“People of Zimbabwe deserve a new day” wrote Eddie Cross in Bulawayo 24.
Mr Cross was writing about Zimbabwe’s economic chaos, the country has already claimed the position of being the poorest nation in Africa but, not content with that is sinking even deeper into new depths of economic depravity.
3/4 of the population is already living on US$30 or less per month in a country whose poverty datum line is US$650 per month. And on Wednesday 20 February 2019 Dr John Mangudya, the Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, announced in the new Monetary Policy Statement that government would abandon the fixed 1:1 exchange of the quasi-local currency to the USD. The black market exchange rate is 4:1.
Those with the economic muscle will benefit from the devaluation whilst those with no economic muscle will suffer. The worker will not get a wage increase to compensate for the devaluation and there will be worse to come. The 3/4 already living on US$30 or less per month will be living on even less now!
If one only considered how much the people of Zimbabwe have suffered these last 38 years then, yes, they deserve a new day! Sadly, the future is grime. Zimbabwe is set to sink even deeper into economic chaos and political paralysis.
To deserve a new day one has to answer one question and one question only: what have you done to deserve a better tomorrow. How much one has suffered may spur you to do something to end one’s suffering; still, it is what you have done that counts and not how much you have suffered.
The people of Zimbabwe have done precious little to deserve a new day and so they will not get one!
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect people like Eddie Cross into power on the understanding he and his MDC friends would bring about the democratic changes and the new day the nation has been dying for! Eddie Cross and company have blundered from pillar to post for the last 19 years they have occupied centre stage and they are still blundering.
“Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has been following a carefully crafted reform programme to restore fiscal and monetary stability within the framework of sound macro-economic conditions,” wrote Eddie Cross.
“When he first came into office, I warned him that when he walked into his office, that a bucket full of nasty stuff would fall on his head. It was no understatement. He found that the RBZ was in a complete mess, the government was spending 40% more than they were collecting and all macroeconomic indicators were so far out of kilter that the state was in crisis. He took immediate steps to stop the bleeding — raising taxes and imposing strict budgetary discipline on all ministries and parastatals.”
If Professor Mthuli Ncube followed such “a carefully crafted reform programme” then why is the economy latching from one economic crisis to the next! His foolish argument that the greater the austerity painful and greater the prosperity is as nonsensical as argument that because the albatross can fly for ten months or more without landing it can fly to the moon. When the bird is a mere 8.8 km, the height of Mount Everest, it will struggle to breathe as the air only 1/3 its density at sea level. Introducing austerity measure without first getting the fundamentals right is plain foolish.
Zimbabwe’s economy will never ever recover whilst corruption remains rampant, for example. In 2016 then President Robert Mugabe admitted the country was being “swindled out $15 billion in diamond revenue”. He never arrested one swindler nor has his successor, Mnangagwa. We all know the looting is still taking place.
Eddie Cross knows the seriousness of the wholesale looting in Zimbabwe because he raised the matter on numerous occasion during his days as MDC MP. Raising it was one thing but making sure the corrupt stopped was a bridge too far!
So when Minister Ncube was appointed last year Mr Cross advised the minister to introduce the 2% electronic transaction tax , targeting the poorest of the poor who were not paying income tax, “to restore fiscal and monetary stability and stop the bleeding”. There is serious doubts it increased government revenue because economic activity dropped 16% in response to the new tax. the a bird can fly from point A to B it should be able to fly to the moon! If he was serious about stopping the economic bleeding then why did he fail to advise Minister Ncube to stop the looting?
Worst of all, Mr Cross was cheering and applauding Ncube’s austerity programme knowing that without dealing with such basics as ending corrupt economic recovery would be as futile as the albatross flying to the moon!
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess with unemployment a nauseating 90%, basic services such as supply of clean running water and health care all but collapsed, etc. because the nation has had the great misfortune of have corrupt, incompetent and utter useless leaders from both sides of the political divide. Eddie Cross advising Professor Mthuli Ncube is like listening to Lewis Carrol characters Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Zanu PF has imposed a political system on the nation that has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition. Politics has become the exclusive domain of thugs who believe public office is their ticket to get filthy rich at public expense. The long cherish value of holding public office for the good of the commonwealth has long been forgotten.
If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about bring about a better Zimbabwe then we must earn it to deserve it. To earn it, we must demand that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies must step down; they rigged last July’s elections they and right now they are an illegitimate regime.
As for Chamisa and his fellow opposition opportunists, they must step aside. The last elections were so flawed and illegal it is nonsensical such a process can produce a legitimate outcome. Indeed, if anyone of these opposition leaders had valued free, fair and credible elections then they would have never participated in an election in which something as basic as a verified voters’ roll was missing.
The proposed inter party dialogue will never deliver free, fair and credible elections. Both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance failed to implement even one reform during the last GNU, it is naive to believe they will do so now!
Zimbabwe needs the political space and time to dismantle the corrupt, violent and dysfunctional autocratic political system we have now and replace it with a democratic one that allows free debate and democratic competition.
A free, just, prosperous Zimbabwe where all enjoy their freedoms and basic human rights is within our reach in our life time but we must earn it. We have suffered greatly and many Zimbabweans are paying the ultimate price, they are dying unnecessarily, because they cannot afford bare essentials of life, food, medicine, etc.
How much we have suffered and how many lives lost will not bring a better Zimbabwe, it is only what you have done to help bring about change that counts. Are you tired of hearing Tweedledee and Tweedledum arguing endless about trivial matters whilst the country sinks deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth? Well do something about it by demand meaningful democratic change now.
4 comments:
Chamisa was stopped in his tracks when he tried to influence the Party's National Council to pass a resolution that would see him side step an Extra-Ordinary Congress. This bold move to shake Chamisa back to reality has shown that Chamisa is fast losing grip of the MDC. Chamisa was reminded that the Constitution stipulates that a Congress be held within 12months of the passing of a sitting President. It is because Chamisa now faces serious legitimate issues such that his rhetoric about ED's legitimacy becomes ironical. Considering that Morgan Tsvangirai passed away on 14 February 2017 it then follows that a Congress be held anytime from now and not in October as has been touted by Chamisa
Kutungana kwambudzi! Did Tsvangirai respect the constitution when he changed it to extend his own stay in power beyond the maximum two terms?
MDC leaders have alredy shown that they are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless! MDC has failed to implement even one reform in five years in the last GNU because they had sold out. The only reason these idiots are still on the political stage is because MDC followers are sheep who follow blindly.
It was Tendai Biti, when he was Minister of Finance in the GNU government, who once said there are two parallel governments in Zimbabwe. There is the formal government headed by the president, cabinet, parliament , judiciary, etc., etc. Then there is the Joint Operation Command (JOC), shadowy Mafia type junta, composed of the top brass in the security services headed, at the time of Tendai Biti, by Robert Mugabe assisted by Mnangagwa.
JOC’s primary function was to ensure Zanu PF had a firm grip on power it commandeered all the human and material resources it required to ensure to delivered on its mandate without failure. The junta made all the key decision and the subservient formal government structure implemented them, no questions asked.
Tendai Biti complained that JOC had its own source of funds, to supplement the resources allocated by the Minister of Finance in the formal way. Biti was right, JOC controlled the wholesale looting of diamonds in Marange and Chidzwa. The junta has always controlled the country’s hugely profitable black market. They would get the USD from the RBZ at the official exchange rate and sell it on the black market with the disparity between the exchange rate could be a hundred thousand fold or more!
JOC members and their associates have become incredible rich and powerful at the expense of the ordinary people who have become miserably poor and totally helpless. All attempts by successive Ministers of Finance to revive Zimbabwe’s crumpling economy have failed because they have confined their activities to those areas under the formal government only. They pretended not to know the junta and its activities hence the reason why Minister Ncube’s “crafted reform programmes” say nothing about the looting of Marange diamonds, has not raised a single dollar in taxing the filthy rich, etc.
It is nonsensical that the poorest of the poor are being squeezed for a few more dollar with this 2% electronic transaction tax so the money can be used to bankroll the filthy rich’s extravagant life styles. Only a first class moron would ever justify paying US$74 000 per hour for the hired 787-8 Dreamliner jet for a ten day jaunt using money paid by those living on US$ 30 per month!
When Mnangagwa finally got into power, after 37 years of being strung along by the cunning Robert Mugabe, he was cocky and arrogant. He never doubted for a minute that he would have Zimbabwe's economy back on track. He was confident his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" call would open the flood gates of investors. No investors came and the worsening economic meltdown has been a wake-up call for him.
A year ago who who have believed that the arrogant Zanu PF thugs would ever admit they have failed much less reach out to the opposition for help.
"We (Zanu PF) are saying, we have a Government in place, led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa there are areas which require improvement from a socio-political and economic perspective let us discuss those issues with full recognition that there is a President who was elected by the people of Zimbabwe," explained Paul Mangwana, the party’s secretary for legal affairs.
The very fact that Zanu PF is turning to the corrupt and incompetent opposition is a a sign the party has itself run-out of ideas and is so desperate for solutions it is turning to people it should know are equally clueless.
The real solution is for the party to step down to allow the nation to elect competent leaders. Indeed Zanu PF is having these talks with the opposition primarily because the party knows that the most the opposition will ask of Mnangagwa is to share power. They will be just as happy and content with that and never demand the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
Mark my words, Mnangagwa will be forced to revisit stepping down because the economic meltdown will continue to get worse until the nation cures itself of the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.
This Zanu PF regime rigged last July's elections making it illegitimate and making Zimbabwe a pariah state. Including Chamisa and one or two of his MDC friends in the regime will NOT change the country's status, we will still be a pariah state! Zanu PF is just wasting the nation's time and resources on these inter-party dialogue!
Professor Ncube keeps up the pretence that Zimbabwe is on the path of economic recovery and is set for the "Upper Middle Income by 2030" and yet everything on the grounds points to an economy that continues to sink like a stone!
If Zimbabwe is now "cash positive" then why are people still queuing for cash at the bank?
Why are we still experiencing serious foreign currency shortages which are the root causes of the fuel, medicine, wheat and all the other commodity shortages?
Professor Ncube wants us to believe that Zimbabwe can remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs and still achieve meaningful economic recovery. That is voodoo economics pure and simple!
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