THE 44th Sadc Summit of Heads of State and Government gets underway tomorrow.
It has been a hectic month for Zimbabwe as it embarked on a beautification drive ahead of the meeting which is being held in Zimbabwe for the third time since 1980.
The President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration has been burning midnight oil to present to the region a different Zimbabwe from the one projected by “hostile media”.
The summit will be a crowning moment for Mnangagwa as he takes over the rotational chairmanship of the regional bloc, a turnaround for a man who, seven years ago, was on the ropes due to Zanu PF brutal succession wars.
He prevailled some months later, thanks to a military-backed transition which installed him in power after being sacked from government and party. Mnangagwa won two elections which opposition claim were rigged, a charge he denies.
This summit is an edition with a difference as citizens are “cursing” the day Zimbabwe was chosen to host the 44th edition of Sadc Heads of State and Government as they have been forced to change their daily routines.
Vendors have been driven off the central business districts as there is a heavy police and army presence in towns and in some residential areas, especially in Harare, as government moves to thwart potential demonstrations ahead of the summit.
Over 100 activists are in detention, including four who were dragged from a Victoria Falls-bound plane at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
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A senior government official wrote on his X account that the arrested activists would be released after the visitors have gone, meaning after the Sadc summit.
Besides government and top Zanu PF officials, the summit has received a lukewarm reception from citizens.
Under normal circumstances by the time the meeting starts, vendors would have made a killing selling wares related to the Sadc summit.
They did not get an opportunity this time around as authorities appear to be on a drive to remove all vendors from the central business districts, notwithstanding that they have valid licences.
There is life after the Sadc summit. Over half of the population requires food aid after an El Nino-induced drought. This has forced Mnangagwa to declare the drought a state of national disaster to marshal resources to feed the hungry.
The distribution of food aid must be supervised to avoid disadvantaging citizens along party lines, although Mnangagwa has declared that no one will die of hunger.
We also need to sharpen our arrows in the fight against corruption which has become a heavy burden on taxpayers.
The tough economic environment despite the introduction of a stable currency, the Zimbabwe Gold, needs urgent attention.
The US$21 billion public debt needs to be expunged to give Zimbabwe a fresh start to access cheap lines of credit to reboot the economy. As the country’s arrears clearance and debt resolution champion Akinwumi Adesina said, Zimbabwe cannot run up a steep hill of economic recovery carrying a heavy backpack of debt on its back.
