The victory that brought Zimbabwe to
a new dispensation of independence was pinnacled with hope of a better and a
sustainable economy. The emergency from an environment epitomized by suppression
in form of colonialism gave Zimbabwe a clean slate to do better in national
development.
Misheck Gondo
It is however important to hail the immediate
post independence era in which policy formulation was directed towards critical
economic issues such education for all, eradication of poverty, employment,
consolidation of good foreign policy and regional integration.
The post independence era ushered with
it names such as the Bread Basket of Africa among other ululations directed
towards the economic strides that emanated from a promising economy.
It is now fair to ask what went wrong
in the process of building our mother land. The hope of a better Zimbabwe started
to disappear as political tensions appeared. Economic discord became the order
of the day, foreign relations in doldrums; pre-colonial era repeated itself in
a new fashioned style led by the sons of the soil.
The year 2000 de-intensified the
dream of a new era, the gap between ruling classes and the proletariat became
wider, with the former getting richer and the later getting impoverished. The
relationship was that of carnivores which service on eating the other.
Economists had vast complications to
classify which class of economy Zimbabwe was riding on. The characteristic of
our economy since the emergency of post independence political troubles did not
qualify to be part of the three basic types of economy. The state of affair had
turned to be that of a primitive state whose rulers extort taxes for their
personal benefits.
A predatory state can be explained as
a state that punishes its citizens for the benefit of the ruling class, the
punishment came in form of burdened tax levels, exorbitant rates of public
services such as education, transport and accommodation among others. This
predatory state can result in lower levels of both output and popular welfare.
The predatory state may provide
public goods to its citizens and hence may superficially resemble a contractual
state. As noted by Political Economists, the ability to provide such
goods can actually reduce popular welfare after allowing for tax changes.
Moreover, the kinds of public goods that predatory states provide are those
that increase revenue, not necessarily welfare.
The state of affair will be anarchic
which resembles statelessness; the attention is focused on political survival
at the expense of citizen survival. Policies and laws that emanate from a
predatory state seek to format the majority into believing that their
government is people centered and pro-poor.
Zimbabwe since 1980 has managed to
craft appraisable blue prints to cover the five year tenure of political
office. As noted in one of Takura Zhangazha‘s 2013 article, “It also has the propagandist hue of past
governments’ five- year economic blueprints of the 1980s and 1990s.”The blue
prints failed to bring much needed political change that upgrade the lives of
the poor majority, even before the much touted sanctions hymns.
The last decade also saw Zimbabwe
reaching stratospheric levels of inflation, window measures were introduced such
as printing of money among other unsustainable ways. The government seemed to
have mooted a holistic plan to siphon little moneys from poor citizens, with
high rate of bills that are paid by rate payers that does not complement the
services offered in return.
Residents receive water bills that
are exaggerated, yet the water is erratic in supply and contagious in
consumption. In opposite, the salary bills for the city bosses will not be
tallying with reality.
Coming to our roads, the lives of
people are at risk, with high probability of accidents, yet attention by city
fathers is directed to innocent vendors who are seeking to sustain their
families and to pay the mentioned high bills. The government must put the
concerns of its citizens first, making sure that their rights are guaranteed
above average point.
The Zimbabwe health system is
crumbling at a faster pace, on the other hand, the fees are now beyond the
reach of many, and recently Minister David Parirenyatwa appended his signature
to new medical tariffs that are yet to be gazetted.
It is a pave strategy by the
government to sustain itself from collection of not only exorbitant changes but
also unjustified fees. The ordinary consultation is estimated to be around 75%
higher as approved which will translate to the rise from US$20 to around U$35.
Given the fact that Zimbabwean tariffs are already high in comparative analysis
within the Southern Africa region, it is very unreasonable to raise them
further as the government is putting an unnecessary burden of their failure to
innocent masses.
The education sector is also another
preserve for the elite. Parents are struggling to pay for their children from
primary to tertiary institutions. In a predatory state, the government makes
favorable laws that can not be implemented practically; our National
Constitution Section 27 noted the obligation by the government to make primary
education free to children and secondary and tertiary education accessible to
all with the girl child in mind. On that note, its accessibility is
questionable when tertiary institutions are hiking tuition, the case of
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) which has increased its tuition by 10 % for
students that come from families that are surviving on US$1 a day.
Transporters and car owners are not
spared in the present collection of revenue, as evidenced by police presence at
every junction and few kilometers apart in the highway roads. ZIMRA at the
other corner is also making sure they collect every cent from tax payers
towards the payment of hefty salaries, in which the boss takes home US$3,720
000.00 million annually.
Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy in
which agriculture should be developed and benefit the nation, ironically the
sector is not receiving practical policy attention. The erratiness of inputs
toward farming season, the exorbitance of the former and the market price at
the end of the day leaves farmers in utter surprise and disgruntlement.
It has been reported recently that some
Tobacco auction floors in Karoi started to purchase Tobacco with as little as
20c per KG; one wonders where is the government to protect the vulnerable
farmer from economic vultures.
Other schools of thought are arguing
that the government is benefiting in such a scenario, enabling the buyers of
Tobacco to buy at lower price; pay the balance to the government, to liquidate
its operations such as to pay civil servants salaries among others.
The Zimbabwe Indigenization Policy
was at the center of government to acquire sustainable growth. The policy has
been criticized for lack of clarity and its vampire guerilla nature that scare
away foreign direct investment (FDI). The policy compels foreign owned firms
with a minimum capital of $ 500,000 to cede 51 percent of the shares to locals.
Truly speaking, if this behavior is not corrected, Zimbabwe will continue to
sink into oblivion. Globalization requires a conducive environment where everybody
is treated equally in congruency with consistency, clarity, transparency in the
application of law.
Instead of taking over what belongs
to others, those who do not have, I mean the locals, must be empowered to start
their own businesses with an environment that encourage partnership and growth.
Some Political elitist hide behind indigenization in order to loot and enrich
themselves, time will tell.
In the vicinity of last year
elections, ZANU PF elaborately in its manifesto promised to create about three
million jobs. It is now that the revolutionary party is admitting that they
will not be able to do that, what an insult to the electorate and majority
unemployed youth.
The high unemployment rate estimated
to be above 80 percent, has left the economically bruised citizens hopeless,
especially with the contemporary discourse of parastatal salaries, corruption,
politicking and closed political space that does not allow developmental
economic dialogue.
With the Zimbabwe Opposition Parties
that seem to have no direction at all, the increased complications are knocking
at the doors of the very poor.
However, the answer of whether our
beloved state has turned into a vultures’ or vampires’ economy which carries
the characteristics of a Predatory state lies with the people. It is multiple
choice question that; can Zimbabwe be classified to an economy that utilizes
any available chance to extort the single pen from its poor citizens through
exorbitant revenue in order to lubricate unsanctioned government bills.
Zimbabwe needs to have
self-introspection, take commitment to make things right, above political
rhetoric and elucidations. Making our foreign relations right, promoting
dialogue and national consensus among Zimbabweans for the sack of economic
revival.
The government should reflect and
admit on its failures, take corrective actions, the current salary gate has
raised eye brows, how can the whole government system with sophisticated
intelligence failed to dictate the rewards ushered to parastatal bosses in the past
decade.
In common sense, the currently
failure by the government to pay civil servants salaries beyond poverty datum line and offer new jobs could be the thing of the past through
shifting to productive policies and creation of
an environment of good governance, tolerance, rule of law among other
sustainable policies that enable fiscal inflows and creation of employment.
It is
also sad to note that the money paid to few elites in parastatal could be
spread to benefit the citizens at the same time workers receiving their
adequate basic salaries in those institutions.
Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable
Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET) can only succeed with good corporate
governance, dedicated team that seeks to transform the country without
political protection to those who economically sabotage the economy.
Let’s wait and see
Misheck Gondo is an International Relations expert with the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ)
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