41 Years Ago in Zimbabwe

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Harare was the Sunshine City of Africa

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Many could not believe Harare was in Africa

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Citizens living in cities did not know anything about boreholes

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Citizens living in the cities did not have any idea of sewage sites

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Our Hospitals were the best in Africa and compare favourably to those in Europe & America

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
All cities had running clean water

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We did not have potholes

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We did not have load shedding

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had a well-established formal sector

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had the best urban commuter transport system in Africa

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We did not have kombis for public transport

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had CSC supplying the who country with quality economic beef

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had Dairy Marketing Board supplying the whole country with fresh milk

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We Grain Marketing Board supplying the whole country with maize and mealie meal

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had functional NRZ providing daily train service between Harare and Bulawayo and also Harare and Mutare

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had an efficient rural transport system dominated by enterprising black businessmen. These included Matambanadzo, Ngonidzaishe, Ruredzo, Nyamweda, BNC, Modern, Mucheche, Mverechena and many others.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had functional rural how established by missionaries with readily available ambulance services ferrying the sick for free.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had functional rural council clinics

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had organized private taxis operated by very disciplined staff, remember Rixi, A1 and Creamline

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Bulawayo's Belmont industries was the industrial hub of Zimbabwe with an advanced industrial infrastructure in second only to South Africa.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had an enterprising manufacturing sector with comprised of a vibrant textile industry

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had a medium size national airline which had 16 commercial planes plying both local and regional routes with efficiency.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had an established pension schemes which provided retiring citizens with deserving comfort upon reaching retirement age

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Teachers had dignity amongst the community and were role models for everyone.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
The Government gave doctors and nurses Respect and dignity they deserve by talking good care of them

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Education was a surety to a successful profession and a stable life

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We did not have inflation

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Zimbabwean had a strong currency with our Zimbabwean dollar being stronger than the US dollar with a stable exchange rate of 1 ZWD = 2 USD

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Everyone was assured of a well-paying job after school

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Everyone from all corners of the world wanted to be in our country. Our neighbours continued to come to work and live in our countries and those from the North also did the same.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had no fuel queues

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We had no bank queues

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
Everyone could eat bread for breakfast and everyone could eat beef everyday

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
We were not paying for tertiary education, be it nursing, teaching, apprenticeships, polytechnic or University, the state paid.

"41 YEAR’s ᴀɢᴏ"
There were no state sponsored abductions and disappearances.

"41 YEAR’S ᴀɢᴏ"
There were plenty of jobs in the cities, actually the industries were not just understaffed but  had surplus of vacancies. Everyone would be employed any day any time, it was just a matter of knocking on the company gate.

My fellow citizens, 41 years ago an elite greedy minority group took over an orderly functional country with an enterprising growing economy. These are hard ғᴀᴄᴛs ғᴏʀ ᴛᴏᴅᴀʏ's ʟɪғᴇ. 41yrs ago was 1980, all this taken away from us.

As forwarded by Beverley Mutandiro