Forget economic dimension of TSP, talk of political one - what if it fails N Garikai

“In the words of Immanuel Kant who said 'by a lie, a man consumes his own dignity,' it has become apparent that the MDC Alliance and its apologists, this time led by Tendai Biti have become shameless and taken where they left after last month's events in their sustained campaign to derail and discredit the government's continuing macro economic reforms which are already bearing fruit,” commented Nick Mangwana.

What is amusing here is that Nick Mangwana should be calling Tendai Biti an apologist and a desperate man when he is Zanu PF’s Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services - read Zanu PF’s apologist, liar and worse. A case of the pot calling the kettle black. 

“Mr Biti claimed on his Twitter handle that the government is this week introducing the local currency, sending the whole economy into a panic mode with regards to the future of their current holdings of various currencies,” continue Mangwana

“The government's economic policy direction is clearly contained in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) which articulates comprehensive, time specific and achievable plans of action to set the Zimbabwean economy on a growth trajectory in line with vision 2030 of an upper middle - income country.”

Actually I would like to take this discussion to a new level, the level Zanu PF has completely stifled, the level apologists like Mangwana and even the egotistic and pompous Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube was never ever venture to trade. Instead of discussing the economic merits or otherwise of when the new local currency will introduce or that of the TSP in delivery prosperity in 2030; I want to discuss the political dimension. 

a)    The ordinary Zimbabweans out there had no meaningful say in any of Zanu PF’s economic policies and programmes. Zanu PF rigs elections denying the people any meaningful vote and then imposes whatever economic policies it sees fit. The best the regime has ever allowed the ordinary Zimbabweans to do is to comment on policies, etc. but don’t touch.

b)    Ordinary Zimbabweans have no meaningful say in when, how, etc. any of these economic policies and programmes are implemented. Protest against worsening economic hardship has been ruthlessly silenced. The ruling elite have gone to town in their praise of Zimbabweans’ “resilience”. Whilst the ruling elite have been travelling to SA, Singapore, etc. for their health care needs, for example, because the nation’s health care services has all but collapsed. The ruling elite expect the ordinary people to just suffer and die quietly; all in the name of resilience!

c)     Worst of all, not even one ordinary Zimbabweans will have a meaningful say even if any or all of these policies and programmes are a complete failure. Indeed that is exactly what has happen; Zimbabwe started as a middle income nation in 1980 and after 20 years or so of criminal waste of human and material resource under this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship the country had sunk to its present position of being the poorest country in African. 

d)    By the late 1990s most Zimbabweans were painfully aware that whilst Zanu PF kept promising mass economic prosperity the regime was delivering mass economic poverty. People realised the need for democratic changes to restore their democratic right to a meaningful vote. People risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the ticket they will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. After 19 years on the political stage MDC leaders have failed to bring about even one meaningful democratic change. Not one! 

e)    Now will the national economy in total economic meltdown, with unemployment rate a dizzying 90%, 3 out of 4 Zimbabweans living on US$1.00 or less a day, etc. it is clear Zimbabwe cannot afford the luxury of assuming Zanu PF’s new currency, the TSP, etc. will work. All economic policies and programmes must be subjected to all manner of scrutiny at their formative stage and implementation. All Zimbabweans must be afforded a meaningful say in a free, fair and credible elections in who governs the country and hence what policies are implemented. 

f)     Zanu PF does not have the mandate of the people to govern since last July’s elections were NOT free, fair and credible. It is nonsensical and a waste of time to discuss Zanu PF’s economic policies and programmes when Zanu PF imposed itself and its policies on the nation and the nation cannot hold the regime to account regardless what happens! 

Ever since the 30 July 2018 elections, Zimbabwe does not have a legitimate government because the elections were flawed and illegal.

“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,” EU Election Observers Mission stated in its 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.”

Both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance have each claimed to have won the elections but that is just nonsense. Neither party can say who was on the voters’ roll, who voted, how many times etc. because no verified voters’ roll was ever realised although it is a legal requirement. 

As the EU report rightly pointed out, some of the irregularities favoured the ruling party Zanu PF; still it will be foolish to award MDC Alliance electoral victory by default. The opposition had the chance to demand the release of verified voters’ roll, for example, but chose to participate regardless, out of greed. It should be noted that MDC Alliance leaders had the golden opportunity during the 2008 GNU to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections but failed to implement even one reforms out of greed.

To would be wrong to award the opposition victory and reward they for their greed and incompetence. By the same token it would be wrong to allow Zanu PF to remain in power and reward the regime for blatantly denying the people their right to a meaningful vote.. 

After 38 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and murderous tyranny Zimbabwe has the chance for a clean break. We need to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship and replace it with a democratic system of government. All we need to do is appoint an interim administration, in place of the illegitimate Zanu PF regime, tasked to implement the reforms.