Economic reforms will fix the engine, need GPA reforms to fix the brakes c/w emergency and get sober driver. By Nomusa Garikai

One of the outstanding feature of our economic and political crisis is seen it coming but for the last 20 years at least we have been powerless to stop it because we lost the power to a meaningful say a long time ago. I learnt from my late father the importance of why those with an interest in a matter should always have a meaningful say.

 

 

I spent many of my school holidays in Gweru, where my father worked. My cousin, Benji, lived with us and he worked in one the big supermarkets in town. He was just a labourer; sticking price labels on merchandise and stacking them on shelves, packing good for customers at the checkout, etc.

 

 

Benji had the can-do self-confidence; he convinced me he would make a better manager of the supermarket. This was soon after independence when the whole nation was drunk with can-do euphoria. I raised Benji’s case as an example of how the whites had frustrated talented blacks and denied them the opportunity to advance.

 

 

“True, white racism has frustrated many talented blacks,” replied my father. “The supermarket Benji works for is now under new owners and management. I have no reason to believe they would deliberately refuse to appoint the best candidate for whatever post and forfeit the opportunity to expand their business and increase their profits just because of the candidate's race or gender. In fact the current manager, whom I have noticed Benji holds in total contempt, is a black woman and yet she has made the supermarket very popular.

 

 

“If the supermarket appointed Benji the new manager and he failed to run the business properly all your cousin will lose is the labourer’s wage. The owners of the supermarket will have a lot more to lose and so too will all the other workers, the farmers who have thrived on the back of the supermarket's current success, etc.

 

 

“Whilst Benji’s enthusiasm and exuberance is to be encouraged; even if his enthusiasm is completely justified, we must never allow that to cloud our judgment. He has the right to be given a chance as manager as long as all those with an invested interest in the matter have a meaningful say, always!”

 

 

The lesson from my father did not sink in until years later. The story goes that Benji, with his usual unquenchable enthusiasm and exuberance, had bullied one of our aunts into allowing him to carry out some repairs on her husband’s car. Benji was working as a car mechanic’s assistant at the time but to hear him talk one would be forgiven to think he was BMW’s most valued car design consultant.

 

 

To cut the long story short; Benji had welded the broken component causing it to bend, it ended up causing even more damage to the car.

 

 

Very few Zimbabweans would deny that they were swept off their feet by President Mugabe’s scientific socialism rhetoric and promises of mass prosperity in the early years of our independence especially when the promises were backed by the rapid expansions in the health and education sectors.  All President Mugabe’s critics were silenced by the mountain of evidence of how his policies were improving the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

 

 

It was only in the 1990s when Zanu PF started cutting back on its social welfare that people paid attention to the regime’s critics' warning that the reckless spending on welfare, bloated cabinet, bloated civil service, bloated army, bloated everything were unsustainable.

 

By the turn of the century many Zimbabweans were convince that President Mugabe’s mass prosperity was a myth, a mirage. It was then that the people made a determined effort to remove President Mugabe and Zanu PF from power and, much to their surprise and disgust, found it easier said than done. The regime had eroded their rights to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

 

 

“All those with an invested interest in the matter must have a meaningful say, always!” my father advised came flooded back. His advice was as valid for reining in Benji’s exuberance as it is in reining in President Mugabe’s really annoying I-know-best posturing when the evidence on the ground told a completely different story.

 

 

As the nation searches for the way out of political and economic hell we find ourselves in, it tempting to focus on what to do to revive the economy and end the economic suffering. The most important and urgent matter is to fix our political system which stopped us taking corrective measure years ago when we first became aware of the economic slow down.

Before we do anything else, we must restore the people's right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Our economic mess would have never sunk to these sickening depth if the people had not political powerless to stop its collapse. 

 

 

If reviving the economy is comparable to fixing the engine, repairing the lights, etc. then ending the dictatorship and restoring the people's right to meaningful say in the governance of the country is comparable to repairing the brakes, the stirring shaft and, most important of all, making sure there is a sober driver behind the wheel!

It is not enough to have President Mugabe removed from power and keep the dictatorship in tact; that is tantamount to replacing the driver and hope he/she is a competent driver but fail to ensure the brakes, especially the emergency brakes, and stirring are working. 

The GPA reforms are design to ensure comprehensive political reforms are carried out this time so that never again will the nation find itself in the situation now obtaining today of having  a corrupt and incompetent tyrant in State House and the people totally helpless to remove him! Implementing the GPA reforms is the most important task of our generation; SADC leaders realized this during the GNU, it is tragic that many Zimbabweans failed to realize it back then and still do not even to this day!