Roundup: Mugabe makes speech as Zimbabwe marks 36th independence anniversary

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Monday attended a ceremony to commemorate the nation's 36 independence anniversary with a rallying call for Zimbabweans to unite and shun corruption.

"One of the greatest tributes we can pay to Zimbabwe is to shun corruption, shun regionalism and avoid nepotism. Together we can transform our country and improve our welfare," Mugabe said in a speech to thousands of Zimbabweans gathered in the national sports stadium to commemorate the national event.

Events to mark the independence anniversary were also held in the country's ten provinces where the provincial leadership read Mugabe's speech.

In his speech, Mugabe lamented the El-Nino induced drought which had severely affected food production, but he indicated that the government was stepping up grain imports to avoid starvation among the people.

Estimates by the government and aid agencies indicate that as many as four million people, which is a quarter of the country's rural population, will require food aid this year owing to the drought, which has also reduced tobacco leaf output by 15 percent and killed more than 20,000 cattle.

Mugabe said despite the harsh economic environment, performance in the manufacturing sector was improving with several companies having been resuscitated and new ones formed.

"The resuscitation, formation and expansion of these and other companies has greatly assisted us in preserving employment, creating new jobs, saving foreign currency, enhancing fiscal space and increasing production," Mugabe said.

He commended the work that had been done by the government in rehabilitating road networks including the upgrading and rehabilitation of the Harare International Airport road and the 828 km Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway.

He said the government had secured a financier and contractor to upgrade and dualize the 932 km Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway, which is part of the country's North-South Corridor and one of the major arterial links in the regional road network in southern Africa.

However, Mugabe did not name the financier and contractor of the highway, which has outlived its lifespan and requires urgent overhaul.

The president also acknowledged the significant improvement in the power situation in the country and attributed this to improved internal generation capacity augmented by imports from the region.

He, however, urged the nation to embrace renewable forms of energy and urged residents to install solar water heaters instead of electric geysers to conserve energy.

The president also apologized to the civil servants and pensioners for late payment of their salaries, monthly pay outs and bonuses.

"It is the desire of government that salaries for civil servants must match the poverty datum line. The government apologizes for late disbursement of salaries, bonuses and monthly payments to pensioners," Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe's cash-squeezed government has failed to pay its workers and pensioners their salaries, bonuses and monthly pay outs on time for over a year now due to limited funding.

The salaries of civil servants, the bulk of whom are teachers, have also been pegged below the 500 U.S. dollars poverty datum line since the country adopted multiple currencies in 2009. Endit