“An additional $500 million in notes and coins will be put into the economy in the first six months of 2020. We expect this to ease the demand for physical cash and you won’t be ripped off by money dealers who sell cash,” said Minister Mthuli Ncube.
Hah, so he knows that the ordinary Zimbabwean is indeed being “ripped off by money dealers who sell cash!”
When Professor Mthuli Ncube was appointed minister of finance, nearly a year and half ago now, he was cocksure that fix all the country’s economic problems and get the economy back on track. If anyone was going to see to the fulfilment of President Mnangagwa’s clarion cry “Zimbabwe is open for business!”, he was the man to do it.
After months of austerity policies that have targeted the poorest of the poor, it is now clear that the promised economic recovery has not materialised. Indeed, the economic situation in Zimbabwe is a lot worse than it was before Minister Ncube took office in September 2018. All his economic policies have made the situation decidedly worse not better!
Yes the ordinary citizen is being ripped off by the money dealer on the street, ripped off by the banks and traders who buy money at the interbank official rate and sell at the black market rate and, above all, they being ripped off by the government sitting at the apex of all this man-made financial and economic chaos.
Of course, it is disconcerting, to say the least, that Minister Ncube and his Zanu PF cronies have failed to revive the economy. What makes their failure intolerable is that the ordinary Zimbabweans had no confidence in Zanu PF reviving the economy. None! And President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies knew the people had lost confidence in the party’s ability to govern a long time ago and hence the reason Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 election just as it had done with other elections in the past.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not so much the bad economic policies, the rampant corruptions, the gross mismanagement and the blatant lawlessness exemplified by the seizure of the white-owned farms and the vote rigging. These are serious problems but, in a healthy and functioning democracy, easily resolved.
Although the people realised that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt and incompetent decades ago they were powerless to remove the regime from office because the party rigged the elections, because Zimbabwe is not a health and functioning democracy. And so stuck with Zanu PF, the problems of bad policies, corruption, etc. were not dealt with allowing them to grow and spread sucking the breath, blood and the marrow of life out of the economy and the nation.
It has been clear to all with eyes to see that Zimbabwe was a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. And as long as the country remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
What makes one’s blood boil with anger at people like Minister Mthuli Ncube is their decision to work for Zanu PF. They have either ignored the political reality of Zanu PF blatantly rigging elections and thus pretend Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democracy and not a pariah state.
Or else accepted the reality that Zanu PF rigged the elections, Zimbabwe is a pariah state and they going to work with the regime regardless to achieve the seemingly impossible economic recovery in a pariah state.
Whatever was Professor Mthuli Ncube’s excuse for working for Zanu PF two things are beyond dispute; he joined the regime for personal reasons, financial and egotistic. Second, his efforts to revive the economy have been a total failure.
There is no denying that people like Professor Mthuli Ncube have undermined the nation’s efforts and sacrifices; many have paid dearly with lost treasure, life and limb; in the fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship by working for the regime. These people must be censured and held to account, together with their political masters, for all the suffering and deaths the regime has caused. Meanwhile adding Professor Mthuli Ncube to the sanctions list will be a good start!
We can talk about corruption until we are all coal-black in the face and it will still continue because we are addressing the symptom and not the disease. Rigged elections and bad governance is the disease and implementing the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections is the cure!
ReplyDeleteKuda Tagwirai and all the other named individual would have been arrested a long, long time ago if they did not have "protecting angels"in high office looking after them. Those in high office have enjoyed absolute power only because they have usurped the people's freedoms and rights, they are accountable to no one!
After 40 years of rigged elections it is insane for us to bury our heads and pretend not to know our problem is bad governance.