By Farai D Hove| The People’ Rainbow Coalition (PRC) leader Dr Joice Mujuru has scoffed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying he is just dancing on a Chinese MOU which has no cash either inscribed or implied.

In a statement, Dr Mujuru said she “urges Zimbabweans not to be fooled and misled by the Coup President Ed Mnangagwa’s falsehoods and propaganda of having signed economic mega deals in China.

“The kindargaten and exaggerated praises of Ed’ s China visit stands out as a classical demonstration of a military administration that lacks primary understanding of the definition and meaning of what constitutes a memorandum of understanding. Put simply, a memorandum of understanding is just a statement of intention of wanting to work together between parties subject to fulfilling of suggested requirements. As such it remains an intention and for a whole military cabal to celebrate the mere appending of a signature to a statement of intention to work together between china and Zimbabwe, would obviously be no different from allowing Satan to run away with a christian bible from a christian pulpit. The so called china visit is a terrible tragic tale of a scarf man without clue on how to rescue Zimbabwe from economic turmoil ; to the extend that a coup President celebrates mentioning of remote possibilities notwithstanding absence of tangible evidence to sustain such misplaced expectations for sudden economic recovery for our country.

“It is a shame that a country once the bread basket of Southern Africa is now a basket case of non mitigated begging of individual interests. Zimbabweans needs to be told by the military administration as of whether as a country we paid off what we owed multilateral financial institutions like World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Africa Development Bank just to mention a few. The country needs to be told the truth regarding what has since become of the LIMA plan Chinamasa once negotiated and put in place for the country’ s possible economic recovery? Put simply, the military administration needs to appreciate primary economics that a country that borrows only survives if borrowing is for national investment and not individual consumption. Our citizens need to know how much as a country we are burdened with from Afreximbank and Eximbank loans and how we propose to repay the same?

“The military administration needs to desist from celebrating so called economic mega deals which are nothing but a desperate and hopeless walk into extreme borrowing without a back up plan of strategic retreat. Ed Dambudzo needs to appreciate that in this 21st century there is nothing called Free Lunch. Before so called mega deals are to be implemented; our legislature should have an oversight role to ensure that our country and its natural resources are not mortgaged for the selfish ends of greed individuals. An example in point was the abuse of agricultural equipment loaned from Brazil which equipment found its way to benefit Zanu pf individuals and not the nation. Regrettably when the loans are taken they are taken in the name of Zimbabwean Government and not Zanu pf. More worrying is that when the loans are not repaid, a method in the madness way of doing business appears wherein the Government assumes debt through debt assumption bill and it is the poor taxed man who eventually pays for the individually appropriated national assets. Put simply, as long as the money we borrow as a nation is not put to good use; we remain a nation of perpetual borrowers and when we fail to repay because of corruption; interests rates and penalties kick in and our nation remains mortgaged in perpetuity of servitude to our financial masters.

“In the circumstances Ed and his military handlers need to understand that the country’ s economic challenges are not resolved through perpetual propensity to borrow without backup plan to repay. That applies both to offshore and domestic debt. Zimbabwe needs to return to status-hood of being a good standing member in the scope of financial multilateral institutions. Responsible national leadership should and must not mortgage the country and its natural resources to passing by economic exploiters like Russia and China on the pretext of non beneficial so called mega deals. Is it not ironical that China companies topped the list of corporates who externalised money from our country? So is china an all weather friend or all weather thief? Zimbabwe needs to fight corruption as number one enemy. Secondly, the country needs to urgently move away from command mentality and way of doing business. The role of a responsible Government is simply to create a conducive business enviroment.

“Furthermore, the Government of the day should prioritise security of investments. That involves respect for Bippas, repatriation of profits, stable financial system, ease of doing business just to mention a few. The military administration needs to appreciate that:

1. The Chinese are the only people sitting on trillions dollar surpluses which they build by being hard nosed businessmen, and by being ruthless on two fronts of performance and fighting both tigers and flies of corruption without protecting corrupt factionalists unlike Zimbabwe where professional corrupt individuals like Obert Mpofu superintends ministry of home affairs.

2. Secondly , Chinese have been operating in Zimbabwe for years and are very much aware of Zimbabwe’ s two biggest weaknesses which are corruption and defaulting on loan and interests repayments. That means Zimbabwe will live the life of perpetual borrowing if way of doing business is not changed.

3. Thirdly, The military administration needs to appreciate that when china gives money, its part of its national resources, it expects the borrower to pay back the capital plus interest. The question of further borrowing becomes an issue of ability to pay back existing and new loans. Does the current regime have the paying back capacity?

Zimbabweans needs to appreciate that the current military regime is completely clueless on how to take the country forward. It is very unfortunate for the country to expect the people who were actively involved in creating the present mess to provide solution for same. Rather the coup President has already demonstrated to the world that he is a fanatic follower of the deeds of Mugabe and if not worse in the way he does business. To expect different results from the same way that created current problems then that befits the best definition for madness. For Zimbabweans, time has come to vote wisely in 2018. PRC is your only credible Government in waiting.”