By Pettina Gappah| I expressed some misgivings here about having economic players on the Presidential Advisory Council. When Mthuli Ncube first floated the idea last year, it was to be an international advisory council of “eminences gris”, a board of retired grey-headed men and women with no attachment to Zimbabwe beyond the expertise and vast experience they could provide as Zimbabwe made its transition from an inward looking economy with an isolationist foreign policy.

It was replaced by UNDP’s proposal of a 15 or less member board. In fact, when the first 15 members were appointed, they accepted on the understanding of who else was to be on the board.

Imagine their surprise when their number was expanded by the OPC bureaucracy to about 26 and an announcement made without further consultation. It put them in the invidious position of agreeing to something they had not agreed to, and then, because it was announced without them being consulted, possibly embarrassing the executive by declining. Some decided to make what they could of this eminently flawed process. I salute them.

Two of the appointees found an elegant way to decline without offending. I salute them too.

But the place we are in is not the same place at the date of the announcement. Because my prediction has come to be: what we have now is a bloated board full of players who are by and large, active in the economy, who either have ongoing economic interests or who want to expand their portfolios. They are unpaid, true, but access is the highest priviledge, an access they get from their proximity to the executive. The conflicts of interest are simply glaring.

The PAC has done some good work, and that is without a doubt. I am especially grateful for the support on ZIDA. But any further good work will be cast in the shade as the focus moves to their many conflicts of interest.

If I were on the PAC right now, I would suggest its immediate disbanding so that we start afresh. I believe this disbanding should come from the PAC itself.

Don’t get me wrong: this is nothing personal. I like many of these persons as individuals, three are actually good friends, and as I have said, I have worked well with them, particularly on ZIDA, but collectively?

They are a classic case of conflict of interest. The new Zimbabwe deserves better.