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Vice President, Hon. Gen. (Rtd.) Dr. C. G. D. N. Chiwenga;
Vice President, Hon. Col. (Rtd.) Cde K. C. D. Mohadi;
Our National Chairman, and Minister of Defence, Hon. O. C. Z. Muchinguri-Kashiri;
Honourable Ministers, Returning and Newly-Appointed;
Attorney-General, Honourable P. Machaya;
Chief Secretary, Dr. M. J. M. Sibanda, and the Secretariat Team.
It is my singular honour to welcome you all to this First Cabinet Meeting following our Party’s resounding victory in the Harmonised General Elections held on 23 and 24 August 2023.
I thank you for your individual and collective hard work towards the historic victory which earned us yet another mandate to serve our great motherland, Zimbabwe.
The task before us is to turn our energies towards the accelerated development of our country. We should never be distracted from our course to be a prosperous and empowered upper middle income society by 2030.
Today, we are convening as Cabinet, a day after my return from the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which was a resounding success. I had the honour to tell the World of our country’s success story in spite of the continued illegal sanctions imposed on us. The bi-lateral meetings and engagements on the sidelines where extremely fruitful and will contribute to advancing our country’s development agenda.
I welcome new members of Cabinet whose appointment has been on the basis of merit and potential to contribute to the accelerated development of our country. I equally congratulate and warmly welcome members retained from the last Cabinet.
As the Executive arm of Government, our policies, programmes and projects should remain people-centred for an improved quality of life for all our people. Production and productivity across all sectors must be accelerated. All projects and programmes embarked on during the First Term of the Second Republic should be completed speedily. This calls for hard work and focus from all of you.
We must draw lessons from the gaps identified in the Mid-Term Review of the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) to ensure the optimal utilisation of resources.
Cabinet remains seized with consolidating food security at both household and national levels. Although weather forecasts point to El-Nino, we remain hopeful that our country will receive good rainfall to give further impetus to the growth of agriculture and the agro-industrial sector. In view of climate change, our people should be encouraged to practice climate-proofed and smart agriculture according to ecological regions. Agriculture export markets must be pursued more vigorously.
Further, we must scale up the provision of accessible and affordable social services for our people, in particular those in rural areas who bore the brunt of the arduous 16 year war of liberation.
Successes have been scored to reduce the infrastructure deficit throughout the country. The regularisation of informal settlements should be given urgent priority. Our ongoing Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme will be scaled up ahead of the rainfall season.
As much as possible, the use of local, human, financial and material resources in project implementation must be the norm. Leveraging on our abundant natural resource and human capital base as well as the Science, Technology and Innovation revolution, we must leap frog the modernisation and industrialisation of our country.
Riding on the success of the US$12 billion mining industry target, which we have already achieved, our mining sector must continue to be a source of employment, foreign currency earnings, technology and skills transfer as well as the overall development of our respective communities.
Further, as Ministers, you are required to ensure that your Ministries facilitate the ease of doing business in line with our private sector led development strategy and quest to make Zimbabwe an investment and tourism destination of choice.
It is imperative that we continue to refine and perfect our procurement system in order to promote value for money in all Government programmes and projects. Transparency and accountability must remain the hallmark of this Administration.
Challenges encountered and lessons learnt from the first five years of the Second Republic should be reference points for all of us. A compendium containing summaries of successes and challenges for each Ministry will be availed by the Chief Secretary, for ease of reference. Monitoring and evaluating the progress across all activities will continue to be supported by the e-enabled Whole-of-Government Performance Management System. Periodic and informative data, derived from the process, along with the Performance Based Contract System and Performance Based Budgeting must guide our decision making processes.
Henceforth, it is critical for Cabinet members to be responsive and robustly track and facilitate the implementation of the policies and programmes that quicken the attainment of set goals. My Office remains open for any guidance and support.
The recently gazetted Statutory Instrument No. 156/2023 on the Mutapa Investment Fund has far reaching implications to our State Owned Enterprises as well as the state of our economy as a whole. I expect Cabinet to play its part in line with the overall vision of this new development.
Let me remind you of the importance of exhaustive consultations at the appropriate fora, before presentations are brought to Cabinet. Meanwhile, all members remain guided by the relevant circular on foreign travel. In this regard, no Minister and Permanent Secretary can both be out of the country at the same time, as this has negative implications on service delivery and general Government business. Further, travel outside the country will be strictly limited to those programmes which are of strategic importance and contribute to our country’s national priorities.
I trust that the induction sessions organised by the Chief Secretary will be informative, particularly with regards interactions with one another; as well as with your respective Permanent Secretaries and personnel in your Ministries, Departments and Agencies. It is my expectation that the role of Deputy Ministers will correctly be understood as complementing your own in order to derive maximum benefit from their skill sets so that Government and our people as a whole benefit. The relevant circular on the functions of Deputy Ministers will be availed for the benefit of all members concerned.
In conclusion, I once again congratulate you all for this opportunity to serve the people of our country in your respective Ministerial portfolios. I wish you all great success and urge you to work in unity rather than seek individual glory. Patriotism, loyalty, integrity, hard-honest work and focus are indispensable in this important national duty.
We remain guided by our national development philosophy “Nyika inovakwa, igotongwa, igonamatirwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe lakhiwa, libuswe, likhulekelwe ngabanikazi balo” Let us now turn to the agenda of this Meeting, beginning with the Minutes of the last Meeting.
I thank you. @InfoMinZW
