Mugabe says economy will grow "in leaps and bounds" - not whilst ZimAsset begging bowl remains empty!

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has said he believes the economy will grow in leaps and bounds under the ZimAsset despite Western sanctions.

The reality is for the last nine months, since Mugabe rigged the July 2013 elections, the Zimbabwe economy has shrunk by leaps and bounds. And the ZimAsset begging bowl Mugabe is so sure about is completely empty, not even his Chinese friends have dropped a single Yuan (1.00 Chinese Yuan= US$ 0.16)!

"We do not need to crumble under sanctions. We want to show the world that Zimbabwe will not be defeated by sanctions," Mugabe said during the opening of the Zimbabwe Trade Fair in Bulawayo.

It is not the sanctions that is forcing Zimbabwe crumble, it never was. It is the 34 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and in the last 10 years a new killer has been added on; an all-out looting spree. The chickens have come home to roost.

"The government will work within its means to improve the situation by mobilising affordable long-term funds for the industry," said Mugabe.

It is all very well for him to ask businesses to be proactive and embrace the ZimAsset economic blueprint in public; he knows as well as everyone that no one has contributed a single dollar to the $27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl.

Chinamasa had budgeted getting a significant amount of the $6 billion Zimbabweans in the diaspora are sending back home every year. Instead of helping their families the regime expected Zimbabweans in the diaspora to buy government bonds.

“Do not talk to me about that nauseating nonsense,” was the reply I got from one Zimbabwean in the diaspora when I asked him if he had bought any Zimbabwe government bonds. “Mugabe called us “bum cleaners” and denied us a vote and now he wants to fleece me into wasting my hard earned cash buying absolutely worthless junk bonds. Let us not even go there!”

So the $27 billion ZimAsset has remaining mockingly empty nine months after Mugabe started his new term following the rigged 2013 elections. Both Mugabe and Chinamasa have exhausted all the possible sources they could get the money.

To get the much needed donors and foreign investors back in the country, Zimbabwe must first convince the very skeptical world that it a law abiding nation after decades of lawlessness and chaos.

has to restore the lost confidence that Before Zimbabwe can get an donors and investor back As the, rightly pointed out, Zimbabwe's economic recovery is dependent on the country restoring the confidence to would be funders of ZimAsset and the foreign investors  " that the country will honour property and intellectual rights!".

“The essential basis for a growing economy is confidence,” USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton told business delegates at the Fair. “Confidence that government policies will be predictable and implemented consistently; confidence that private property and intellectual property will be protected; confidence that courts will treat all people fairly in accordance with the law."  

Restoring confidence in the rule of law; that is a bridge too far for this Zanu PF regime! How can a regime that has just callously committed high treason by rigging the elections be trusted to up hold lesser laws safe guarding property rights? Particularly, when the regime has already passed onto the statute book indigenisation laws threatening those very rights and in the last 15 years has been violently seizing property from its owners with shocking indifference and disregard to law and natural justice.  

Mugabe cannot restore business confidence and therefore will never get a penny into the ZimAsset begging bowl or get any investors back into the country. Without the much needed external help the Zimbabwe economy has no chance of any recovery. Indeed the nine months since the rigged elections have seen even more companies close throwing even more workers out of work.

Unemployment is already seating at 85% plus. There is a limit to the number of people who can earn a living in the informal sector, kiya kiya; and already Zimbabwe has one of the highest informal to form sector ratios. The kiya kiya is dependent on those in the formal sector for business; beside kiya kiya people do no pay taxes or rates.

The Zimbabwe economy has been shrinking at an alarming rate these last nine months and is heading for a catastrophic crash. There is no shred of evidence it is going to grow by leaps and bounds, as Mugabe claims. Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections but unless he can rig business confidence or donors who will fill the ZimAsset begging bowl the Zimbabwe economy is set to continue to shrink in leaps and bounds.

South Korea's Prime Minister, Chung Hong-won, has resigned over the 16 April 2014 Ferry disaster in that country.  "I offer my apology for having been unable to prevent this accident from happening and unable to properly respond to it afterwards," he said. "I believed I, as the prime minister, certainly had to take responsibility and resign."

Of course Mugabe is responsible for Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess but will never ever admit responsibility much less apologize. Resigning is simply unthinkable; it is not in the DNA of a tyrant to ever give up power. He will have to be forced out of office, in a coffin as has been the case with many other dictators.

Zimbabwe is facing a grim choice to seat and wait for the economic crash to run its full course and hope that Mugabe will finally admit he failed and resign. It must be noted the economic melt-down is already causing hear breaking suffering and hardships and hundreds of lives are being lost unnecessarily every day and with each passing day things are getting worse. The economic recovery will be that much harder the longer the economic rot is allowed to continue.

Since it is not in the nature of any tyrannical regime to resign, the economic rot could rich a tipping point resulting in nationwide rioting blood shed or worse still resulting in a bloody civil war.

The alternative is to pressure this Mugabe regime to resign now without further ado.

The fundamental reality is that this Mugabe regime rigged the elections and is per se illegitimate. The regime cannot guarantee the rule of law required to restore business confidence because it is itself illegitimate. The only way forward is for the regime to resign so the nation can implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections. The government that will emerge will have the people’s mandate to govern and the support and confidence of the international community.

The economic crash will crash Mugabe and his Zanu PF dictatorship and the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans too or pressure Mugabe to resign now before the catastrophic economic crash. Allowing this Mugabe regime to rule till 2018 is not an option, the economic crash will have happened long before that.