TOUGH-talking Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial chairperson Jabulani Sibanda has called for unity in the country to ensure the economy grows and that civil servants are adequately remunerated and people’s lives improve.
Speaking to the Daily News on Sunday ahead of national independence celebrations set to be held in Bulawayo for the first time tomorrow, Sibanda said Uhuru Day was a time of self-introspection and focusing attention on rebuilding the country.
“We need to refurbish our hospitals and pay nurses and doctors and our teachers properly. The national resources are extracted from the ground for the welfare of our people.
“Our independence celebrations are a time for us to look into ourselves and see if we are doing things the right way and where we are lacking, we think together and think again.
“When it comes to the multiplicity of political parties in our country in a democratic situation, we don’t deny that democracy means multiplicity of political parties running for governance, but there are key things where we should not differ,” Sibanda said
“We should not differ that we are Zimbabweans, we should not oppose each other that the land ownership and appropriation of our land is the right for citizens of this country.
“We must not oppose each other when we say our natural resources belong to the citizens of this country,” he said.
The former water veterans leader called for the effective utilisation of the country’s natural resources for massive infrastructure development and to boost the welfare of citizens.
“We need roads, health infrastructure and transport systems so that it becomes easy for our people to reach hospitals that are furnished with medications.
“So, the question is are we properly utilising our natural resources? Are we not allowing foreigners to come and take our valuable minerals for nothing?”
“So a day like independence is when we go and look into ourselves. It’s time for us to look into ourselves and we sit together and agree to ourselves, whether you are in opposition or you are in support and that we don’t oppose each other on issues of our natural resources utilisation,” Sibanda said.
Meanwhile, Sibanda bemoaned the fact that while the country was celebrating independence, while across the border in neighbouring South Africa, Zimbabweans were being persecuted.
He took aim at South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa following the death of a Zimbabwean national, Elvis Nyathi who was last week burnt alive in Diepsloot following xenophobic attacks.
“We are receiving dead bodies from South Africa. Our people went there to look for work, they found it and some did not find it.
“For those people, we have people who do wrong as much as we have South Africans who do wrong. I am saying if they are doing everything wrong please arrest them and charge them accordingly,” he said.
“But I think it is unlawful and unfair for South Africans to wake up every morning and burn our people like grass. They must remember history, we are not sleeping, we are aware.
“Please send them home alive, don’t send ashes to us. It’s inhumane, it’s unholy, unthinkable for another black man to do worse than the slave masters did.
“That is unacceptable, I appeal to Ramaphosa, in my capacity as a war veteran who shared the barracks with Umkhonto WeSizwe fighting for the South African Republic to be what it is today. I say Ramaphosa, please remember that.” By Andile Tshuma and Jeffrey Muvundusi