By Dr. David Matsanga in London United Kingdom
Today Zimbabwe is faced with an uphill task of serving its people as result of imposed sanctions. These sanctions have created Structural Challenges. The Zimbabwe Land reforms of 1997 sparked off negative reactions from USA and other European Union nations ending up in imposing illegal sanctions. These illegal sanctions have impacted negatively on the economy of Zimbabwe.
The Elections of 2002 accelerated the road to sanctions that have created an ECONOMIC MELTDOWN in Zimbabwe. I have written this article not as final solution but as part of the debate on how Zimbabwe can overcome the economic challenges it faces today. Mine is from the bottom of my heart to the Government of Ed Mnangagwa to Change his Economic strategies and perhaps overhaul the Finance docket holistically.
The ugly sanctions imposed by the USA government have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy as there are no lines of credit for it to use. The suffering of the people of Zimbabwe is not only biting Zimbabweans but to some extent affecting most neighboring African countries that have taken in refugees and economic burden in support of Zimbabwe.
Let me return to structural challenges, which could cause “structural conflict” in Zimbabwe today. There are serious concerns that the ECONOMIC MELTDOWN could trigger chaos in Zimbabwe. This could torpedo the reforms that President Mnangagwa wants for Zimbabwe and change the politics of Zimbabwe. President Emerson Mnangagwa finds himself caught up between a hard legal place and a rock that has been denied transformation and reforms because of sanctions from USA.
The President of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe have tried to tackle these structural challenges but year in year out these challenges have turned into a monster called disillusionment of the masses. They have created serious tension and allowed malcontents of ‘regime change’ called NGOs to subvert a nation. Triggered and logistically supplied by George Soros men that the Government has allowed in cabinet. The time prune the mess out of Government is now.
I see a danger where the President of Zimbabwe faces few “immoral cartels” that have held a country on ransom with never ending corrupt regime change mechanisms supplied by George Soros. Looking at Malawi one sees the wind blowing all over Africa where USA CIA outfit of George Soros could bring chaos in COVID- 19 era. I will say this without fear of contradiction because I love Zimbabwe. My being frank about African issues has earned me enemies but also helped those coloured with political amnesia to seek guidance from my many writings. I have authored many articles on similar subject in Africa.
Just as I said in 2002 I will say it again in 2020. Sanctions have destroyed the economy of Zimbabwe and demonized the nation .The economy of Zimbabwe therefore it needs a “holistic overhaul strategy”. This will give Zimbabwe a breathing space. It will also help the government to stop the gravy train of disaster that has been hatched by WESTERN powers.
I understand that GDP is the measure of change in value of goods and services produced by each country like Zimbabwe which is determined and consumed on the basis of structural factors that are within Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe. If the value of the goods produced is poor and due to bad structural management which is part of structu
ral challenges within the country, no one will consume goods of such a country outside or inside Zimbabwe or worse still buy them.
Zimbabwe needs a combination of good factors in order to increase the GDP. Any moderate African country relies on three factors to survive as a nation: loans and grants from World Bank, IMF, Aid /grants from western countries, and Tax collection. From the three items mentioned here the loans and grants from World Bank and IMF always come with stringent conditions and at times these could lead to more confusion.
Aid and Grants from donor community comes with several conditions that could lead to regime change mechanisms that the donor syndrome brings with NGOs in Africa. Taxation is the only assured means that Zimbabwe can get its revenue if structural factors are taken into consideration. Does Zimbabwe have the capacity to collect taxes? Is Zimbabwe having structural challenges in tax collection? Are there items that are taxable in Zimbabwe? Yes and these are issues that Zimbabweans can debate on until the cows come back home.
If service delivery in all government outlets and inlets are, corrupted by structural challenges, underhand in procurement become a nightmare or bizarre, duplicity of workforce, inflated ghost workers, failures in counterfeit services, failure by civil servants on procedure are poor, nobody will buy such goods. These factors contribute to structural indicators of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe like South Africa in Africa has become a country of “tenderers instead of entrepreneurs”. The Minister of Finance whom I thought was going to oversight the economy became an enemy or a conduit of a bad economy. The huge expenditure as opposed to increasing revenue for the government might not stand up and give answers to my readers. Zimbabwe is still faced with insurmountable structural challenges even if huge revenue was collected today that is why Zimbabwe need a COMMAND STRUCTURE OF ECONOMY.
Why has it been so bad up to today? Sanctions have created enemies instead of cohesion. From 2002 to date, Zimbabweans have spent more time and more energy on political showdowns in government itself, from an opposition that wants to oppose everything including death and NGOs that have instructions from foreign masters to derail efforts the government.
The sanctions factor which was created by external enemies of the people of Zimbabwe muzzles the moral fabric of every citizen of Zimbabwe and has become another factor that Zimbabwe need to do away soonest.
I welcome the “National Dialogue” that President ED Mnangagwa initiated last year as means of resolving some of the contentious challenges that face Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe at the moment needs no wider dialogue to avert a catastrophic regime change route where it is hurtling to.
The nation’s economy needs a “fatigue evaluation strategy” that will help President ED Mnangagwa to assess most economic experiments and projects that have been undertaken by the current Minister of Finance. Zimbabwe needs to asses as to whether some economic and monetary declarations the have caused disillusionment.
I believe that Zimbabwe can spur the dream of economic integration and development on the continent of Africa. Zimbabwe needs to look at structural challenges and do a fatigue evaluation that will discuss the question of corruption and morality in its citizens.
The only other solution left fight Zimbabwe economic woos is to holistically overhaul. Then use a COMMAND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE to get rid of the economic malaise .The current proposals don’t work and will not work if the Zimbabwe faces sanctions from the countries that must allow it to trade. The type of economics that the current Minister uses is VOODO Economics THAT will never help Zimbabwe. The proposal will help Zimbabwe to check on the needs of its people and gauge what adds benefit and value to the current system, find out whether there is duplicity of services, what quality and quantity such policies bring to Zimbabwe.
Let the Government of Zimbabwe seal the loopholes used to perpetuate corruption, and finally work on structural challenges that have overburden Zimbabwe. President ED Mnangagwa and the nation of Zimbabwe must find long term solutions instead of relying on the current Minister of Finance for short term diagnosis of symptoms that have become a” “monster” to the economy of Zimbabwe.
Finally, let President Mnangagwa know that such short term dangerous prescriptions by the Minister of Finance could bring the masses on the streets of HARARE and that is the last thing this country needs at the moment.
The writer is Political scientist & International Relations with Conflict Resolution Expert bias ,an investigative Journalist and a Pan African based in Surrey London United Kingdom can be contacted via Twitter @Dr.David Matsanga
