When he stepped into Bulawayo, Kenyan President William Ruto was struck by the unmistakable energy of a country going places.
In his words, Zimbabwe is opening a new chapter, ably led by President Mnangagwa, positioning itself as one of Africa's success stories even against adversity.
He noted that the country's agriculture sector has gone through a revolution, repositioning Zimbabwe as a bread basket of Africa, as President Mnangagwa has made it his mission to ensure there is both food security and sovereignty, through massive investment in the critical sector.
The Government has invested heavily in the provision of access to inputs, technology and markets, climate-proofing agriculture through the construction of dams and setting up irrigation facilities.
There is a method to that thrust, according to the Zimbabwe 2022 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Report 61.4 percent of the country's populace lives in rural areas.
Although contributing only 11-14 percent to the GDP, the sector employs 70 percent of the population and about 60 percent of all raw materials for industry, thus remaining the backbone of the country's economy.
President Ruto also noted the massive infrastructure development projects that are taking place in every part of the country, even as Zimbabwe does so with no access to international lines of credit, with the albatross of illegal economic sanctions, climate change and geopolitical shifts.
Further, he observed that the infrastructural development has enhanced Zimbabwe's transport, energy and ICT sectors, bolstering domestic and regional connectivity, increasing productivity, promoting trade and attracting investment.
Harnessing its abundant natural resources, which range from renewable energy potential, including hydro, wind and geothermal, as well as arable land and carbon sinks, to substantial reserves of coal, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, limestone, lithium, nickel, phosphate, platinum, silver, tantalum, tin, tungsten and zinc, Zimbabwe has seen a scramble for its mineral wealth, with President Mnangagwa underscoring the primacy of communities from which the minerals are extracted.
But behind all that, and within the complexities of governance, there is a driving team, of course, led by President Mnangagwa, which is the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and whose role is to lead the entire Government machinery in the formulation, advocacy, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and implementation of policies, programmes, and projects for quality service delivery and socio-economic development.
When he came into office in 2018, President Mnangagwa declared that he is a servant leader and that everything that will be done by his team will be for the benefit of the people.
"My Government will not stand by and watch people suffer due to dereliction of duty, corruption, or incompetence, I am a servant leader, a listening leader, if you see these people (public Office holders) not doing what they should do, tell me because the power they enjoy comes from you. You are the power and these people are the products of your power. If a product disregards the source of power, that product must be thrown away. This is the new approach of the new dispensation," the President said.
To make that a reality, now there is a feedback mechanism where people can make suggestions or contributions to help formulate policy, and the people express themselves on how they want to be governed through elections, needless to say, President Mnangagwa and his party Zanu PF have been given the mandate to lead Zimbabwe into a new dawn.
Putting the feedback aspect into practice, at the OPC stand at the just-ended 64th Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), there was a comment section where people could make contributions and have their voices heard, because, as President Mnangagwa said, the people are the ultimate masters.
According to the Government website, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) is the lead Office in the Government of Zimbabwe. It comprises President Mnangagwa, Honourable Vice Presidents, Cabinet and Ministers of State.
"The Office exists to service the President in leading the State and Government and executing his constitutional responsibilities and duties, as articulated in Section 89 and 90 of the Constitution". At ZITF, the OPC occupied a strategic stand and opened itself to public scrutiny, taking people around how the gigantic Government architecture works.
Giving one aspect of the OPC, the official said, "Welcome to the Cabinet process, the first thing is to know that in terms of problems, there is the environment in which the ministry operates."
He said Cabinet operates within an environment, and an environment with expectations, players both major and minor.
"And the environment is such that we have the ruling party. Already the ruling party has its manifesto, and it wants those policies to find expression in the ministry. That is number one. Number two, the President himself can come up with the policy, and he can make some policy pronouncements. You know that during the opening of Parliament, sometimes the President articulates a programme. Now the ministry takes a cue from him," he said.
After taking a cue from the President when he lays down the legislative agenda, a particular ministry, immediately puts that into the form of a memorandum. Now that memorandum is taken to the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet for it to be included on the Cabinet agenda. If the Chief Secretary is happy, he will forward it to the President.
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If the President thinks it is very important, he will immediately put it on the agenda. If he thinks there is a need for further consultation, he sends it to a Cabinet committee.
"We have two levels of Cabinet committees, we have a committee of officials and a committee of Permanent Secretaries".
The committee of officials begins deliberations on the matter and escalates issues to a committee of ministers. And once that is done, it then proceeds back to Cabinet. And when the Cabinet deliberates over the issue, the issue can be rejected or accepted.
If it is approved, then it is now publicised via the post-Cabinet briefing. And also a ministry is informed that your policies have been approved. Immediately the ministry starts implementing the policy.
In the case of a Bill, the process is a bit different, Ministries normally come up with what are known as principles of a Bill. They then forward these to a committee on legislation. Once that is done, there is legal drafting which is done by the Attorney General.
From there it goes back to Cabinet, and if it is approved, the Ministry of Justice forwards that Bill to Parliament. There are many aspects to the OPC, but whenever you see a new road being constructed, power stations going up, or people getting food aid, all that starts in the OPC, is the governance clock that never stops.
