stop.Local authorities should go back to proper town planning. Building on illegal land and parcelling out land to land barons must stop. Authorities must transform themselves into economic hubs that make a difference in the lives of people.
- There is need to expedite the creation of the National Productivity Institute.
- Corruption remains the major source of some of the problems we face as a country.
- We are working on building the e-government programme to fight corruption.
- Every individual case of corruption should be investigated and dealt with. There will no sacred cows.
- The government will do everything in its power to ensure that the 2018 elections are credible, free and fair.
- The government is working on an ambitious water harvesting programme to ensure water security and irrigation.
- The government will privatize and commercialise state enterprises. A full program on this to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2018