“It
is critical that Zimbabweans manage the
current challenges facing the country without
destroying hope,” said Dr Lovemore
Mbigi, South African based business lecturer
and consultant.
“No one can create hope for us, we
need to create it for ourselves and the
critical challenge is how we take our institutions,
families and communities beyond the horizon,”
added Dr Mbigi during a lecture on “The
challenge of economic liberation and development
in Zimbabwe”.
Addressing business people and professionals
from Bulawayo in a wealth creation seminar,
organised by the |
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Matabeleland Chamber of Industries (MCI) in conjunction
with the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce
(ZNCC), Dr Mbigi challenged Zimbabweans to desist
from blaming each other for the current economic
crisis, and stop expecting the government to solve
the problems for them as everyone had a contribution
to make in the liberation of our economy.
“We need to work through our problems.
Our situation today is an opportunity to create
a new reality and we need to stop blaming each
other”.
He criticised local business people for not showing
enough commitment in ensuring better economic
fortunes of the country and their workers. He
highlighted this in the lack of justification
for the huge salaries that executives continued
to enjoy yet the ordinary shop floor workers who
needed money the most were made to get by on mediocre
salaries.
“Without a shared agenda or social contract
there will be no progress. We need to abandon
unrealistic expectations especially that of expecting
the government to solve our problems.”
Mbigi said it was the time for Zimbabweans to
invest much into research and development as a
means of generating information and knowledge
systems that will enable Zimbabweans to take control
and exploit their wealth.
In his presentation, Mbigi emphasised the need
for Zimbabweans to reconnect to their cultural
roots and focus on entrepreneurship as a key fundamental
in economic liberation.
“The winners of the 21st century are not
those who mimic western capitalism, but those
with their own ethnic brand of capitalism,”
he urged, advocating for the reconsidering and
repositioning of the African extended family as
launchpad for an economic renaissance.
Speaking at
the same function, Black-American entrepreneur,
engineer and international speaker and author,
Dr Robert Wallace, reiterated the value
of entrepreneurship in wealth creation.
“When we fail to
take ownership of our economic destiny,
we end up unable to fly,” he stressed.
“The only way to
have economic power is entrepreneurship,”
and for Africans, “the twining between
African and American business people,”
he said.
Dr Wallace underlined the
importance of attitudinal change as a key
element necessary in the economic liberation
of the country.
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