TODAY is a new year. It is meant to be a new beginning which heralds a new era.
The 2023 rollercoaster year is behind us and we have the whole of 2024 to swim or sink.
According to American author Melody Beattie, the new year stands before us, like a chapter of a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.
However, it is the calendar that has changed as the challenges of 2023 will spill into the new year.
It is clear power cuts will be with us in this new year.
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which manages the waters of the Zambezi River and the Kariba Dam complex, gave us a glimpse of what the new year will look like, after cutting water allocation at Kariba to 16 billion cubic metres (BCM) for power generation due to low water levels at one of the region's largest man-made lakes.
The water will be shared equally by the Zimbabwe Power Company and Zambian power utility, Zesco Limited. Last year, ZRA allocated the two utilities 22,5BCM for power generation.
We enter another year with our local currency being pushed out of circulation.
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- Kariba dam in recession
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The real “market” has spoken with over 80% of the transactions now being carried out in United States dollars. Authorities have extended the use of the dual currency regime to 2030 as they work on a de-dollarisation drive.
Some retailers are selling 70% of their stocks strictly in United States dollars.
However, one can still buy in local currency, but the price will have a 50% premium above the official exchange rate.
It will be another topsy-turvy new year largely due to an El Nino-induced drought and our failure to plan in time.
Government has said it has enough grain to last for 10 months and has begun to import.
Citizens would not want to put all their eggs in one basket by putting their trust in the government which believes the economy is turning around when indicators are showing the opposite.
A silver lining came last week after the heavens opened its taps, giving hope that something could be salvaged out of an already condemned 2023/24 agricultural season.
For us, 2023 had its challenges but we soldiered on.
We are eternally grateful to our partners — advertisers and readers — for staying with us in 2023. We do not take that support for granted.
The feedback we got from our partners is one of the blocks we will use to refine the publication this year.
As we usher out 2023, we are alive to the support from our partners and the criticism which we will use to nourish your favourite publication.
We also pledge to stay the course and make NewsDay a marketplace of ideas in line with our payoff line “Everyday news for everyday people.”
It is a pledge we made when the first issue hit the streets in 2010. We restate that pledge to continue shining the light on excesses by the government and being the newspaper for everyone.
Happy New Year Zimbabwe.
