Staff Reporter
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Ministry yesterday joined the rest of the country in commemorating the Heroes and Defence Forces Day Anniversary, highlighting the land reform programme as one of the gains of the liberation struggle.
In a Press Statement yesterday, the Ministry said, “Our vision for a robust agriculture sector remains our thrust as we continue to enjoy the fruits of the liberation struggle for which so many Zimbabweans died for. As a Ministry, we celebrate the success of the Land Reform Programme. One of the major gains of the liberation struggle, and remain confident that Zimbabwe will regain its place as the breadbasket for Africa.
“We pay special tribute to our Defence Forces for safeguarding our sovereignty, our legacy, our independence, our democracy, our unity and our pride as we drive Zimbabwe to an upper middle class economy by 2030.”
Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday, Commander General Philip Valerio Sibanda said the 41st anniversary of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces was a milestone.
“What is happening today is we are celebrating 41 years of existence and ZDF is committed to transforming lives of ordinary people through assisting the Government confront emerging challenges such as COVID-19.
“Sometimes when people look at the military, they think it is there to fight wars and so on. We are actually mandated to do a lot of other things rather than fighting wars, one of them is to assist the civilians, Government Ministries among others,” he said.
He said the ZDF had been assisting the Ministry of Health and Child Care in fighting COVID-19.
“In fighting COVID-19, we have been assisting the Ministry of Health and Child Care from the very beginning when the pandemic hit our country. We have been helping the Ministry with manpower, we have deployed our manpower into various Government institutions,” he said.
Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said despite the challenges ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ZDF would continue to excel in its constitutional mandate of defending Zimbabwe’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interest.
