Hi there, my name is ZimAsset . . .

By The NewsDay | Jul. 15, 2014 | 4 Min read

Hi there, my name is Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

Deja Vu with Kamurai Mudzingwa

I am popularly known as ZimAsset. I am touted as Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint, but I will only regard myself as such if I am successfully implemented and if I manage to turn around the economy.

According to my Creators, I don’t have a millennium to achieve that, my lifespan runs from October 2013 to December 2018. You could say I am under pressure to deliver.

It’s a tall order judging from the state of the economy and the progress on the ground. I fear to suffer the same fate as my predecessors like Zimprest and the aborted Medium Term Plan among others.

My fears of failure are genuine. There are things that must be done seriously to ensure that my mission “to provide an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation to the people of Zimbabwe” is a success. At present I feel like the biblical seed cast among thorns that may choke me to death.

For instance, my agenda is results-based revolving around four strategic clusters: food security and nutrition; social services and poverty eradication; infrastructure and utilities; and value addition and beneficiation and I feel this is a tall order when I look around and see the thorns choking me in the form of patronage.

The system (thorns) choking me is based on patronage not results. How do I contend with dead or recycled wood in the public sector? Proven failures and deadwood are dominant in the public sector as these are rewarded for their loyalty and not results. To assume that I can be successful in the midst of such patronage is like imagining the sky falling.

Keep Reading

I need professional monitoring to succeed. I am not at ease because the chief monitor is The Office of the President and Cabinet.

Does this institution or body or whatever it is have the capacity for the mammoth task? What does it do better, politics or economic monitoring?

My fear is that stakeholders might not have respect for its economic monitoring capabilities and its capacity to do so. I doubt if it is adequately funded to seriously oversee my success.

The moment I think of funding my hair stands on edge. I have proclaimed that I should be funded from financing mechanisms such as tax and non-tax revenue, leveraging resources, Sovereign Wealth Fund, issuance of bonds, accelerated implementation of public private partnerships, securitisation of remittances, re-engagement with the international and multilateral finance institutions and other financing options, focusing on Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).

I don’t want to be pessimistic enough to say these high sounding strategies will fail.

I just want to express my fear that with the current levels of corruption pervading public institutions, moneys raised will end up in private pockets starving me of the much-needed funding. There is no political will to stem out graft and this will impact negatively on my performance.

Although I proclaim that for my success, a National Corporate Governance Framework will be launched and implemented resulting in the re-invention of government and private sector business to be more citizen-friendly, my fear is that with the way poor corporate governance is promoted in this country, the best framework is as good as seed that falls on rocky ground.

A look at the composition of the recently announced public enterprises’ boards does not inspire confidence. There are proven failures on those boards and characters of dubious moral integrity.

I also fear that natural resources in this country like diamonds will continue to benefit a few individuals who are politically connected, starving me of the much-needed funding. I need money for capital expenditure, but my fear is that corruption and the inevitably high current expenditure in the form of government’s astronomical wage bill among other things will militate against this.

I laugh in self-pity when I think of the millions of jobs I promised to create — above two million. How can I do that when the environment does not promote investment?

Policy inconsistences will choke me to death. But what serious investor can come into a country without a currency? And who will invest in a country that does not have sufficient power and water? How can manufacturing take place in such an environment? These are choking thoughts really.

Unless something is urgently done to address the challenges I have highlighted, I will stand excused if I say that my Creators are setting me up to fail.

I might have my own weaknesses, but these can be overcomed by a collective political will to turn me into a success story.

Although I urge Zimbabweans to come together to make me a success, the current political polarisation does not inspire confidence in me. So help I God.