“The era of painful austerity measures is over and the country should brace for positive growth and productivity in 2020, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said yesterday,” reported The Chronicle.
“The country's economy is expected to register a growth of plus 4,6 percent in 2020, from a negative three to six percent this year.”
This is just wishful thinking, of course!
Both Mnangagwa and Professor Ncube have known all along that Zimbabwe would never pull itself out of the economic mess it was stuck in by its own shoe strings. And hence the reason they have invested so much time, sweat and treasure in attracting investors and financial support from the IMF and WB. Sadly, they have nothing to show for all their efforts.
“Zimbabwe is open for business!” has had no takers. The flood of investors President Mnangagwa was cocksure would answer his clarion call have not materialised.
President Mnangagwa has failed to end corruption and, most notably, failed to keep the promise to hold free, fair and credible elections and thus confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. No one wants to do business with thugs.
Professor Ncube’s austerity program was doomed to fail; it targeted the poor whilst doing nothing to stop the unsustainable criminal waste of resources from the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption.
The Zimbabwe economy has been in decline for most of the last 39 years. As a rule of thumb, the Zanu PF has never acknowledged responsibility for any of the economic decline. Each time the regime has acknowledged the economic decline it was only to give a myriad of excuses; the drought, sanctions (its hot favourite), etc.
The regime has, without failure, offered solutions galore to all the economic problems including the dreaded sanctions. Not that the people had any meaningful democratic say in who ruled the country, since the party has always rigged elections to stay in power. So when the desired economic recovery never materialise, the party got away with it. History has the habit of repeating itself.
Professor Mthuli Ncube promised that inflation with be less than 10% by the end of this year. At present it is 300 to 500% and rising!
The Minister said the projected growth next year would be driven by several factors.
"First of all, we expect better rains in the 2019/20 season because that will mean agricultural output will pick up again. It also means the power outages that you see will ameliorate because we can have more hydro-power when water in Kariba is up.
"But also, we expect the budget to be more supportive of growth. We have said the 2020 budget is about growth and productivity in the main and job creation, supporting competitiveness and of course making sure that we have shared growth.”
Ever since the chaotic seizure of the farms to give them to Zanu PF loyalists, mostly; the agricultural sector has collapsed and never recovered. The country would have done very well indeed if we produce enough to meet most of our food needs. It is rich to expect agricultural production to recover to its pre-farm seizure level to finance the economic recovery.
What budgetary support can the minister offer when the country’s economy has shrunk 3 to 6%, by the Minister’s own admission!
First we were promised economic mass prosperity and get mass poverty instead. And ever since we were asked to endure short term painful austerity for the sake of long term prosperity only for the austerity to last now 39 years and counting with nothing to show for it.
In Zimbabwe, where those in power enjoy absolute power to impose painful austerity measure insisting the measures will bring about economic prosperity. When the prosperity fail to materialise the whole sad story is brushed aside with no explanation or apology only to be replaced by fresh austerity proposals.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, …” Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities.
In Zimbabwe, where those in power are accountable to no one, we the people ever get is the worst of times, the age of foolishness, epoch of incredulity, season of darkness, etc., etc.! Until we curse ourselves of the curse of rigged elections the country will never know a day of wisdom and hope.
“The era of painful austerity measures is over!” said Professor Ncube. Speaking with the arrogant indifference of one who has never suffered any of pain, knows that he is lying and, most important of all, knows he will never ever be held to account for anything!
The people of Zimbabwe are going through yet another austerity program whose end product is failure because the program was ill-advised and targeted the poor to make the sacrifices whilst the corrupt ruling elite walked away scot-free!
ReplyDeleteProfessor Mthuli Ncube was warned that his austerity policies were targeting the poorest of the poor and yet left those responsible for the wholesale looting and the gross mismanagement untouched but he would not listen. His 2% electronic transaction tax was meant to rope in the 90% unemployed the majority of who live on US$ 30 per month or less because they were not paying any income tax. They pay the sales tax and all the other taxes, of course.
In 2016 Mugabe admitted the country was losing US$15 billion in diamond revenue alone. The looting has continued to this day. Minister Ncube has done nothing to tax the looted wealth much less stop the looting!
It is nonsensical to expect the 2% tax on the poor's meagre incomes of US$ 30 per month to make up for billions of dollars lost through mismanagement and corruption!
It is a great tragedy that people like Professor Ncube, Minister Coventry, etc. are never held to account for the tragic human suffering and deaths they have inflicted on the nation. These individuals knew that Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and yet decided to prop the regime for no better reason than selfish economic gain - the posh job, generous salary and allowances, etc.!
@ Mike Ndlovu
ReplyDeleteIt is all very well for you because you only have to stop reading about "what is going on home"! Think of the millions whose lives is a living hell because they have to face the fuel shortage, come home and find there is no ZESA and running water, watch a sick child who should be in hospital, etc., etc. Those on the coal face of Zimbabwe's economic and political mess are not fed up with hearing about the situation, they will never be fed up with that because they want the mess sorted out yesterday!
If you were living in Zimbabwe you will crying about the hardships; it will be selfish of me or anyone, especially those who are not going through what you are going through to tell you to shut up!
“The US is preparing to deal with a fully fledged military dictatorship in Zimbabwe, as they’re increasingly convinced that another military putsch is imminent,” said the diplomats.
ReplyDelete“To that effect we hear President Trump is considering to issue a presidential executive order with a fresh regime of sanctions and other measures against your government. Proponents of the new sanctions inside his government circles, reportedly want Harare’s diamonds to be classified as blood diamonds amid allegations of forced labour and exploitation by the Chinese at the Marange fields.
“Furthermore there’s also a feeling that Russia is propping Zimbabwe, as Mnangagwa has allowed them to come in and mine diamonds and platinum. Zimbabwe’s defence cooperation with Moscow, is also seen as a threat to Washington’s foreign policy objectives in Southern Africa.”
Zimbabwe has been sliding slowly but surely into the economic and political demise for the last 40 years. SADC and AU leaders have had many golden opportunities to save Zimbabwe from this mess but they have wasted these opportunities.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies, blatantly rigged last year’s elections and SADC and AU election observers turned a blind-eye to this. Both the regional and continental leaders should hang their heads in shame for their folly.
Zimbabwe needs saving from this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime which has rigged elections again and again to stay in power. It is pleasing to note that the EU, the Americans and all those with some common sense condemn Zanu PF for rigging last year’s elections and they are now ready to step in again and impose some democratic sense into the Zanu PF madness!
There is a clear possibility of yet another military coup and/or rigged election and imposing pre-emptive sanctions on these Zanu PF thugs is the way to go.
South Africa suspends Air Zimbabwe!
ReplyDeleteSo South Africa accepted the bull s***t about sanctions being the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown but would not accept the same bull as an excuse for failing to pay SA bills! What a bunch of hypocrites we have south of the Limpopo River!
@ Tawanda Manjoni
ReplyDeleteTOP anti-corruption watchdog, Information for Development Trust has dismissed as false and malicious, State claims that it was among prominent local groups on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) payroll to pursue a regime change plot against the Zanu PF led government.
A leaked document places IDT top of a list of some 23 prominent local NGOs that include, Zimbabwe Peace Project, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, plotting against the establishment.
According to the document, IDT is guilty of originating “fake and politically motivated corruption stories targeting senior Zanu PF members so as to promote divisions within the ruling party”.
Since it started operating as a legal entity in the country, IDT has produced 20 corruption stories, none of which have been challenged, legally or otherwise by those implicated in the articles.
Said the group in its statement, “This is because we have always taken enough care to encourage the journalists to back the stories with solid evidence and to adhere to the cardinal ethical tenets of accuracy, truth, balance, right of reply and objectivity. It is, therefore, clearly wrong to describe the stories commissioned by IDT as fake.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies rigged last year's elections confident they will get away with the rigging and they would go on to deliver economic recovery.
The regime has failed to bring about the economic recovery and it has also found it impossible to shake off the pariah state label. As the economic meltdown got worse the spotlight has shown with increased intensity on the regime's illegitimacy. Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs who will never admit to their own failures and when they are under pressure instead of addressing the problem will instinctively look for scapegoats to lash at.
Zanu PF's ethos is to burn the nation to the ground rather than allow anyone else to rule! Mnangagwa and company know their days in power are numbered but before they take the final bow they would want to see all their opponents and critics dead and everything up in flames!
Sanctions have been framed as an international trade embargo against Zimbabwe and, because they do not have the imprimatur of the United Nations Security Council, they have been called illegal. However, the measures imposed by the US, EU and other western countries are neither a trade embargo against Zimbabwe nor do they purport to bind all countries of the United Nations. The fact that they were not imposed by the United Nations Security Council does not make them “illegal”. All countries have a sovereign right to limit their dealings with other countries.
ReplyDeleteThe sanctions debate is one of those debates that have been repeated over and over again but only because some people have no respect for truth, facts and reality. Our situation is made worse when those people are the ones in power and have the absolute power to dictate the national agenda.
Most people now understand that as long as Zanu PF rigs elections the nation will never get the regime out of office and thus end the mismanagement and corruption. They also know that the sanctions were imposed to force Zanu PF to stop rigging elections and hence the reason they want the sanctions to remain.
Whatever economic hardship have been brought to bear on the ordinary person by sanctions these are nothing compared to the hardship brought about because of corruption and mismanagement.
Mnangagwa organised a nation wide anti-sanctions march today 25 October 2019, declared the day a public holiday and paid for the food and transport (costed $4 million) for those attending the march. The high-point of the march was rally in the national stadium addressed by Mnangagwa himself. Only a handful of people attended the rally.
Zimbabweans are sick and tired of being taken for fools! They know sanctions are not the root cause of the economic meltdown; they can see the filthy rich ruling elite’s multi-million dollar mansions, posh cars, extravagant lifestyles, etc. gobbling up the nation’s wealth.