Emmerson Mnangagwa is a con man, he has sold the nation the notion that Mutapa Fund, funded from public funds, will take over the running and funding of the nation’s key institutions such as ZESA, NRZ, NASA, ZISCO, etc., etc., and revive them. All these parastatals have all but collapsed due to decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. So what is it exactly that the Mutapa Fund will do differently to revive these parastatals?
Under the Mupata Fund, the Fund’s board together with the relevant parastatal’s board and managers are now freed to conduct their business activities without parliamentary oversight, freed from public procurement rules and not be compelled to produced audited financial reports nor Auditor General oversight. What!
These parastatals have collapsed precisely because the Zanu PF government has again and again failed to act on the Auditor General’s damning on corruption and mismanagement. It is naive, to say the least, to believe that stopping parliament, Auditor General, etc. oversight will, somehow stamp out the corruption and mismanagement.
If anyone believes that the Mupata Fund will stamp out corruption and mismanagement by removing all the check and balances and demands for transparency and accountability then “I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell to you!” as George Parker, renowned New York City con man who sold gullible immigrants a century ago, would say
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have failed to implement even one token democratic reform in the last 24 years including the 5 GNU years when they had the opportunity to do so. Ever since the GNU Chamisa and company have participated in flawed elections knowing fully well that doing so would give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. They soldiered on regardless because they also knew that Zanu PF would give away a few gravy train seats.
Chamisa has conned his followers to participate in these flawed elections again and again on the basis he had devised winning in RIGGED elections strategies. Last year he told them the idiotic lie that he had plugged all vote rigging loop holes, when he could not even deliver a verified voters’ roll or deploy election agents at all the Polling Stations. Two million of his supporters believed the lie and participated in the flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship.
Just as the Zanu PF supporters believe in Mutapa Fund reviving ZESA, NRZ, etc. Chamisa supporters believe they will win RIGGED elections. No wonder Zimbabwe is a failed state, we have some of the most gullible people on planet earth; so easily conned!
Masvingo Mirror has confirmed that some Zimbabweans voted in the recent Mozambique elections.
ReplyDeleteWe feared that this might happen and now it has happened. Everyone in Zimbabwe and in the rest of SADC countries must condemn this blatant interference in another sovereign nation’s affairs.
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1PlKQbEAdBYGE
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is a failed state because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabweans had no business interfering in Mozambique's elections. SADC is paying dearly for allowing Mnangagwa to get away with rigged 2023 Zimbabwe elections! Now we have the chairman of SADC is guilt of rigging elections in another sovereign nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkcB4O9k910
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa blatantly rigged the 2018 and 2023 elections so why is Eddie Cross insisting the elections were free, fair and credible?
Why has Zimbabwe's media practitioners failed to hold MDC/CCC leaders to account for failing to deliver even one democratic reform in 24 years, for lying about plugging vote rigging loop holes, for giving political legitimacy to vote rigging Mnangagwa, etc.? The media is there to educate the public and not to brainwash them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADO6iUKcWbY
ReplyDeleteZanu PF ruling elite and their cronies benefited from the seized former white owned farms and not the landless peasants and yet it is the taxpayer, all Zimbabweans, who is to pay the US$3.5 billion compensation to the white farmer. Why should everyone pay when those who benefit are there?
Meanwhile the regime is keeping the rural povo poor denying the title deeds to even one acre on which their mud hut stand for selfish political gain. This is an abomination and no stone must be left unturned to end it a.s.a.p.
London CNN —
ReplyDeleteThree economists were awarded the Nobel Prize Monday for their research into how the nature of institutions helps explain why some countries become rich and others remain poor.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson will share the prize, which carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million).
The Nobel Committee praised the trio for explaining why “societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better.”
“When Europeans colonized large parts of the globe, the institutions in those societies changed,” the committee said, citing the economists’ work. While in many places this was aimed at exploiting the indigenous population, in other places it laid the foundations for inclusive political and economic systems.
“The laureates have shown that one explanation for differences in countries’ prosperity is the societal institutions that were introduced during colonization,” the committee added.
Countries that developed “inclusive institutions” – which uphold the rule of law and property rights – have over time become prosperous, while those that developed “extractive institutions” – which, in the laureates’ words, “squeeze” resources from the wider population to benefit the elites – have experienced persistently low economic growth.
The introduction of more inclusive institutions, less extraction and the rule of law would create long-term benefits. So why don’t the elite simply replace the existing economic system? The laureates’ model for explaining the circumstances under which political institutions are… pic.twitter.com/oPCbMndkQM
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 14, 2024
In their 2012 book “Why Nations Fail,” Acemoglu, a Turkish-American professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Robinson, a British professor at the University of Chicago, argue that some nations are wealthier than others because of their political and economic institutions.
The book opens with a comparison of living standards in two towns called Nogales – one in Arizona and one south of the border in Mexico’s Sonora region. Whereas some economists have argued that differences in climate, agriculture and culture have huge impacts on a place’s prosperity, Acemoglu and Robinson argue that those living in Nogales, Arizona, are healthier and wealthier because of the relative strength of their local institutions.
Last year, Acemoglu and Johnson – a British-American professor at MIT – published “Power and Progress,” a study of how technological innovations over the past 1,000 years, from agricultural advances to artificial intelligence, have tended to benefit the elites, rather than creating prosperity for all.
The authors warned that “the current path of AI is neither good for the economy nor for democracy.”
BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” Nobel Prize
Democracy equals growth?
Asked whether their research simply argues that “democracy means economic growth,” Acemoglu said “the work we have done favors democracy” but added that democracy “is not a panacea.”
“Our argument has been that this sort of authoritarian growth is more unstable and does not generally lead to very rapid and original innovation,” Acemoglu said in a phone interview during the announcement ceremony.
In “Why Nations Fail,” he and Robinson argued that China, because it lacks inclusive institutions, would not be able to sustain its economic growth. More than a decade since the book’s publication, Acemoglu said China has posed a “bit of a challenge” to that argument, as Beijing has been “pouring investment” into the innovative fields of AI and electric vehicles.
ReplyDeleteIn “Why Nations Fail,” he and Robinson argued that China, because it lacks inclusive institutions, would not be able to sustain its economic growth. More than a decade since the book’s publication, Acemoglu said China has posed a “bit of a challenge” to that argument, as Beijing has been “pouring investment” into the innovative fields of AI and electric vehicles.
“But my perspective is generally that these authoritarian regimes, for a variety of reasons, are going to have a harder time in achieving long-term, sustainable innovation outcomes,” he said.
The economics prize is officially known as Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Unlike the prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace, it was not instituted by the Swedish industrialist but rather by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.
Last year, the prize went to Claudia Goldin, a professor at Harvard University, for her research into women in the labor market.
Using more than 200 years’ worth of US data, Goldin showed how the nature of the gender pay gap has changed over time. Historically, much of the gap could be explained by differences in education and occupation. But in more recent history, she found, the bulk of the gap has been between men and women in the same occupation, and it largely emerges when a woman has her first child.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Countries that developed “inclusive institutions” – which uphold the rule of law and property rights – have over time become prosperous, while those that developed “extractive institutions” – which, in the laureates’ words, “squeeze” resources from the wider population to benefit the elites – have experienced persistently low economic growth.
This is Zimbabwe in a nutshell! Mnangagwa has just created Mutapa Fund which is empowered to cream-off the nation’s wealth from all sources, direct and indirect, legal and illegal, and yet only Mnangagwa will have the power to say how the wealth is spend! No one else or institution is allowed to have oversight on the dealing of Mutapa Fund. No one!
Zimbabwe is a failed state because for the last 44 years Zanu PF has done as it damn well pleased. Such bodies as the Auditor General have come up with damning reports of mismanagement and corruption, much to the embarrassment of the regime. Still the nation was not able to remove Zanu PF from office because the regime rigged elections and so was not democratically accountable. The creation of this Mutapa Fund operating in this black box will allow the regime to loot at leisure without ever having to fear any expose and embarrassment!