Worsening economy is "God punishing rogue" say Mugabe - pleased, validating him P Guramatunhu

“You are at the top, you want to glorify yourself,” said Mugabe speaking of his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa, according to Jealousy Mawarire, National Patriotic Front (NPF) spokesperson. 

“You are not God. Today you are at the top, tomorrow you will be at the bottom, know that. God has His own way of punishing rogues and cruel people.

“I am telling you in your face. I don’t care what will happen to me. People should love their army, they should not fear the army.”

Mugabe reportedly said this at his 95th birthday party. Mugabe’s birthdays used to be a grand occasions, costing millions of dollars. No expense was spared even basic services such as supply of clean water, health care and education had all but collapse, starved of funds. Ever since November 2017 when he was booted out of power following the military coup, his birthday parties have been a family and friends affair and not a national one. 

Still, this year’s birthday party must have been a very happy occasion happening just a few day after some of the worst street protest and violence that the country had seen in the last decades. The protests were triggered by the shortage of foreign currency, fuel, cash, bread, etc. The final straw that broke the camel’s back was the nearly 200% increase in the price of fuel!

Mugabe stayed in power for 37 years by rigging his own Zanu PF party elections and then let none other than Mnangagwa rig the national elections to keep him and the party in power. He has insisted that he has never handed power to someone else because there was no one competent to lead. 

So reports of Zanu PF being accused of rigging the July 2018 elections (Mugabe had avoided such embarrassment by making sure no observers from the democratic nations were accredited) made good reading for Mugabe. But better still, the news of the Zimbabwe economy sinking even deeper into the abyss. 

If Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” had been a resounding success and Zimbabwe’s economy was on a firm footing and well on its way to economic recovery; Mugabe would be died spiritually, at the least. It was bad enough for him to be booted out of office but to have Mnangagwa validated as more competent than himself would have been more than he could bear! 

Nothing would have brought Mugabe more pleasure than to see the Zimbabwe economic meltdown get even worse than when his was in power and Zimbabweans rioting and demanding the removal of Mnangagwa. Absolutely Nothing! 

“You are not God! God has His own way of punishing rogues and cruel people!” If Mugabe said this once he must have said it a thousand times. No doubt Mugabe will never consider himself a rogue let alone that the military coup was God’s punishment.

Those refusing to accept Mnangagwa's legitimacy ahve "sinister agenda" argue small minded Masarira N Garikai

It was Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of USA’s 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said ”Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." 

If I was asked to name five things that have contributed to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis in the last 38 years then I will have to say the nation’s seemingly inability to rise above the level of Eleanor Roosevelt’s “small minds” played a big party. Indeed, I will even go so far as to say it is the number one reason Zimbabwe is in a mess and, worst of all, is well and truly stuck! 

There is something about political power that seems to get the small-mindedness of our politicians to come out like a rash. Just a sniff of power is more than enough!

Once upon a time, it now feels like a very, very long time ago, I had admired and praised Linda Masarira for her principle stand and great ideas. That was before she joined the MDC-T led by Thokozani Khophe, Linda is the party spokesperson. Ever since, her small-mindedness has come to the fore and she has started shooting from the hip.

“Don’t pretend, he (Nelson Chamisa) has no clue other than being a parrot of the western principles that are funding the agenda he is pushing,” said Masarira, according to Zimeye report.

A whole qualified lawyer misleading his followers and continuing with his stance on unconstitutionalism -he is not an ideal state leader for a constitutional democracy like Zimbabwe.”

I am not an MDC supporter and no admire of Nelson Chamisa; indeed I think is  just another corrupt and incompetent Zimbabwean politicians who has played his part in landing the nation in this mess and keeping as there. My beef with Linda is if you are going to criticise Chamisa pick something substantive instead of something wishy-washy and personal.

Anyone who is anyone who observed Zimbabwe’s last year elections has dismissed them as a farce. Yes Chamisa is now parroting the election observers in telling Mnangagwa ti his face that he rigged the elections and is per se illegitimate.

It is right and proper to dismiss Chamisa as a parrot because he was very foolish to have taken part in the elections in the first place after he was warned without implementing the reforms, Zanu PF would rig the elections. Linda and her MDC-T were just as foolish since they too contested the flawed and illegal elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake.

MDC-T and many of the other opposition parties and candidates have accepted the election result legal and endorsed Mnangagwa as democratically elected president. Linda is wittering about Zimbabwe being “a constitutional democracy”; how can that be when we cannot even produce a voters’ roll of those who voted! 

Linda Masarira’s dismissal of all those, not just Chamisa, refusing to accept the elections were free, fair and credible and that Mnangagwa is legitimate of having “a sinister agenda”. This is typical Zanu PF idiotic mentality that got us into this mess and must be stamped out wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. 

In the Zanu PF mind-set of judging everything on the basis of who said it. Everything someone in the West said critical of the regime it was dismissed on the grounds the West was saying it to promote its hidden “regime change agenda”. When Zimbabweans themselves called for an end to political oppression and democratic change, the regime labelled them puppets of West pushing their master’s “regime change agenda”. Hence the reason the country has ended up in this moronic position of holding free, fair and credible elections guaranteed to produce NO regime change! 

After 38 years of the criminal waste of material and human resources which has dragged Zimbabwe from a middle income nation in 1980 to the poorest nation in African the nation is desperate to get out of this hell-on-earth it finds itself in. All we need to do is up our game from the politics of personality, Zanu PF fostered on the nation, to the politics of ideas. Do that, and Zimbabwe will finally join the League of Nations now enjoying peace, justice and economic prosperity.

"No more forex for education fees" said RBZ - savage blow delivered with indifference W Mukori

“Foreign currency from the inter-bank market shall be utilised for current bonafide foreign payment invoices except for education fees,” said Reserve Bank Governor, Dr John Mangudya.

There are hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean students outside the country partly or partly dependent of cash payments from Zimbabwe. How are they going to manage now? 

This is an outrage! It must be said here and loud as church bells that these students were forced to student outside Zimbabwe because decades of poor funding has left most education institutions in Zimbabwe without lecturers, no books, poor facilities, etc. etc. The quality of education they are providing is so poor most people had no choice but to send their child or relative outside Zimbabwe. 

Whilst one accepts the economic reality of a crippling shortage of foreign currency but even this is a Zanu PF man-made problem too. It is the 38 years of rampant corruption and gross mismanagement that have destroyed the country’s once booming economy. 

Zanu PF seized most of the former white-owned farms to give them to party chefs and their cronies. Zimbabwe used to grow enough food to feed its own people with plenty leftover for export. We used to be the breadbasket of the region. Since the farm seizures, the country has struggled to produce enough to feed its own people. We now have rely on import food and good to be paid for in foreign currency which we do not have since we now produce very little.

Government should never have to tell the citizen how they should spend their money. If someone decides to spend their hard earned money in providing as good an education as they possibly can; it is their choice and it is none of government’s business to interfere, especially when it is the same government’s corrupt and incompetence that has forced the parent to make very expensive choices.

Governor Mangudya’s policy announcement was reckless and foolish. There are a number of common sense options he should have explored:

1)     Government should have started by announcing that no foreign currency will be available for new students. 

2)     Forcing anyone to abandon his/her studies is a waste of all the resources to get the student this far and should never ever be taken lightly. Government should have explored other ways to save the foreign currency. A recent report showed government was failing to pay $600 000 for student living allowance in Russia and yet Mnangagwa was paying US$ 25 million for a hired Jet for a 10 day jaunt.

3)     If the foreign currency outflows in student fees are still unaffordable then Government should have negotiated alternative payment arrangements the relevant institutions/nations. Most institutions would rather take a hair-cut of the fees than lose it all, they cannot fill a second or third year vacant position.

“No foreign currency allocation for education fees!” This must have been a  hammer blow to the parent, relatives and all the students studying outside Zimbabwe who relied on money from Zimbabwe. My heart bleeds for you all, the more so when it is not your fault but this Zanu PF regime’s fault that you are in this mess!

Ncube et al on yet another "global roadshow" to lure investors - none will be fooled N Garikai

The real tragedy in Zimbabwe is that we have a regime that knows it will never ever be held to account for anything and so it has said and done as it jolly well pleased. It has made promises only to break them. It has told half-truths, lies and damned lies with no sense of shame or regret what those suffering the consequences of the broken promises and lies. 

Government is currently operating on a positive cash basis as revenue enhancement and austerity measures announced in the 2019 National Budget continue to yield dividends, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube has said. 

"Government is cash positive. We managed to pay civil servants salaries for the months of January and February from a cash positive position, with $300 million in the bank," said Minister Ncube. 

Since the introduction of the 2% tax on electronic transactions there has been a 16% drop in economic activities and yet you have never talked about it!

“The austerity measures are also in line with the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), aimed at setting the economy on a recovery path after years of stagnation,” Minister Ncube maintained. He still claims that Zimbabwe will be “an upper middle income nation by 2030!”

The austerity measures are certainly taking a heavy toll on the poorest of the poor. The 2% electronic transaction tax was specifically aimed at the 90% unemployed who were therefore no paying any income tax. Most of these people are vendors living on US$30 or less per month in a country in which the poverty datum line is US$650 per month. So Minister Ncube’s tax means these poor people are now living on considerably less than US$30 per month. 

Minister Ncube has done nothing to stop the wholesale looting costing the nation $15 billion in diamond revenue, according to Mugabe’s own admission in 2016. He has introduced his 2% tax targeting the poor but has not taxed the filthy rich who continue to enjoy their extravagant lifestyles living in mansions, with a fleet of posh cars, 45 gold watches, etc. 

Indeed Minister Ncube is taxing the poor to subsidise the filthy rich’s extravagant lifestyles. It was none other than Minister Ncube himself who approved the hiring of the 787-8 Dreamliner Jet for a ten day jaunt to Asia and Europe for Mnangagwa and his entourage, including Minister Ncube, at a cost of US$74 000 per hour.  

It is already clear that Minister Ncube’s austerity reforms will bring a lot of pain to the poor but with no economic gain in the short, medium or long term. None! This is just austerity for pain for pain’s sake! 

If the nation is “cash positive” as you say, then why are we still experiencing the cash shortages at the bank, the foreign currency shortages that are the root cause of the shortages of fuel, wheat, medicine, etc. etc. 

The shortage of foreign currency is symptomatic of Zimbabwe’s skewed economy; we have become a nation of consumers of imported goods and services whilst producing very little. When Minister Ncube came into office, he promised to attract investors into the country whom would give the country’s comatose economic the cash injection it needs to revive its productive sectors. There has been no significant inward investment for the last year and there is nothing to suggest there will be any in the future. 

There are one overarching reason why Minister Ncube has failed to attract any investors and financial assistance from such institutions as IMF, WB and Paris Club. Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs same as it was during Mugabe’s days. All the talk of “new dispensation”, “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is empty rhetoric. 

If anyone had any lingering doubts about Zimbabwe’s still a pariah state, the doubts evaporated last July when Mnangagwa and his “new dispensation” blatantly rigged the elections. He had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections but stubbornly refused to implement even one token democratic reform. 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. Period! Zimbabwe’s economy has been in decline for the last 38 years and that tread in set to continue. 

"We are going to go to what we call a global money deal roadshow in June this year, I as Finance minister and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor (John Mangudya), permanent secretary of finance George Guvamatanga and other captains of industry,”Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube has just announced.

"We will visit global capital and go for a roadshow. We will start with Frankfurt and go to Japan, London and New York and maybe the West Coast also, so that we explain the reform agenda the progress we are making. (We will) also explain the economic policies and the opportunities that are available in this country. We are not trying to raise the money or do a deal.”

Minister, investors already know that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs propped up by incompetent and egotistic intellectuals whose selfish greed knows no bounds!

Of course, Professor Mthuli Ncube KNOWS that Zanu PF is a party of corrupt and vote rigging thugs who are NOT democratically accountable to the people of Zimbabwe. He also KNOWS that for the last 20 years, at least, Zimbabweans have been fighting for democratic change and free and fair elections as the only way the nation can end the Zanu PF dictatorship and have competent and good government. 

He KNOWS too that by agreeing to work for the regime he is propping it up and undermining those fighting for democratic change. Most important of all, he KNOWS that his economic policies will never bring about the economic prosperity he keeps wittering about because the policies do not address the criminal waste of human and material resources due to corruption and mismanagement inherent in a dictatorship.

Professor Mthuli Ncube has his family in Switzerland at the end of his tour of duty as Minister of Finance, he will go back to Switzerland and leave the people of Zimbabwe to wallow in their economic poverty and political paralysis. He will insist he did his best for the nation when the truth is he sold-out and did so KNOWINGLY too.

Cross, Ncube's reforms will not bring prosperity, not whilst we remain a pariah state P Guramatunhu

“People of Zimbabwe deserve a new day” wrote Eddie Cross in Bulawayo 24. 

Mr Cross was writing about Zimbabwe’s economic chaos, the country has already claimed the position of being the poorest nation in Africa but, not content with that is sinking even deeper into new depths of economic depravity. 

3/4 of the population is already living on US$30 or less per month in a country whose poverty datum line is US$650 per month. And on Wednesday 20 February 2019 Dr John Mangudya, the Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, announced in the new Monetary Policy Statement that government would abandon the fixed 1:1 exchange of the quasi-local currency to the USD. The black market exchange rate is 4:1. 

Those with the economic muscle will benefit from the devaluation whilst those with no economic muscle will suffer. The worker will not get a wage increase to compensate for the devaluation and there will be worse to come. The 3/4 already living on US$30 or less per month will be living on even less now!

If one only considered how much the people of Zimbabwe have suffered these last 38 years then, yes, they deserve a new day! Sadly, the future is grime. Zimbabwe is set to sink even deeper into economic chaos and political paralysis.

To deserve a new day one has to answer one question and one question only: what have you done to deserve a better tomorrow. How much one has suffered may spur you to do something to end one’s suffering; still, it is what you have done that counts and not how much you have suffered. 

The people of Zimbabwe have done precious little to deserve a new day and so they will not get one! 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect people like Eddie Cross into power on the understanding he and his MDC friends would bring about the democratic changes and the new day the nation has been dying for! Eddie Cross and company have blundered from pillar to post for the last 19 years they have occupied centre stage and they are still blundering.

“Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has been following a carefully crafted reform programme to restore fiscal and monetary stability within the framework of sound macro-economic conditions,” wrote Eddie Cross.

“When he first came into office, I warned him that when he walked into his office, that a bucket full of nasty stuff would fall on his head. It was no understatement. He found that the RBZ was in a complete mess, the government was spending 40% more than they were collecting and all macroeconomic indicators were so far out of kilter that the state was in crisis. He took immediate steps to stop the bleeding — raising taxes and imposing strict budgetary discipline on all ministries and parastatals.”

If Professor Mthuli Ncube followed such “a carefully crafted reform programme” then why is the economy latching from one economic crisis to the next! His foolish argument that the greater the austerity painful and greater the prosperity is as nonsensical as argument that because the albatross can fly for ten months or more without landing it can fly to the moon. When the bird is a mere 8.8 km, the height of Mount Everest, it will struggle to breathe as the air only 1/3 its density at sea level. Introducing austerity measure without first getting the fundamentals right is plain foolish.

Zimbabwe’s economy will never ever recover whilst corruption remains rampant, for example. In 2016 then President Robert Mugabe admitted the country was being “swindled out $15 billion in diamond revenue”. He never arrested one swindler nor has his successor, Mnangagwa. We all know the looting is still taking place. 

Eddie Cross knows the seriousness of the wholesale looting in Zimbabwe because he raised the matter on numerous occasion during his days as MDC MP. Raising it was one thing but making sure the corrupt stopped was a bridge too far! 

So when Minister Ncube was appointed last year Mr Cross advised the minister to introduce the 2% electronic transaction tax , targeting the poorest of the poor who were not paying income tax, “to restore fiscal and monetary stability and stop the bleeding”. There is serious doubts it increased government revenue because economic activity dropped 16% in response to the new tax.  the  a bird can fly from point A to B it should be able to fly to the moon! If he was serious about stopping the economic bleeding then why did he fail to advise Minister Ncube to stop the looting? 

Worst of all, Mr Cross was cheering and applauding Ncube’s austerity programme knowing that without dealing with such basics as ending corrupt economic recovery would be as futile as the albatross flying to the moon! 

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess with unemployment a nauseating 90%, basic services such as supply of clean running water and health care all but collapsed, etc. because the nation has had the great misfortune of have corrupt, incompetent and utter useless leaders from both sides of the political divide. Eddie Cross advising Professor Mthuli Ncube is like listening to Lewis Carrol characters Tweedledee and Tweedledum. 

Zanu PF has imposed a political system on the nation that has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition. Politics has become the exclusive domain of thugs who believe public office is their ticket to get filthy rich at public expense. The long cherish value of holding public office for the good of the commonwealth has long been forgotten. 

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about bring about a better Zimbabwe then we must earn it to deserve it. To earn it, we must demand that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies must step down; they rigged last July’s elections they and right now they are an illegitimate regime. 

As for Chamisa and his fellow opposition opportunists, they must step aside. The last elections were so flawed and illegal it is nonsensical such a process can produce a legitimate outcome. Indeed, if anyone of these opposition leaders had valued free, fair and credible elections then they would have never participated in an election in which something as basic as a verified voters’ roll was missing.  

The proposed inter party dialogue will never deliver free, fair and credible elections. Both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance failed to implement even one reform during the last GNU, it is naive to believe they will do so now!  

Zimbabwe needs the political space and time to dismantle the corrupt, violent and dysfunctional autocratic political system we have now and replace it with a democratic one that allows free debate and democratic competition.

A free, just, prosperous Zimbabwe where all enjoy their freedoms and basic human rights is within our reach in our life time but we must earn it. We have suffered greatly and many Zimbabweans are paying the ultimate price, they are dying unnecessarily, because they cannot afford bare essentials of life, food, medicine, etc. 

How much we have suffered and how many lives lost will not bring a better Zimbabwe, it is only what you have done to help bring about change that counts. Are you tired of hearing Tweedledee and Tweedledum arguing endless about trivial matters whilst the country sinks deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth? Well do something about it by demand meaningful democratic change now.

VIDEO: EU lifted sanction to join in looting; they were never fooled by hyena

 

EU did NOT impose sanctions, impressed by Mnangagwa sincerity

 Starts 22 February 2019 at 14:03 (GMT)

EU lifted sanctions to join the looting - never fooled by the dung-smelling hyena P Guramatunhu

When the EU Foreign Ministers decided NOT to impose new and tougher sanctions on the Mnangagwa regime for failing to hold free, fair and credible elections last July and for using excessive violence to cow the nation into submission; it was a very foolish decision and a betrayal of the long suffering Zimbabweans fighting for democratic change. However, the decision was manna from heaven for the Zanu PF regime and its apologists. 

“The alleged heavy handedness of the security services in response to the disturbances of 1 August 2018 and 14 January 2019 have been cited by those who maintain that there is no difference between the old and new dispensations,” pitched in Chipozho Saruchera, in Bulawayo 24. 

“Proponents of this narrative have, however, deliberately ignored that what came first were carefully planned acts of violence, by Western sponsored opposition MDC and pseudo civic society organisations meant to destabilize the country.  They know that adding this bit would somehow dilute the vilification of the country's security agents and apportion blame to the actual orchestrators of the violence.”

No Saruchera the blatant vote rigging of the 30 July 2018 elections happened first, the heavy handed security services respond on 1 st August 2018 was to silence those protesting yet another rigged elections. The violent reaction by the security services on 14 January 2019 was sparked by the nearly 200% increase in fuel prices and the shortages of fuel, foreign currency, etc. The country’s worsening economic situation is itself a byproduct of the rigged elections and the over reaction by the regime was to once again silence the protesters. 

Even you, Saruchera, with all your skills for twisting and distorting facts cannot change the sequence of events of 30 July 2018 elections so they happen after those of 1st August 2o18 and much less those of 14 January 2019.

Of course, the State Security services were “heavy handed” because there was no justification for the “Shoot to kill!” order on the two occasions. None! 

Zanu PF has used brute force to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship in operation ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. The party’s modus operandi is to blow any lawlessness situation that is there way out of all proportion then use the exaggerated threat as cover for its own overt lawless operation to ruthlessly crash the regime’s opponents and critics. 

In the 1980s Zanu PF used the existence of a few hundred, at most, dissidents as cover to launch Gukurahundi in which over 20 000 defenceless civilians were murdered. The party wanted to crash PF Zapu, its main political opponent at the time. In the end the regime forced PF Zapu to sign the unity accord to form the de facto one-party state. 

Zanu PF has used the same dirty tactic, of blowing a minor security incident out of all proportion to justify it use of excessive force to silence its critics and impose its dictatorial rule, again and again in the last 38 years and is using it now. “Kurova imbwa wakavinga mupinhi!” (Art of punishing the dog/ opponent with a concealed weapon!) as one would say in Shona. 

Mnangagwa has gone to great lengths to sell the post November 2017 coup Zanu PF as a transformed and democratic party, “new dispensation”. To backup his claim, he has  promised to end corruption and to hold free, fair and credible elections. Sadly he has failed keep any of his promises. He never ever intended to keep any of the promises and hence never implement even one token democratic reform, for example. 

Mnangagwa employed the same vote buying and vote rigging schemes he, as Mugabe’s principle enforcer, had employed to keep Zanu PF and Mugabe is power. And, except for Mugabe and one or two others booted out of the dictatorship in the coup, he kept the same thugs to implement the schemes. 

A hyena will roll in elephant dung to disguise its own scent for the purposes of hunting, there is no question that it is still a hyena. Zanu PF under Mnangagwa was still the same corrupt, incompetent and murderous dictatorship; calling itself a “new dispensation” is nothing more than a hyena rolling in elephant dung. 

“The recent decision by the European Union (EU) Council not to extend sanctions on members of the Zimbabwean Government as proposed by EU parliament and Britain speaks volumes with regards to President Mnangagwa's sincerity to better the lives of locals. The EU must have looked at President Mnangagwa's track record since assuming office  and gave him benefit of doubt against the opposition and pseudo CSOs' unverified claims,” concluded the inveterate apologist and liar, Saruchera. 

The EU Foreign Ministers did not have to go far to find Mnangagwa’s track record, the EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission report said it all. 

“Major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” said the EU Mission’s final report. 

“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

We can be pretty certain that the EU Foreign Ministers were never, not for one second, fooled by Mnangagwa’s elephant dung scent; they know and have known all a long time that he is a corrupt, incompetent and murderous thug.

The real reason EU Foreign Ministers lifted the sanctions on the Zanu PF thugs is because EU members like Belgium want to join other nations like China, Russia, Israel, India, etc. in the wholesale looting of Zimbabwe’s diamonds and other resources. Besides the EU sanctions have been in place for nearly 20 years now and yet Zanu PF is still in power regardless of the many wasted opportunities to remove the regime.

EU Ministers have lifted sanctions because they were impressed by Mnangagwa’s “sincerity and democratic track-record!” Every EU racists must have loved that – proof blacks are incapable of self-government!

The challenge before us is to force Zanu PF to step down so we can finally implement the democratic reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections; our only ticket out of this hell-on-earth the regime landed us in. This is our fight, not the EU or anyone else’s fight, and we must not be fooled into believing an elephant dung smelling hyena is harmless!

VIDEO: Monetary policy statement will sanity - nonsense

 

Monetary Policy statement "to restore sanity in economy" says Mangudya

 Starts 20 February 2019 at 19:31 (GMT)

"Monetary Policy Statement will bring sanity" - never did or will, so long insane rule the roost N Garikai

The primary objective of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) long awaited Monetary Policy Statement was to bring sanity to Zimbabwe’s chaotic economic world, especially the madness in financial and currency market. As RBZ Governor, Dr John Mangudya, readily admitted when he launched the policy statement. “This is essential in order to bring sanity in the foreign currency market whilst at the same time promoting exports, diaspora remittances and investments for the good of our national economy,” he said.

Sadly, instead of bringing sanity and stability he has only succeeded in mudding the muddy waters. After going through the statement it is clear that no one in RBZ and Ministry of Finance; headed by the flamboyant and blundering Professor Mthuli Ncube, who approved the statement; know what they are doing. 

The statement confirms that insanity still rules supreme in Zimbabwe because nothing in the statement makes any sense. Nothing!

“Denominating the existing RTGS balances, bond notes and coins in circulation as RTGS dollars in order to establish an exchange rate between the current monetary balances and foreign currency. The RTGS dollars thus become part of the multi-currency system in Zimbabwe. The legal instrument to give effect to this has been prepared,” said the statement. 

It should be noted here that RTGS balances were, until now, denominated Bond Notes, the electronic equivalent of Bond Notes and coins. The value of the RTGS was less than the Bond Notes and Coins for various reasons including convenience and electronic transactions were subject to the new 2% tax introduced last October by Minister Ncube. Whilst the exchange rate to Bond Notes and coins was 3:1 to the USD the equivalent RTGS exchange rate was 4:1 or worse. 

So in denominating all Bond Notes balances and cash to RTGS$ means  people have just lost out, instead of having Bond Note worth US$0.33 they now have RTGS$ worth US$0.25!  

“The RTGS dollars shall be used by all entities (including government) and individuals in Zimbabwe for the purposes of pricing of goods and services, record debts, accounting and settlement of domestic transactions,” we are now told.

When Governor Mangudya was asked what is exchange rate for the RTGS$ against the USD; his reply was that the RBZ will not set a rate but would let the market decide. 

It should be remembered here that until this statement government had recognised only the official exchange rate of 1:1 of Bond Note to USD. 

So by acknowledging the unofficial exchange rate of 4:1 those with the economic muscle will impose the exchange rate that suits them. Employers, including government, will never adjust the workers’ wages, agreed at on the basis of 1:1 exchange rate. Meanwhile all the goods and services will be charging in RTGS$ using the highest exchange rate possible!

Last time, October last year, when Finance Minister suggested government would let the Bond Note float this had caused serious financial turmoil as people rushed to sell their Bond Notes for the more stable USD; the exchange rate soared to as much as 10:1 and only started to come down when the Minister withdraw his foolish statement! 

It is hardly six months since Minister Ncube’s ill-advised exchange rate comment and yet government has once again put its foot into it! Government has just fired the starting gun of the rat race to buy USD with RTGS$. The value of the latter will fall. 

If government tries to impose price control by insisting on a stable RTGS$ price whilst allowing the market to determine the later’s value this will only result in shortages. Zimbabweans have been queuing for cash, fuel, bread, etc. the queues are only going to get longer and the list of commodities is short supply will increase. 

“The Bank has arranged sufficient lines of credit to enable it to maintain adequate foreign currency to underpin the exchange market. This is essential to restore the purchasing power of RTGS balances through safeguarding price stability emanating from the pass-through effects of exchange rate movements,” said Governor Mangudya. 

Zimbabwe’s chronic shortage of foreign currency is a child of the country’s skewed balance of payment. We are importing far more than we can pay for through our export earnings. We need to revive the country production to reduce the volume of imports, we are now net importers of food a far cry from our breadbasket of the region days. Creating lines of credit, dictating what people should spend their hard earned incomes on, etc. are not going to end the country’s foreign currency shortages and all the other economic problems. 

It is laughable that Dr Mangudya should be admitting to the need to “bring sanity to the foreign currency market” when he knows that it was the RBZ and Ministry of Finance’s ill-advised policies that brought the insanity in the first place. By the same token he and Minister Ncube know the recent statement will do nothing to end the chaos and insanity in the Zimbabwe economy. 

The two gentlemen know the madness in the Zimbabwe economy will not end until something is done to end the rampant corruption and to restore investor confidence in Zimbabwe as a stable country and not a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs. There can be no economic recovery, much less prosperity, whilst the country remains a corrupt and lawless nation. There can never be sanity whilst the insane continue to rule!

"Zanu PF legitimacy is NOT on dialogue agenda" - everything else NOT worth candle N Garikai

"It is an obligation upon every political player in the country to recognise the pronouncement by the Constitutional Court. So the issue of the election of the President is not on the table and will not be on the table because a decision has been made by the highest courts on that particular issue. We are not entertaining any discussion on that," said Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs.

"We are saying we have a Government in place led by President Mnangagwa, but there are areas which require improvement from a social, political and economic perspective, let us discuss those issues with full recognition that there is a President who was elected by the people of Zimbabwe that is the context under which we are discussing. We are not discussing the legitimacy or otherwise of the election of the President. It is not an item on the agenda."

Mangwana and Zanu Pf can say whatever they like the reality is that no one with a working brain including the many election observers and, most important of all, the investors and lenders condemned last July’s elections as a farce. Zimbabwe is therefore being ruled by a regime that has no democratic mandate to govern the country, making the country a pariah state no one would want to do business with.

The root cause of the country’s worsen economic meltdown is the failure of Mnangagwa’s clarion call, “Zimbabwe is open for business!”, to attract investors.

Zanu PF has always rigged the elections and presented the nation and the world with a fait accompli of a Zanu PF government. The party has got away with it in the past. For 38 years Zimbabwe has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime with the disastrous consequences of economic meltdown and political paralysis. The all-powerful and tyrannical Zanu PF party is surrounded by an enfeebled opposition parties, making Zanu PF the only game in town.

Still the country’s economic situation, with 75% of the people now living of US$30 per month in a country with poverty datum line is US$650, with basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, etc.; it is clear something must be done a.s.a.p. to revive the economy.

On the political front, it is clear that if Zanu PF remains in power until 2023, the party will rig those elections too to extend its rule.

As long as Zanu PF remains in power there is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery because under Zanu PF rule the country is and will remain a pariah state. Zanu PF must be forced to step down, the sooner the better to create the political space for the appointment of an interim administration to implement the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.

The basis for demanding that Zanu PF step down is that the party does not have the mandate to govern the country since it rigged last July’s elections. Zanu PF cannot pre-empty the demand for it to step down by taking the rigged election off the agenda; it is the only issue on the agenda worth the candle.