By A Correspondent- Addressing delegates and mourners at the late former President Robert Mugabe’s funeral in Harare Saturday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Mugabe’s legacy is a springboard for economic development.

He said:

“As Zimbabwe, we shall ride on the education and high literacy levels bequeathed to us by our late great teacher and educator.

As a visionary, he understood the importance of solid education, as well as science and technology in the future world. As Africa, let us find our niche within the fast unfolding Fourth Industrial Revolution, leveraging in our youthful population, abundant, untapped natural resources and expansive combined market.

As Africa boldly operationalises the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), let us be emboldened by the ideas of the late Mugabe, who was one of the consistent champions of African unity, industrialisation, intra-Africa trade, as well as regional and continental integration.”

The late former president Robert Mugabe, died last week aged 95 in Singapore.

Mugabe, the man who ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for close to four decades and presided over its total economic collapse in 2008 died in a foreign land in a development which has been described by some as a reflection of his failed policies which also saw the collapse of the health care system in the country.

Despite inheriting a jewel at the dawn of independence, Mugabe’s policies saw the country’s economic standing plummet into chaos characterised by shortages of food and other essential commodities, as well as falling exports and soaring inflation.

In November 2008, Zimbabwe’s peak month of inflation was estimated at 79.6 billion percent month-on-month and 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year.