“Twenty Thirty Over the past year, there has been much talk about Vision 2030, our national growth strategy to transform Zimbabwe into a Prosperous and Empowered Upper Middle Income Society by the end of the next decade,” started off Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance.
“There has been less talk, however, about how we are going to get there, and the specific steps we are planning to take. Government is asking for patience and understanding from its citizens, and it is therefore important that we clearly communicate not only where we are going, but also how we will get there.”
He then went on to discuss at length where we are going and how we are to get there.
Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship per se only Zanu PF leaders have a meaningful say on where the nation is going and how it will get there. We started as a middle income nation in 1980, Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies promised the nation mass economic prosperity, “Gutsva Ruzhinji” (Mass Prosperity) and 38 years down the line Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa.
Even when it was as clear as day that where the nation was going was mass poverty and not mass prosperity, the Zanu PF dictatorship stubbornly maintained our destiny was still “Gutsva Ruzhinji!” and it knew exactly how to get there.
So all these articles from Minister Ncube, Mnangagwa and others in Zanu PF assuring the people that vision 2030 is a certainty is nothing new; people have heard all that before. What the nation is rightly worried about is not so much where we are going and how we will get there but rather What if it is as clear as day we are going somewhere else? What then?
It was as clear as day by the late 1990 that the nation was heading for mass poverty and not mass prosperity but the nation has continued to sink deeper and deeper into economic despair because the ordinary people were powerless to force change of direction. Because Zimbabwe was and still is to this day a de facto one-party dictatorship in which the ordinary people were denied their freedoms and basic rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Professor Ncube, if Zimbabwe was your own personal property then you have every right to do as you pleased. It is not your personal property nor is it Mnangagwa and his junta’s personal property. Zimbabwe belongs to every Zimbabwean with the legal right to call himself or herself that and their descendants. As such, every Zimbabwean has a right to a meaningful say to where the country is going and how it is going to get there. The meaningful say will ensure they have a right to disagree with those in power and if need be remove them in a free, fair and credible election.
I know you, Professor Ncube; and many others like Kirsty Coventry, the 24 President Advisory Council members and many other Zimbabwean professionals now serving in this Zanu PF regime in various capacities; have been very careful to focus on your area of expertise and not to say very little on whether last year’s elections were free, fair and credible. The regime has recruited you especially for your expertise in your field and it is counting on you to convince the populous that you will delivery vision 2030, for example.
But even you have to admit that delivering 2030 will dependent on the other ministers performing to the set targets, for example. It they fail to do so vision 2030 will remain forever a mirage. And hence the reason why the people are rightly concerned about making sure they restore their right and power to have a meaningful vote and who governs the country.
Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections just as readily as the party has rigged past elections. Without a meaningful vote the people will have no meaningful way of holding Zanu PF to account which the primary reason the nation failed to end Zanu PF’s rule even when it was as clear as day the party was dragging the nation into the hell-on-earth we now find ourselves in.
It is shocking that you, Professor Mthuli Ncube and many of your fellow intellectuals now serving in Zanu PF, with all your academic qualifications and intellectual enlightenment you have failed to appreciate the critical importance why Zimbabwe needs to end the curse of dictatorial rule, restore the all individual freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans as the pre-requisite to peace, justice and economic prosperity. If one assumes that you are genuinely committed to rescuing the nation from the economic mess we are in; you are shockingly naive to believe you can achieve meaningful economic recovery, much less prosperity, whilst the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship remains untouched!
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