President Emmerson Mnangagwa has described his first 100 days in office as a success though he acknowledged that much more needs to be done to revive the country’s ailing economy.
Writing on his Twitter account, Mnangagwa said although his government tried its best, a lot needed to be done in the country.
“As we approach 100 days, here are just some of the things we have done in the fight against corruption. There is much more work to do but we are on the right path,” wrote the President.
When he came into power after the fall of former President, Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa promised to address the countries problems within 100 days an initiative which he titled, ‘100 days of action’.
Mnangagwa cited a number of achievements which he credited to his government including declaration of assets by ministers and establishment of anti-corruption court in all provinces among other success stories.
“Declaration of assets for all ministers, three months amnesty to restore stolen funds followed by arrests and prosecution, dedicated anti-corruption courts in all provinces and clampdown on police roadblocks and deduction,” added Mnangagwa.
United Kingdom based Zanu PF member and The Herald columnist, Nick Mangwana praised Mangwana for setting a governance culture during his first 100 days in office.
“ED’s 100 days to set a new culture of governance. It defined a new way of doing things, a new democracy and new ethos. He established the tone for the new dispensation by cleansing the nation of politics of hate of yesteryear and all the other toxic diatribes that were the order of the day. Instead of focusing on political survival the new priority became service delivery,” said Mangwana in an article published in The Herald.
However, opposition parties have been rather skeptical of Mnangagwa’s first 100 days saying nothing has changed.
People’s Democratic Party leader and member of the MDC Alliance, Tendai Biti described Mnangagwa’s first 100 days in office as a disaster with nothing but missed opportunities.
“It’s been a disaster. There has been nothing. It’s been a period of missed opportunities. It’s been a period of lies; nothing but lies, zero performance!
“Hundred days is a lot of time. He could easily have aligned laws with the new constitution, come up with amendments to the Electoral Act, forced a commission of enquiry into diamonds (theft), laid out his own vision, come up with electoral reform, dealt with the issue of macroeconomic stability by simply saying we live within our means.
“…In a hundred days, we had abandoned the Zim-dollar, coupons that civil servants were using, reopened the stock exchange, launched STERP (Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme) which was a key macro stability factor,” said Biti in an interview with New Zimbabwe.
The first 100 days in action is an American concept that started in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt focused on his first 100 days in office in order to underscore the urgency of his mission to turn the nation around during the Great Depression.
The concept has since been adopted by other countries accross the world with the late MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai having used it when he assumed the office of the Prime Minister during the inclusive government in 2009.
