"Next year will start prosperity period" - we must forget mirage, focus on accountability N Garikai

"Next year we will be starting entering the prosperity period because my understanding is that it can only be austerity for a year and you cannot have austerity for three years that's not fair. The beginning of next year will be less and less austerity," said Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance.

This is just the usual nonsense the nation has come to expect from our Minister-Know-It-All! He promised to attract foreign and local investors and to have IMF and WB back on board funding the country’s economic recovery. 8 months later there are still no investors and lenders and he has quietly shelved the idea.

When Zimbabwe introduced the Bond Note currency in 2016 the nation was assured their US$ bank balances will be protected and it was Minister Ncube who instructed the banks to convert all existing bank balances to Bond Notes at the official exchange rate of 1:1 to the US$ although the black market exchange rate was 3:1 or worse.

The Minister has promised to bring stability to the local currency but has clearly failed. The new local currency, the RTGS$ introduced end of February 2019, has already lost half its value as exchange rate has soared from 2.5:1 US$ to 5:1. The prices of goods and services have soared too. The price of bread has nearly double with the price of internet data soaring 1300%!

"Money supply is not growing on the market and my question is where the pressure for foreign currency is coming from. That has mainly been driven by speculation in the market and I urge private sector to utilise the interbank market," said Ncube.

If the money supply WAS growing, would you admit it? Of course, not! It is almost certain that the money supply has been growing. The failure to revive the country’s economy means the country continues to import far more than it earns from exports and hence the local currency is valued less than the foreign currency.

It is government’s responsibility to come up with policies that stimulate economic growth and stability. This government has clearly failing to do this and instead of owning up to its failures it is blaming everyone else or worse.

""I want to give a stern warning to those practicing financial terrorism in the country. We will react accordingly as Government and nobody should claim that they were not warned. We'll take very strict measures," said VP Constantino Chiwenga.

Yes, VP Chiwenga the whole world knows the unfathomed depths of barbarism Zanu PF will sink to in the regime’s resolve to hang-on to absolute power. The regime’s hands are red with the fresh blood of nearly 30 innocent civilians murder in August 2018 and January this year. They crime was to dare protest against another rigged elections and the soaring cost of living.

The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown because of 39 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness and thuggery that has destroyed the promising economy the nation inherited in 1980 and forced all would-be investors and lenders to stay away. President Mnangagwa has since admitted his failure to end corruption because it is “deep-rooted”, he said. He could not and will never up-rooted corruption because he and his fellow Zanu PF ruling elite are the godfathers of corruption.

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will never be any meaningful economic recovery much less prosperity.

“Next year we will be starting entering the prosperity period!” This is a mirage the people of Zimbabwe have been promised for the last 39 years, there only thing certain is that the economy will be worse off and the regime will once again push back the start date of prosperity.

After 39 years of living on empty promises the people of Zimbabwe should not concern themselves with whether or not Zanu PF will deliver prosperity next year but with what the nation will do if they do not. For the last 39 years Zanu PF has failed to deliver economic prosperity and delivered instead economic poverty. We have done nothing about it because the regime has usurped our democratic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown is bad governance it is our duty and responsibility to end the Zanu PF dictatorship a.s.a.p. We must implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. It is clear Zanu PF cannot be trusted to reform itself out of office and hence the reason the regime must be pressured to step down.

If Zanu PF is still in office in 2023 then we can be 100% certain of two things:

1)   Zimbabwe’s economy will still be in the doldrums and Minister Ncube will have moved the start date of economic prosperity in the future.  

2)   Zanu PF will rig that year’s elections, just as the party has done these last 39 years, to extend the regime corrupt and tyrannical reign by another five years.

The nation will be powerless to hold the regime to democratic account for all the decades of heart-breaking economic austerity with nothing to show for it. Minister Mthuli Ncube’s austerity have left so many people destitute, many people are dying for want of food, medicine, etc. “Next year we will be starting entering the prosperity period!” Many, many people are dying already, victims of his draconian austerity measures, and we are being asked to accept 8 more months of this! Worse still, with Zanu PF still in power we can be certain the nightmare will continue!