ED is not particularly worried even if imposing Z$ is a disaster as long as he can rig elections P Guramatunhu

“Belling the Cat is a fable concerns a group of mice who debate plans to nullify the threat of a marauding cat,” explained Wikipedia. 

“One of them proposes placing a bell around its neck, so that they are warned of its approach. The plan is applauded by the others, until one mouse asks who will volunteer to place the bell on the cat. 

“All of them made excuses. 

“The story is used to teach the wisdom of evaluating a plan on not only how desirable the outcome would be but also how it can be executed. It provides a moral lesson about the fundamental difference between ideas and their feasibility, and how this affects the value of a given plan.”

This is a moral lesson we, in Zimbabwe, have yet to learn and have paid dearly for it!

Zimbabwe is not a democratic country in which those in positions of power and authority are democratically accountable to the people. Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party state in which those in power do as they please and we, the ordinary people, have no say. None!

A lot has been said in support and against the regime’s recent decision to ban the use of the multi currency as legal tender in Zimbabwe. No one, absolutely no one can ever deny that the move could result in the hyperinflation of 2000 to 2008 because that is a historic fact. Inflation peaked at 500 billion %, the Z$ was so worthless we needed Z$35 quadrillion (35 followed by 24 zeros) to buy US$1.00. 

A Commission of inquiry has since established that US$ 5 billion was lost from the Insurance and Pension Funds as a result of the hyper inflation. Many people lost their life-time savings and many business closed and the national economic took a beating and has never recovered. 

The worthless Z$ was finally scrapped in November 2008 but the damage was already done and echos of it are still reverberating to this day.

So, even those who genuinely believe the abolishing of the multi currency system is a good thing; they cannot deny that the move could lead to yet another hyperinflation fuelled economic meltdown because it has happened before. 

Besides, inflation has already started to creep upwards again. The monthly inflation was 5% in January and is 100% today. The threat of yet another inflation fuelled total economic meltdown is not hypothetical, it is a distinct possibility. Even if it was a certainty, that would not have made an difference, Zanu PF would still have abolished the multi currency system regardless. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of a string of one economic blunder after another be it rampant corruption; the seizure of the white-owned farms to give to party cronies; the printing of money, the crazy fuelling the last hyperinflation; etc.; etc.  Many papers were written pointing out the folly of all these policies but the powers that be did not pay any attention. 

Minister Mthuli Ncube, President Mnangagwa and, indeed, all of us know that even if the banning of the multi currency system should prove to be yet another disastrous blunder; there is nothing, absolutely nothing, we will do about it other than the usual crying, gnashing of teeth and dying. Nothing!

We should have the full confidence of holding Mnangagwa and Mthuli Ncube to democratic account; removing the individual from public office in a free, fair and credible election is the ultimate expression of democratic accountability; over, not only, this matter of multi currency system but everything. We do not have any such democratic power. 

It is this political helplessness that we should be concerned about. 

At least the mice in the fable had the common sense to abandon the bell plan as soon as it was not feasible. We expend our time, energy and treasure discussing Zanu PF's fast track land reform, multi currency system, everything else whilst doing nothing to implement the democratic reforms needed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections! This is equivalent to the mice wasting time embellishing the bell plan with details of ring-tone, the colour of the ribbon, etc. 

After 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule one would think we have finally woken up to the reality that Zimbabwe is not a healthy and functioning democracy in which the freedoms and rights of the individual are respected and protected. Instead of those in power being the servants of the people, the politicians are the lords and the people grovel before them. 

Whilst the liberation war helped to end white colonial rule it also created a big problem in that it created a hawkish ruling elite who turned the AK47 rifle on the civilians to deny them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. When you are look up the business end of a gun; you do as you are told.

Still, after 39 years there is no excuse for us failing to reassert our freedoms and rights. Indeed, it is our duty and responsibility to make sure the country has a good and competent government, a government accountable to the people. Forcing Mangagwa and his Zanu PF junta to step down so we can implement the necessary democratic reforms is not the belling of the cat task some people think, especially since regime is illegitimate and the worsening economic situation is piling on the pressure for meaningful change.