The negative narrative that has been steadily building against the country, wrought by perfidious activities of some gluttonous people in the business sector as well as the relentless and now intensified pursuit of illegal regime change by the West and their naïve local allies in the form of the equally naïve CCC and the so-called civil society is a fresh but sure to fail attempt to mask the great strides that have been made by Government to revive our once ailing economy.

We have been down this road before where there is treacherous collusion by numerous forces both within and outside our borders to make the country fail, to make it a pariah State.

But the result has almost always produced one pattern of a Zimbabwe that stands tall, and emerges more resilient from whatever adversity.

We have seen this ending before where certain characters involved in these wretched acts of sabotaging the country’s economy have been heavily punished by the electorate.

And then, at the end of it all, Zimbabwe once again delivering to its people.

Yet the real story is never told to the discerning masses.

This is a tragedy.

There is always something clumsy about them, something that eventually lays bare the truth which is concealed in the ensuing aggression.

The reality, which is right before our eyes, is that the new dispensation has managed to extricate the economy from the doldrums.

It has managed to bring the economy back to its feet.

And this is something that even those who are opposed to the current Government grudgingly admit.

Even when they do so behind the scenes, their projections which they have been making under the cover of darkness will always find their way into the public domain.

And we ask questions.

Why is business painting a gloomy picture of the country’s economy to the public when behind closed doors they are admitting that the economy is on the mend and that they are responsible for the aberration that has rocked the same?

Why are they not telling the public that they have been complicit in the mess that has hit the market in recent times?

Why are they not telling the public that they have been abusing facilities availed to them by Government for their businesses to thrive?

Why are they starting a war they know they will never win?

Well, let no one cry foul when they reap the whirlwind as surely will.

Let us start with the latest survey by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Manufacturing Sector Survey Report which was unveiled in the capital on Wednesday last week. The survey brings to the fore certain hidden truths about the actual state of affairs in industry.

The survey notes that capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector rose to 56 percent in 2021, from 47 percent in 2020.

But because we are firmly in an election season, these realities must never be brought to the public.

They want a certain political party to enter into an election armed with an ailing economy which they hope will steer it to power.

We will see about that.

“About 37, 8 percent of the manufacturing sector undertook investments to increase their production capacity in 2021 and this resulted in additional capacity of 25, 6 percent,” said CZI chief economist Dr Cornelius Dube while unveiling the report.

About 57 percent of the manufacturing sector recorded an increase in sales.

CZI also revealed that the number of new jobs created in 2021 increased by 20 percent compared to 2020.

As of April 2022, capacity utilisation stood at 66 percent, with firms having invested US$147 million towards boosting capacity.

What is interesting is that the US$147 million came from the RBZ’s much maligned auction system.

Add to that, the massive infrastructural development across the country, the massive construction of hospitals, as well as the remarkable recovery in the agricultural sector, then you have an economy that is well and truly on the recovery path and is taking off.

Crucially, the tobacco sub-sector recorded a staggering 82 percent growth in output.

So who is fooling who here?

And as the anti-Zimbabwe narrative continues to typically falter, Government is coming up with new measures to boost the rural industrialisation thrust.

Under the new plan, Government will boost value addition through availing both funding and new technology to turn rural areas into industrial hubs.

“With the Land Reform Programme, agriculture has become a key sector for capital for most people and families,” wrote President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his weekly column for The Sunday Mail.

“And because of the many value chains emerging out from it, this is one sector holding many possibilities for numerous start-ups.

It is thus more than a mere source of raw materials; it is itself a site of significant capital formation, much of it investible.

There is thus a yawning gap in our agricultural ecosystem, a gap we now have to plug.

By rural industrialisation, we simply mean starting or launching industrial activity in rural areas, based on factor endowments in each rural space.

Those endowments become the definers and drivers of the industrial activity we envisage in any one area.”

While enemies of Zimbabwe continue to harp all they want, the reality which they have to contend with is that Zimbabwe is on the rise and the masses know better.

Let those with ears listen.

By Golden Guvamatanga

The Zimbabwe Patriot