I would gave President Mnangagwa full marks for successfully rebranding Zanu PF as the “new democratic dispensation” and the country as being open for business. He had me and millions of others out there fooled. Sadly, it was all a gimmick and, like all gimmicks, it did not last.
President Mnangagwa and his regime expected a flood of investors to follow when he launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” After nearly a year in government the penny has dropped that no investors are coming. Instead of the regime sitting down and address the question why no investors have come forward the regime is resorting to the old habit of finding scapegoats for its own failures.
"The bank has noted that increase of prices of certain goods has followed the spike in foreign currency parallel market rates, which is being caused by some people bent on duping the public of their hard-earned income," said RBZ governor John Mangudya.
"The opportunists are manipulating foreign currency parallel market rates to cause unnecessary panic and despondency and destabilisation of the economy. Such counter-productive behaviour is unwarranted and should be condemned by all peace-loving Zimbabweans."
How naïve! The two people responsible for causing the panic in the country these last few weeks it is governor Mangudya and the new Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube. They are the ones who have just decreed that Banks convert all bank account balances from US$ to bond notes and Banks will pay all transactions from the said account in bond notes or the electronic money.
"The opportunists are manipulating foreign currency parallel market rates to cause unnecessary panic and despondency and destabilisation of the economy. Such counter-productive behaviour is unwarranted and should be condemned by all peace-loving Zimbabweans."
How naïve! The two people responsible for causing the panic in the country these last few weeks it is governor Mangudya and the new Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube. They are the ones who have just decreed that Banks convert all bank account balances from US$ to bond notes and Banks will pay all transactions from the said account in bond notes or the electronic money.
When the bond notes were first introduced the regime assured the public they will always have the right to be paid in US$ if they so wished. Now the regime has just changed the rules just like that! Whilst the ordinary people had their US$ bank balance switched at the official 1:1 to the bond note in the real world the exchange rate is 1:1.6 and falling, it is even worse for electronic money. Of course, the people are furious at being cheated out of their hard earned money!
Mangudya is going to use a $500 million loan facility to procure essential commodities.
"As advised, the purpose of the facilities is to fund the procurement of essential commodities including fuel, electricity, wheat and raw materials for the manufacturing of cooking oil and packaging," he said.
"In view of these positive developments, the bank would like to assure the public that there is sufficient fuel available in the country and, therefore, there is no need for panic-buying of fuel and other essential commodities."
This is just voodoo economics of the Mugabe days! The $500 million credit facility should be used as a stop-gap measure whilst the nation gets its own economy in order. Zimbabwe continues to be a nation that is consuming far more than it produces. We used to be the breadbasket of the region and now we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on food imports every month!
With investors and lenders alike shying away from investing in Zimbabwe there is no hope of reviving the Zimbabwe economy. And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs investors will shy away from the country. We cannot even get those who seized the former white-own farms to grow enough to feed the nation much less have surplus for sell and earn the much needed foreign currency.
Governor Mangudya, the people have good reason to panic, they know no one, no nation, can survive much less prosper on spending borrowed money on consumable without a thought on how the growing debt will be repaid. Zimbabwe's mountain of debt is unsustainable already and many lenders have long stopped lending the country money.
The people know the $500 million to buy essentials will soon be spend, then what! Panic!
@ Jonathan Matika
ReplyDeleteBut as hard to accept as this is, in all honesty, it is unsurprising. Change takes time. The only changes that happen immediately are bloody revolutions, and all of us have seen too much blood spilt in our lifetime already.
But I don't lose sight of the way ahead. While the road immediately in front of us looks tricky, there is light at the end of the tunnel: A Zimbabwe that all are happy to live in.
The reason for this optimism is linked to the people now in charge of our economy. Well qualified technocrats, with international experience. Some of the best men and women Zimbabwe has to offer.
Let's just take a look at our Minister of Finance, Prof. Mthuli Ncube. There are few men in his profession better equipped to deal with our economic problems. First of all, he is from here, and not some IMF outsider. Secondly, in his career, he has dealt with challenges similar to ours - as an academic and also as a senior economist at the African Bank for Development. Third, he is no party hack, and has no hidden interests nor connection to some faction of ZANU-PF. In fact, he is close to many in the MDC and may even have been appointed to a similar role had Chamisa won the election. Finally, he has the international name recognition we need to get us back in the international economic system.
I am sure that these are also not easy days for him. He needs our support and patience. After all, his success is our success. I just hope and pray that he also had a grandfather that taught him to persevere, and to continue the journey, as hard as it might be.
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because for the last 38 years Zanu PF has stifled all meaningful debate by denying the people freedom of expression and a free media and stifled all meaningful democratic competition by creating a de facto one party dictatorship. Forget all Mnangagwa and his junta's posturing of Zimbabwe being "new democratic dispensation" post November 2017 coup. The country has not changed one bit; it is still devoid of meaningful debate and democratic competition.
Zanu PF has just rigged the recent elections and thus reaffirming the country's intolerance to meaningful debate and democratic competition.
So, all this talk of Zimbabwe having taken its first step in the thousand mile journey is just rubbish because you do not even know where we are going and so does not know if we are heading in the right direction!
The first step in Zimbabwe's development has to be lifting the Zanu PF dictatorial autocracy and allowing this nation to breath and debate freely. We must put an end to this culture of Mr-Know-It-All of Mugabe, Mnangagwa and all the upstarts and apologists in Zanu PF!
@ Prosperity Mzila
ReplyDelete"The new dispensation has brought in hope, all it requires is for Zimbabweans to cultivate that spirit of hard work and optimism, as it has become necessary that everyone plays their part by contributing positively toward the resuscitation of the country's economy," you say.
"It is very unfortunate however that some political parties would rather watch the people suffer while they push their own agendas."
This is just the usual Zanu PF mantra of blaming everyone else for its own folly. By rigging the recent elections Zanu PF has delivered the coup de grace to all hopes of any meaningful economic recovery. Investors had avoided Zimbabwe all these last two or three decades because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Only an idiot would believe investors did not notice that the elections were rigged!
Even if Chamisa was to accept the bribe ED offers him that will not change the reality on the ground - i.e. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by thugs or be it with corrupt and incompetent opposition members as side-kick partners!
@ Ndoro
ReplyDelete"The editor of Bulawayo 24 must only allow the publication of good articles not this nonsense. Please Mr Editor give space to better articles."
The Editor is right to allow opposing views to be heard; it is for you Ndoro to expose the lies and damned lies. Let the reader make up her/his own mind who to believe!
The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown because we have become a spending nation that creates very little wealth. We used to be the breadbasket of the region and now we import everything including the farm produces. Government has struggle to pay its bills because with 90% unemployment rate the tax base had all but disappeared. Anyone who thinks that Government can solve all its revenue problems by taxing whatever economic activities still taking place is naive.
ReplyDeleteThe people of Zimbabwe are the poorest in Africa and this new tax will only make them even poorer not richer!
@ Eddie Cross
ReplyDeleteThis is just double Dutch! Minister Ncube's tax will help the solve fiscal problems whilst creating a monetary problems, help us breath by bleeding us to death!
Minister Ncube's new 2 cent on every dollar of electronic transaction will increase the price tag of the goods and services without increasing the value of the good and services themselves which is what inflation is.
In a country people were forced to use electronic money because cash was hard if not downright impossible to get this new tax will discourage the use of electronic money and thus stifle business activities.
Zimbabwe's economic recovery will come from getting the nation producing wealth and end this Zanu PF voodoo economics of spending our way to prosperity!
"SOMETIMES it's nice to be right, that does not often happen, but in this case I am sorry that those of us who had said we are headed for trouble, were right," you say.
What you and your fellow MDC friends did not see coming for all the five years of the GNU was that by failing to implement the democratic reforms you were leaving the door open for Zanu PF to rig elections after the GNU and beyond. We are in this economic and political mess because MDC leaders sold-out!
"Firstly the President is of the view that the economic situation and unemployment will improve if we consider a national dialogue and ultimately be sure that we will never ever have another election whose outcome is disputed because if we do not put a mechanism to safeguard the election it is the economy that pays the price," Sibanda.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% right in saying that. What you must explain is why did MDC Alliance agree to go into this year's elections with no democratic reforms which would have guaranteed these elections' outcome would not be disputed?
Why did MDC leaders fail to implement even one democratic reforms during the GNU and thus stopped Zanu PF rigging elections? They had five years to do this and yet failed to get even one reform implemented!
Chamisa is taking full advantage of ED's discomfort in being told Zanu PF rigged the elections and is therefore illegitimate. Chamisa is offering ED legitimacy in return for Prime Minister position. There are two points here:
1) Chamisa cannot in any way change the facts of the ground that the elections were rigged and thus Zanu PF is illegitimate. It is only the people of Zimbabwe in a free, fair and credible elections who can give anyone the mandate rule the country and no one else.
2) On the economic front, the investors and lenders have shied away from Zimbabwe because is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs. If ED or anyone else thinks the investors will be fooled into believing the pariah state has now metamorphosed into a democratic state just because Chamisa is PM; then they must be fools!
These negotiations between Zanu PF and MDC are a waste of time. If we are serious about ending this curse of rigged elections then we must demand that Zanu PF step down and the nation appoint an interim administration that will implement the reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections!
Finance Minister has reinforced his earlier remarks about scrapping bond notes saying the market is already dollarizing itself, which he is not ready to argue against.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking during a presentation at Chatham House in London United Kingdom today, Ncube said Zimbabwe is experiencing a currency transition with the market already self-dollarizing.
If you cannot dazzle with brilliance baffle with bull!
The minister is assuring the people their foreign denominated accounts will not be touched "not during my watch" and yet he is the one who has just authorised the across the board scrapping foreign currency account turning them into bond notes accounts.
A regime that has just blatantly rigged the elections can never claim to have respect of law! The minister avoided answering the question on the pretext he has not been in the country! Zanu PF has been rigging elections for decades and hence the reason why the country has been considered a pariah state all these years.
ReplyDeletePart 1 of 2
ReplyDelete@ Tafi Mhaka
"We have all struggled to get foreign currency at reasonable rates in the best of times; struggled to get cash from a commercial bank; struggled to buy food for our families and pay school fees for children. We have all felt the stinging pain inflicted by a failing economy collapsing under the rugged and brash stewardship of long failed politicians.
Yet, through it all, an unrepentant and self-important clique of highly inept civil servants who masquerade as proudly elected and patriotic leaders all the time, have done outstandingly well for themselves in the lifestyle stakes and unashamedly amassed immense wealth and property in often dubious and undeclared ways but have offered us no magnanimous, visionary and strong leadership in return.
On the back of yet another bungled, divisive and gory electoral process, an increasingly tenuous political atmosphere and an ever-dilapidated economy, fraught with high, rising prices of basic goods, foreign currency shortages, sky high unemployment and a debilitating lack of direct foreign investment, the critical question is: what will ordinary Zimbabweans do about this unjust and corrupted state of affairs?
The Way forward
This government might not last until 2023. All signs point to escalating economic hardships for the poor and no plausible relief in sight and an unbearable mass of political dissent and unrest taking root.
Out of options and riding on a duplicitous wave of new dispensation-branded propaganda, Mnangagwa's administration has resorted to selling an economic vision premised on making Zimbabwe a middle-income country by 2030. But, 12 days, 12 months and certainly 12 years, is a lifetime and a half on Zimbabwe's ever-volatile political landscape. Grace Mugabe, Ignatius Chombo et al can attest to that timeless reality.
And besides planning for 2030, whatever happened to the high-sounding "Vision 2020" economic plan Mnangagwa and his political allies sold to us in 1999? Two years away from 2020, if this present and disastrous economic outcome is it, it is clear the much-touted vision has morphed into foul political air and yet another humongous failure for Zanu-PF.
Tyranny, incompetence, impunity, corruption and electoral fraud shouldn't be rewarded with passive political acquiescence or blind loyalty. Mnangagwa has zero political legitimacy and no moral authority to lead a long and difficult charge for economic reform.
Part 2 of 2
ReplyDelete@ Tafi Mhaka
Tyranny, incompetence, impunity, corruption and electoral fraud shouldn't be rewarded with passive political acquiescence or blind loyalty. Mnangagwa has zero political legitimacy and no moral authority to lead a long and difficult charge for economic reform.
He has appointed a bloated and unfit-for-purpose cabinet which boasts 13 deputy ministers, two ministers of state and potentially 10 provincial ministers - all flimsy, antiquated, disastrous, highly paid, good-for-nothing political appointments, all meant to accommodate a long standing influence-peddling and money sharing Zanu-PF patronage system which former President Robert Mugabe created and abused. Any credible reformer would not appoint a single deputy minister like Energy Mutodi or Victor Matemadanda in these crushingly tough economic times.
As things stand, Mnangagwa's unfailingly weak and highly partisan leadership, not the lack of Harvard-trained economists working in the finance ministry and Reserve Bank, is the primary stumbling block to an influx of foreign investments and a long overdue economic recovery."
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 38 years. There is no doubt that the party has been rigging elections to stay in power against the democratic wishes of the people.
It must be noted that the people of Zimbabwe made a concerted effort to end Zanu PF's rule by risking life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the understanding that they would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for and which the party's name implied. Sadly, it was never to be. MDC leaders proved to be breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt; they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU, when they had the golden opportunity to get this done.
Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and if the regime is allowed to stay in power until 2023 then we can be certain that Zanu PF will rig those elections too. Having created the de facto one-party dictatorship that has enable the party to rig elections and stay in power regardless of how pathetic its performance in office and regardless of the people's democratic wishes; this is the one thing Zanu PF is not going to give up without being forced to.
If you rig elections, per se, you do not have the mandate to rule, you are illegitimate. Zanu PF is illegitimate and it is in power to force the regime to step aside; the only reason we, the people of Zimbabwe, have never done so all these last 38 years is because we have lacked the political will, vision and resolve!
If Zanu PF is still in office in 2023 then we would once again have answered the etymological question "Are we men or are we mice?"
It is sad that people like RBZ governor John Mangudya and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube who, before they are appointed to high office, seem to be very rational individuals lose it all as soon as they are appointed. They know they might have been picked for the post on merit but to keep their job they will have to do as they are told - regardless how stupid and foolish that might be.
ReplyDeleteThe two men know that Zimbabwe is drowning in debt. They know most of the money was borrowed and spend on the very things no individual or nation should not be spending borrowed money on. And yet they are the ones presiding over the same folly, spending millions of borrowed money on food and other consumables.
The very fact that people like President Mnangagwa know they will never be held to democratic account in a free, fair and credible elections gives them the arrogance to do as they please. And the officials they appoint soon copy the same political arrogance and with the same indifference to the suffering their bad decisions will cause to the ordinary people.
If we are serious about having good and competent government then we must take the issue of free, fair and credible elections very seriously because until we can hold the leaders to democratic account they will never take any notice to our demands for good governance.