Zimbabwe can be as prosperous as Singapore - not with "EDNomics" in pariah State Wilbert Mukori

We all welcome praise but not from every quarter because praise from certain quarters is but a curse. Here is a typical example of praise from the wrong quarter.

“President Emmerson Mnangagwa's inauguration speech was in a class of its own in terms of vision, strategy and content,” started an article from Dr Gideon Gono.

Nonsense! President Mnangagwa’s inauguration speech was one of the worse speeches in human history it lacked any cohesion and was full of contradiction. With Zimbabwe in total economic meltdown with unemployment a nauseating 90% and 72.3% of the people living on US$ 1.00 or less per day; even he could not deny the country was in a mess due to “errors of commission or omission”.

“I implore you all to declare that NEVER AGAIN should the circumstances that have put Zimbabwe in an unfavourable position be allowed to recur or overshadow its prospects. We must work together, you, me, all of us who make up this Nation,” said Mnangagwa, in a determined effort to break from the past.

“This is a formidable head-start we draw from our past, a plinth upon which to build developments in the present and to erect hopes for the future,” he continued, clearly being dragged back into the past as if by some invisible dark force.

“Fellow Zimbabweans, as we chart our way forward, we must accept that our challenges as a nation emanate in part from the manner in which we have managed our politics, both nationally and internationally, leading to circumstances in which our country has undeservedly been perceived or classified as a pariah State.” The dark force had won.

Of course, Zimbabwe is a pariah State ruled by incompetent, corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs whose greed for absolute power and the influence and wealth it brings is insatiable. All President Mnangagwa has done so far is pay lip service to “democracy” and “new era” but failed has failed to do anything to show his willingness to implement the democratic reforms.

Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, among other International leaders, reminded President Mnangagwa of the need to ensure next year’s elections are free, fair and credible. They can see that Zanu PF has changed its figure head but otherwise nothing else has changed. They are concerned it is business as usual with the pariah State!

President Mnangagwa’s recent cabinet appointments is full of individuals who believe that those who fought in the liberation war are the only one fit to rule Zimbabwe, hence the reason why they have a veto whilst the rest of us have a vote! The cabinet is now dominated by the individuals who have been central to the establishment and retaining of the de facto one-party state dictatorship that has ridden roughshod over the people’s freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair election and even the right to life itself.

The right, not privilege, of every citizen to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is at the very heart of good governance because it is the only effective way of holding the governing accountable to the governed. If the ruled cannot dismiss, which is what a meaningful vote does, the rulers then what else is there to stop the latter doing as they please?

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s seemingly intractable political chaos and economic meltdown can all be trace back to the nation’s failure to reform Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs from office even when the nation had the overwhelming evidence the regime was corrupt, incompetent and oppressive. The greatest “error of commission and omission” Zimbabwe has made repeatedly in the last 37 years was its failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Zimbabwe will accomplish nothing, I repeat, nothing of any substance until we hold free and fair elections and end this foolishness of those in power rigging elections to extend their stay in power.

There is nothing in President Mnangagwa’s speech or actions since his swearing in that would make anyone believe he going to embrace democratic change. Only an idiot can see vision where there is no such thing!

“The President showed a clear, firm grasp of economics with his dose of what I would call "EDNomics", proudly showing the world that here is a new Zimbabwe that is ready and open for business,” continue Dr Gideon Gono.

What “new Zimbabwe” is he wittering about? No one with even half a brain would be fooled into believe Zimbabwe has lost its pariah state status just by removing one dictator and replacing him with another. The real world works on well-established and understood economic principles grounded on political stability and not the usual voodoo economics formulated by same corrupt and incompetent political thugs of yesterday.

“I particularly liked the Dengism philosophy which he merged with his appeal to investors to come from all corners of the world,” came the EDNomic explaination .

“Now that is pragmatism in the mould of China's former leader, Deng Xiaoping, who upon assuming leadership of China in the 1970s declared: "I do not care the colour of the cat, black or white … so long as it catches mice!"

“China's illustrious growth today owes its genesis and greatness to that statement.

“I was particularly pleased, too, that the President mentioned special economic zones, promising to accelerate their establishment countrywide "in order to attract investment and generate increased exports, jobs and stimulate economic growth".

“That statement alone, together with everything else he said, will get this economy flying to double digit growth rates with potential to propel this country to the levels of the likes of Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and others in a very short space of time given our natural resources and literacy levels.”

Somethings never change! Mugabe appointed Gono the Czar of Zimbabwe’s economic zones, part of the regime’s ZimAsset policy which was supposed to create 2.2 million new jobs but only created two jobs for Mugabe’s daughter and her husband. The Zanu PF’s corrupt and incompetent fat cats have not caught any mice for 37 years and they are not going to catch any.

Talk of Zanu PF’s corrupt and incompetent fat cats, Gideon Gono is one of the heavy weights. Gono will be remembered as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor who presided over the country money printing crazy fuelling inflation to 500 billion per cent. Gono and his Zanu PF ruling elite made huge fortunes but at the cost of bankrupting the nation. Gonomics!

“What I'm saying is that it is not just the economic issues that I and many others listened to, but also, the political and social dimensions of the President's speech,” continued the shameless cannery singing for its supper.

“I'm sure even President Mugabe himself must have been very proud of his mentee and successor regardless of the circumstances. I know he was.

“I particularly like the new President's brand of EDNomics, EDPolitics and EDPlomacy.”

Take it ease of the sauce governor; President Mnangagwa knows Mugabe appointed you Czar of the Special Economic Zones and you are desperate to hold on to your post.

Singapore, South Korea, etc. have all prospered because the hold free, fair and credible elections which have forced each successive government to produce sound economic policies. Zimbabwe has the potential to be as prosperous as Singapore but has, instead, sunk to the bottom. We are the poorest nation on earth! All because we are stuck with this Zanu PF regime with its voodoo Gonomics  or EDNomics for 37 years.

If Zimbabwe fails to hold free, fair and credible elections next year; this is a certainty, given the elections will be held with not even one democratic reform in place; the country will still be a pariah State. A pariah Zimbabwe pursuing the same Gonomics renamed EDNomics of the last 37 years will not deliver the economic recovery the nation is dying for. Never!