One can see why few people would ever refuse to be appointed
minister in Zimbabwe; the country is the poorest in Africa and yet it has the
most well-travelled officials in the whole world.
The newly appointed Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube,
was in USA for the UNGA in mid-September. He returned home to make a U-turn of
his earlier announcement to scrap Bond note. He was off to London to give a
talk in which he confirmed government would allow the market decide the Bond
Note : US$ exchange rate. He made another U-turn on that and reaffirmed the
official exchange rate will remain 1:1. He is now Bali, Indonesia.
If Minister Ncube was not suffering from all this jet-lag he would
not be making so many policy U-turns with such disastrous financial
consequences to you and me!
President Mnangagwa has only been in his new post for less than
a year and already he has earned enough air miles to take him to the Moon. Another
few more months, and he will be off to plant a Zimbabwe flag on the moon complete
with a scarecrow wearing the colour scarf!
It is easy to see why ex-Ministers like Tendai Biti, Nelson
Chamisa, David Coltart and the other MDC leaders forgot to implement the
democratic reforms during the GNU; they were too busy having a ball! It is easy
to see why many of them are desperate to get back on the cabinet gravy train.
The Zimbabwe cabinet: the globetrotters!
Finance Minister Ncube is in Bali for a meeting with the African
Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group,
Paris Club Group of creditors as represented by the French, the European Union,
and other key bilateral partners such as the United Kingdom, United States of
America, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa, among others.
“In the ensuing discussions, the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube made a presentation on policy
reforms being undertaken by the New Dispensation, focusing on Vision 2030, as
enunciated by His Excellency, the President and the Transitional Stabilisation
Programme (TSP), which is the policy implementation programme of Vision 2030,”
reads a statement from the Zimbabwe Treasury.
“The Minister’s presentation centred on political and economic
reforms being undertaken by Government, especially fiscal consolidation, state
enterprises reforms, monetary sector reforms and a road map on arrears clearance.
“The co-operating partners
expressed their endorsement to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, as it
captures adequately the policy reforms that Government is implementing in order
to turn around the country’s economic fortunes.”
All of these partners would be
aware that President Mnangagwa and his junta regime have just rigged the recent
elections; contrary to his own promise to hold free, fair and credible
elections following last November’s military coup. The partners will also know
from their records that it was none other than Mnangagwa and the clinch of the
November coup plotters who have rigged elections in past that kept Mugabe and
Zanu PF in power all these years. Nothing has changed, all this talk of “new
dispensation” is just hot air.
Minister Ncube is in Indonesia to beg for money, the regime
needs cash to buy Chiefs, MPs, ministers , etc. new cars; to chartered planes
for the Mugabes; to the expenses of the globetrotters; etc.; etc.
If IMF, WB, etc. are any social conscience then they must
refused to give this Zanu PF junta any more financial assistance because the
regime rigged the elections and is, per se, illegitimate. Zimbabwe is up to her
eye-balls in debt already because Zanu PF not only wasted the nation’s vast wealth
but wasted borrowed money too. The nation has been stuck with this a corrupt,
incompetent and tyrannical regime for the last 38 years because it rigged
elections to stay in power.
President Mnangagwa has just rigged the recent elections and
thus confirmed Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by the same corrupt, vote
rigging and globetrotting thugs! By failing to hold free, fair and credible
elections President Mnangagwa has shown that Zimbabwe has not change one bit
there is therefore no excuse for the IMF, WB, etc. to renew the financial
assistance to this Zanu PF dictatorship. NONE!
7 comments:
The EU Observer Mission today said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) lacked independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner.
Addressing a presser streamed LIVE on ZimEye.com today, the EUOM also said ZEC’s independence was undermined by contestant, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s subordinate, Ziyambi Ziyambi’s Ministry of Justice.
The elections results were presented in a way that made is impossible to verify! ZEC’s declared results could not be traced back to the relevant V11 and V23 forms.
Conclusion: the elections fell short of international standards!
If we are serious about ever holding free, fair and credible elections then we cannot pretend that Zanu PF has failed to deliver such elections. The regime has been in power for 38 years and it still fails to deliver free and fair elections not because they do not know what constitute free and fair elections, they do know but lack the political will.
If we fail to force Zanu PF to step down before 2023 then we can be certain Zanu PF will rig those elections too.
The real question that matter here is do we, the ordinary people of Zimbabwe have the political will to demand meaningful democratic change, demand that Zanu PF steps down before 2023? And the political drive to force Zanu PF to step down.
It is laughable that the Zanu PF junta is keeping up this "new dispensation" nonsense, they really think they are smart and everyone else out there is an idiot. It all started with that military coup which the regime insisted was not a coup be "a military assisted transition". Next thing the regime rigs the elections and insist they were free, fair and credible!
On Tuesday 9 October 2018 the EU Election Observer Mission in Zimbabwe released their final report and they did not mince their words "the elections DID NOT meet the international and region standards of free, fair and credible elections"
The EU and the whole world knows Zanu PF has a reputation for rigging elections and the report has just confirmed that the party has just done this again. Nothing has change in Zimbabwe other than the country removing one tyrant in power because he rigged elections only to impose another tyrant first through a military coup and now by him else rigging the elections!
The Americans have already said Zanu PF rigged the elections and the sanctions imposed on the regime will remain.
Unless this is a case of the left hand pushing and the right hand pulling; it is hard to see how the IMF, WB, Paris Club and all the other financial institutions in which the EU and the Americans are key players would now fund this Zanu PF regime which other EU and USA bodies have condemned as an illegitimate and rogue state!
Our boastful Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, the Professor with all the University book knowledge but with zero common sense and hence the reason for all these U-turns may have to do yet another U-turn on the exchange rate.
By insisted on the official exchange rate of 1:1 for Bond Note to US$ whilst the black market rate continues to soar the regime is only inviting the unscrupulous money dealers to come into Zimbabwe. They will open their US$ account which the Minister has already said will be ring fence and paid in US$. They will sell their US$ on the black market and buy a suitcase full of the Bond Notes deposit that into a Bond Notes account. The Bank will be obliged to pay the trickster the Bond Notes in US$, to pay for imported machinery or something, at the official exchange rate. Use the new loans from IMF, etc. to fund these schemes. As soon as the money is safely out of Zimbabwe our phony investor will disappear never to return!
Minister Ncube boasted of "attracting investors", with these foolish policies he will attract many investors already but the type who will swindle the nation and drag it even deeper into the economic hell we are in.
This is just voodoo economics from a corrupt and incompetent regime that has just bribed a naïve, gullible but very greedy University Professor to front its doomed policies!
"All the cooperating partners and creditors present uniformly expressed their support for Zimbabwe and its arrears clearance Road Map," Ncube said.
The lenders and Western donors also urged Ncube to "judiciously" implement his two-year economic recovery plan announced last Friday.
Ncube's plan will see cuts on spending and the government's wage bill and privatisation of loss-making state-owned firms.
How many times has this Zanu PF regimes promised to implement reforms, cut the bloated civil service and Army, repay loan arrears, etc., etc. and never do it!
Now with Zimbabwe's position as a pariah state confirmed, there will be no investors coming into the country. Minister Ncube is being naïve if he thinks Zimbabwe's economy can recover from the comatose state it has been in for decades without help from outside.
The IMF, WB, etc. have all had Zimbabwe's Ministers of Finance make all these out-of-this-world promises they have yet to see one deliver on any of the promises so readily made!
"The final results, as announced by the Electoral Commission, contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," said EU report.
In short the elections were rigged and the announced result is not the democratic wish of the Zimbabwe people!
What should we do now? Simple, we must demand that Zanu PF step down. When people say we want free, fair and credible elections we must not just say it but mean it too.
When people say we want rule of law and that no one is above the law we must not just say it but mean it too!
Mnangagwa rigged the 30 July 2018 elections he and his junta must step down. They are not above the law, they must step down!
If we do not get Mnangagwa and the junta to go then we can be certain of one thing - Zanu PF will rig the 2023 elections too! If we want to put an end to this curse of rigged elections then we must act now! Not one year before the elections, not next year; NOW!
It boggles the mind why the measures put by government to supposedly accelerate economic reforms are turning out to be a nightmare.
We believe this pain afflicted on the people should be brought to a halt. Already, the pain the citizenry has gone through over the last 20 years or so under Zanu PF's poor governance is enough. No more pain in the name of economic recovery, the people have had enough already. And Mnangagwa should know that.
President Mnangagwa rigged the elections, there is not even one international observer from a nation known for holding democratic elections who has not condemned the recent elections. The people of Zimbabwe are sick to the back teeth of regimes that impose themselves on the nation only to loot and rob them blind!
This illegitimate Zanu PF junta must step down!
"When (the then-leader) Robert Mugabe was trying to deal with the whole hyperinflation melt-down, he sent the police out to arrest people who closed down their businesses. They were charged with various forms of 'economic sabotage'.
"To avoid the same fate, private-sector people are now closing up their businesses for 'stock taking' or because of non-specified 'computer glitches'. On social media there are lots of jokes around the whole 'Zimbabwe: closed for stock-take' theme."
If you wanted further evidence of just how serious the whole thing is, the people from KFC chicken have just decided to close down their restaurants, "due to the current pressure on the country's economy. The currency challenges have affected our operations and supply…"
Finance Minister Ncube is mounting a fight-back, introducing a new 'stabilisation programme' that will cut government spending - no easy thing in a country with a bloated civil service and a money-hungry military.
Finance Minister Ncube jinked himself with his boastful exuberance, Zimbabwean leaders are notorious for their I am Mr-Know-It-All posturing. When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe, within weeks he has already telling the world "Zimbabwe is open for business!" because I E D Mnangagwa knew what was wrong with Zimbabwe and I have already fixed it all.
When the late Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister in February 2009 by June he was telling western leaders like Germany's Chancellor Angel Mekel and USA President Barack Obama to lift the sanctions against Zanu PF leaders because they had all changed. "I have tea with Mugabe every Tuesday!" (and know him better than any of you) he said. The western leaders ignored him and they were right, Mugabe was a thug and he had not changed one bit.
Who can ever forget Mugabe himself, and all his annual Sermon on the Mount, UNGA, he was there to teach everyone what to do as if he was the wisest man on earth. The economic mess in Zimbabwe said all that needed to be said as regard his lack of leadership qualities.
"Have you got the political backing to make the sort of tough economic decisions you are going to have to make?" I asked gingerly. "Oh yes, oh yes, yes I do," came the reply from the man who is the country's new Minister of Finance
Ncube did not hesitate even for one second, he was cocksure he knew exactly what the country needed. A few weeks later the country is having one economic fit after another. Ncube has issued some foolish statements and retracted some after a few days but there is no doubt that the unguarded remarks helped fuel the economic meltdown of the last few weeks!
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