BY: Patrick Guramatunhu- “WE need appropriate fiscal policies, and so far government has done well and has squeezed money supply because there was too much government expenditure and it means that things are going to be tighter to a maximum of three years, and by then we should have done all painful activities and then go to a stage when things are going to normalise,” Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo has told the nation, as a matter of fact.

“Fundamentally, this economy’s problems are hardly fiscal as Moyo seems to be alluding. Zimbabwe’s problems are profoundly to do with productivity which is not being helped at all by the fiscal policies that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime is administering at the moment,” commented Newsday in its Editorial.

The Newsday Editor is 100% correct in dismissing Foreign Minister’s solution. Zimbabwe’s serious economic problems are not going to be solved by focusing of fiscal policies alone. Even if one gave the regime the benefit of the doubt and assume it was competent to replace the mishmash of confused and contradicting fiscal policies with sound and rational ones. A big IF!

However, the Editor is partly correct in suggesting Zimbabwe’s problems are “profoundly to do with productivity”. I will give the Editor the benefit of the doubt and assume such things as mismanagement and corruption, the twin cancers they have destroyed the Zimbabwe economy, are included in the productivity argument. Still this would not be enough to get Zimbabwe out of the economic mess we are stuck in.

Yes, of course, if Zimbabwe had sound and rational fiscal policies and we address all the needs to stimulate production and productivity the is no reason why the country’s economy should not recovery and prosper. The truth we must deal with here is that we are in this economic mess precisely because we have had mishmash fiscal policies, gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, etc., etc.

Worst of, whilst we have been aware of the need for sound fiscal policies, etc. and have complained about these economic impediments for the last 39 years; we have failed to get Zanu PF to listen much less change direction or even better still replace the regime.

Zanu PF has systematically eroded the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. As long as Zanu PF retains its carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections, the regime will continue to impose its mishmash fiscal policies and ignore all calls to address the teething productivity problems.

“Is Moyo and his colleagues aware of all these hardships being faced by the very people, including labour, who they want help from to reboot this economy? From where they are comfortably perched, do they think that businesses, workers and farmers — barely managing to keep their heads above the water, will survive six months, let alone three years of these painful austerity measures?” continued Newsday Editorial.

“Three years is a very long time, Minister Moyo.”

In a country with unemployment a nauseating 90%; with a health care service that has all but collapsed; everyone suffering the ill effects of hyperinflation (second one after just ten years of first that saw inflation peak at 500 billion % and record devaluation, Z$ 35 quadrillion = US$1); etc. millions are drowning already. But let us put that aside. 

What is the point of asking Minister Moyo and his Zanu PF cronies whether the long-suffering ordinary Zimbabweans “will survive six months, let alone three years of these painful austerity measures?” We all know or should know the answer to that by now. The regime’s primary concern ever since it got into power 39 years ago was to establish a de facto one-party dictatorship and retain absolute power at all cost including denying the people their freedoms and rights including national economic ruin.

The question should be directed at the long-suffering Zimbabweans themselves; will they survive another six months let alone another three years of this economic meltdown? And more pointedly; even the most naïve and gullible must know that many will not survive and, at least some also know that at the end of the painful austerities there will be no gain; what are they going to do finally put an end to their 39 years and counting of political oppression and economic hardships?

The Genesis of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not so much that we have an incompetent and corrupt Zanu PF regime that has failed to come up with sound fiscal policies and to stimulated productivity but that we have failed to remove it from office even we it was clear the regime was so corrupt and incompetent it was beyond the pale.

Nkrumah’s slogan, “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you,” was Ghana’s first post independent President, Kwame Nkrumah’s clarion cry. 

For the last 39 years we have buried our head in the sand and ignored that Zanu PF usurped our individual freedoms and rights reducing us into no more than political serfs beholden to the regime. We have fooled ourselves into believe the country can ever achieve economic prosperity and still allow the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF to enjoy absolute power.

We have paid dearly for our foolishness; Zimbabwe’s economy is in total meltdown after 39 years of Zanu PF misrule and the situation is getting worse not better. It is insane to let this madness continue for any longer.

It is clear Minister Moyo and his Zanu PF cronies have no clue what to do to end the worsening economic situation. The regime is in power but only because it rigged last year’s elections. It is illegitimate.

The people must reclaim their political power to remove a failed government and what better way to so just that than demanding that this illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down.

We can pretend all we want that Zimbabwe’s economic problems will end if only we can get the Zanu PF regime to implement sound economic policies. Zanu PF itself is the number one problem, the regime’s “no regime change” mantra and blatant vote rigging are an unreconcilable afront to democratic elections and free and fair election as a key requirement of good governance. It is insane to keep hoping against reason and reality that the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF will perform the miracles and revive the economy.  INSANE!