THE SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS LIES IN OUR PEOPLE – ALL OUR PEOPLE
By David Coltart
26 November 2013
Nathaniel Manheru was a real treat this morning in Saturday’s Herald.
I will give you a few classic quotes:
First of all it is entitled “Zimbabwe: Victory without a party” which actually says it all. But here are some more quotes form the body of the article.
“Both at individual and at national levels, the decision-making matrix has become quite complex, forbidding in fact.”
“The fastest casualty of electoral victory is the happy world of campaigning where everything is possible. After that world goes, in comes an imperfect and dismal one, a world where ‘it can’t’.”
“We seem to have won on indigenisation in order to get the reprieve and legitimacy to reverse it.”
“With most companies in debt, without capital, underutilised, on old technology and uncompetitive, predators are on the prowl.”
“Key national assets are being seized while we wring our hands in learned despair.”
“And the conclusion of all this for Zanu-PF … and her aspiration to indigenisation is clearly disheartening.”
At the conclusion of the article Manheru says that his purpose in airing the problems is to seek solutions. The first step towards a solution is for ZANU PF to acknowledge that at the very core of this economic distress is the fact that their economic and political policies are fundamentally flawed. All of us living in the real world knew all along that ZANU PF’s campaign promises were a lie, based on failed policies that were bound to keep on failing. Aside from the gross illegatities which led to this “resounding victory” the fact is that ZANU PF tempted some voters through making promises which either they could not keep or which would have deleterious consequences for the economy. The claim that somehow they could realise billions of dollars internally by indiginising local assets was complete poppy cock. The writing off of millions of dollars of money owed to parastatals and local councils was a cunning electoral ploy but was always going to have catastrophic consequences for ZESA and our local councils in particular.
ZANU PF’s solution to all of this is to send Patrick Chinamasa off to China to mortgage national assets. If the Chinese do oblige all that will do is provide some temporary relief but it will have catastrophic consequences for our children’s inheritance. It needs to be said loud and clear – selling off national assets to the Chinese is against our national interest; indeed I would venture to say that it amounts to treason.
What ZANU PF needs to recognise is that at the core of our problems is a basic lack of confidence in their ability to govern. No matter how one dresses it up the fact remains that the people know that this is the same ZANU PF which almost completely destroyed the economy in 2008 and which hasn’t changed. Inevitably that will deter local investors from investing domestically, will cause capital flight, will deter Zimbabwean diasporan human capital from returning and critically will make foreign investors look elsewhere. That was why one bank has reported massive capital flight around the election. That is why there is little cash in the system. When people lack confidence they take their money out of banks and put it under the pillows.
Selling off national assets to the Chinese is not going to build confidence. The people are not stupid. They can see how the Chinese operate in Africa – it is fundamentally an exploitative relationship. The Chinese are quite naturally interested in boosting their own domestic economy; they have so much catching up to do that they need whatever resources they can lay their hands on at the cheapest price. The history of their “investments” in Africa is littered with examples of contracts which have benefitted them to the detriment of Africans. One just has to consider the story of the new power station recently built in Botswana which is totally inappropriate. Look also no further than the MA60 aircraft supplied to Air Zimbabwe by the Chinese – not one is flying just a few years after they were supplied, nor are they likely to fly. Our precious diamond resources, many of which have been handed to Chinese companies to exploit, have not benefitted rank and file Zimbabweans. The irony is that for all ZANU PF’s claims that Zimbabwe will “never be a colony again” we are rapidly becoming just that – a Chinese colony or dependency.
The solution to this national crisis does not lie in China – it lies right here at home. ZANU PF needs to end its exclusive, totalitarian and racist policies. We have more than enough Zimbabwean talent to find solutions to our problems – we have tens of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens, living both within and without Zimbabwe, who want ZIMBABWE to develop, who have a deep rooted passion and commitment to ZIMBABWE and who are ready to put their intellect and capital to work here. They have the ability to get OUR industries, mines, farms, hospitals, schools and tourist resorts working again. They have the desire to put ZIMBABWE first, not some foreign nation.
But ZANU PF has to change – whilst they are in de facto control they need to realise that they cannot govern unless they build a broad national consensus and implement policies which will build domestic confidence and which will enable them to tap into this vast pool of national talent.
President Mugabe visited Singapore last week – that is a country which had a smaller economy than Southern Rhodesia had in 1958 and yet is now an economic powerhouse. It had no mineral resources whatsoever with which to build its economy; it had no diamonds to sell off. The miracle of Singapore happened because there was a sustained investment in its own people, primarily in education. And once it had educated its people it retained them and those educated citizens have transformed that nation. Whilst we in Zimbabwe have educated our people well we have not had economic and political policies which have retained our intellectual capital. Instead we have hounded out people like Strive Masiyiwa , and thousands of chartered accountants, doctors, architects, mechanics and electricians. Those people have left because thy didn’t like the authoritarian nature of our society and they were sufficiently talented to be able to move easily.
We need to realise that our people are our greatest asset. A nation can have all the minerals in the world but if those minerals are not developed by clever, talented, dedicated, patriotic, honest and passionate citizens – of all races – they will just be squandered. There is a home in Singapore for everyone – Chinese, Malay, even whites – and it is they who have developed it into the economic powerhouse it is today.
So what ZANU PF needs to is to enter into an honest national dialogue with all our nation’s people. It needs to be talking to the Strive Masiyiwa’s of our nation – people who have demonstrated an ability to run large businesses honestly, efficiently and profitably – to find out what solutions they have for our problems. It needs to find out what will encourage the Strive Masiyiwa’s to return home and put their considerable shoulders to the wheel. They need to recognise that there is human capital out there in the form of the Tendai Biti ‘s of this nation who love this country with a deep rooted passion and what is more are honest, clever and hard working…and have solutions.
Zimbabwe has gone downhill economically for the last 50 years because we have allowed narrow partisan or racist interests to dominate out political discourse. We are the classic example of a house divided, falling. Until we end that, the massive potential of this great Nation will not be realised. The ball is now firmly in ZANU PF’s court – whether one likes it or not, they are the de facto governors until 2018 – to decided whether they are going to continue the failed policies of the Rhodesian Front and their own policies of the last 33 years, or whether they are going to turn over a new leaf and engage all Zimbabweans to get us out of this quagmire.