By Nomusa Garikai: “On the monetary side, yes, we have introduced one currency. For the first six weeks it remained stable, but then our people are intelligent. We have people who found ways to fight that (stability of the currency) and undermine it, but yesterday (Friday) we also became smarter than them and so we took some action,” boasted President Emerson Mnangagwa.
“We have now arrested the galloping rate which was galloping from about eight, within few days it had gone up 10, and 20, by the time we left it had gone down and I think today it is about 14.”
Every time Mnangagwa has admitted there was a problem he has followed this up with a solution to the problem. In other words he has admitted a problem only as an excuse to offer a solution and thus show the world just how smart he is! If the truth be told, here the truth is the only currency, he is not smart at all.
At the beginning of the year, the Bond Note, the country default local currency, was on par to the US Dollar; today, nine months latter, it is trading at 14:1! Some smart leader, indeed!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the country cursed pariah state status.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt vote rigging and murderous tyrants. As much as President Mnangagwa has tried to put some political distance between his post November 2017 military coup regime with that of the late Robert Mugabe; calling his regime a “new dispensation”, “Second Republic”, etc. The Zanu PF dictatorship has remained untouched or be it under new management.
Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance on corruption” and yet two years since the coup and he has yet to arrest one Marange diamond looter. “Corruption is deeply rooted,” he admitted.
He also promised free, fair and credible elections but, again, failed to deliver. But above all else, by blatantly rigging the elections he confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state.
The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown because for the country has been starved of any meaningful investment for the last two decades. Investors do not do business in a pariah state.
Cure Zimbabwe’s pariah state curse and investors and investment will flood back into the country. And the pariah state cure is for the vote rigging Zanu PF regime to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown will get worse; the 14:1 Z$ to US$ exchange rate will get a lot worse smart Alec’s pride and joy, will get a lot worse; etc.
When President Mnangagwa staged his November 2017 putsch and launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” complete with the multi-coloured trademark scarf; there was not a single grain of doubt in his Sahara desert expense mind that the economic boom that was to follow. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has got a lot worse than it was in 20017; it must be every hard for him to admit this.
By burying his head in the sand and pretending he is smarter than he is; deluding himself that he can still deliver economic recovery and still keep the pariah state; Mnangagwa is digging the nation into deeper and deeper trouble. Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown is not only resulting in currency instability but the very survival of this nation is now at stake.
It is said of the Greek Philosopher, Socrates, that he admitted t being the wisest man in Athens but only because he alone was prepared to admit his own ignorance rather than pretend to know something he did not.
Zimbabwe’s worst curse is to be stuck for 39 years and counting with smart-Alec leaders who will not admit they have failed even in the face of a mountain of evidence of their failures!