eBusiness Weekly
Today marks the first week of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule. While the events which culminated in the resignation of former president Mugabe were not what anyone could have imagined, it got the support and blessings of many Zimbabweans, who for long had suffered silently (repression) as the country took a political and policy path that was ruinous to its own citizens most of whom took safety in foreign lands as political and economic refugees.
While for years, Government could not admit that its politics and policies were the major hindrances to development, choosing to blame it all on the illegal sanctions mantra, it is now evident that the sanctions, as damaging as they are, were just a cheap excuse by the president Mugabe led Government.
Since the army’s intervention, the skeletons are now coming out of the closet with many voices of authority coming out to admit that all has not been well in this country, and most importantly not only because of sanctions, but because the country had been hijacked by “criminals around President Mugabe.”
First to admit was the army, with ZDF Commander General Constantino Chiwenga pointing out that as a result of squabbling within the ranks of Zanu PF, there has been no meaningful development in the country for the past five years.
“The resultant economic impasse has ushered in more challenges to the Zimbabwean populace such as cash shortages and rising commodity prices,” said General Chiwenga.
The ruling party Zanu-PF was next to blame the Mugabe led Government for the country’s economic demise, but putting the ruinous years at 15. In its draft motion for president Mugabe’s impeachment, the party accused its former leader of being a source of instability and presiding over an unprecedented economic tailspin in the last 15 years. President Mnangagwa was even more frank, saying Zimbabweans have suffered enough for the past 20 years.
“Our people have endured hardships for 20 years; improving the economy and livelihoods is urgent,” said President Mnangagwa.
It’s now seven days since President Mnangagwa spoke, and the nation has been putting tabs to see whether he will hit the ground running as promised, and true to his word the first six days have been eventful with the President striking all the right chords.
Some of the issues that he has so far dealt with are what most thought where mine fields, difficult for him to navigate.
Reforming the civil service sector, a key aspect to the Lima plan, had been a hot potato in President Mugabe’s government, but already President Mnangagwa has already touched on it, right at the top, telling those who have reached retirement age that there won’t be space for them in his government. Not by who is loyal and who is not, but just sticking to the laws, retirement age. Talk about being pragmatic. The issue of externalisation of foreign currency is an interesting one as well.
In 2016, the RBZ governor Dr John Mangudya said at least $1,2 billion had been externalised by companies in the form of export proceeds, high management and expert fees. Mangudya said those in the habit of externalizing funds have to stop warning “there will be too many skeletons and I won’t be able to bury them”. While warning perpetrators to stop externalizing to stop the rot, the Governor went on to say: “Let’s draw a line in the sand and never cross it again.”
That’s more than a year now and the situation has since worsened with information coming from the RBZ saying the externalised funds had ballooned to $3 billion as at June 2017. Such a strong warning and yet very little response from the externalisers. Was it lack of political will?
Why has the rot been allowed to go on for so long unpunished? Well the buck stops with the country’s CEO, the president and now that we have a new one, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, it is refreshing that he has ordered the arrest of those who do not comply with his three month moratorium to return all externalised funds.
“Upon the expiry of the three month window, Government will proceed to effect arrest of all those who would have not complied with the directive and will ensure that they are prosecuted in terms of the country’s laws. Those affected are thus encouraged to return the illegally externalised funds and assets in order to avoid the pain and ignominy of being visited by the long arm of the law,” said President Mnangagwa.
We will be taking stock to see what sort of impact this will have on the country’s economy. It is our hope that those involved will not be selfish, but will put their country first. It is also our hope that there won’t be sacred cows in this exercise because often, the sacred cows are the main perpetrators of such criminal activities.
Leaving them and targeting the small fish, will render the whole exercise futile. This is just an example, but everything from corruption to incompetence should be dealt with in the same spirit of zero tolerance.
