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NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

AMHVoices:Economy is everyone’s responsibility

AMH Voices
The Zimbabwean economy is facing some viability challenges due to a vast array of negativities that are impacting on the macro-economic environment.

The Zimbabwean economy is facing some viability challenges due to a vast array of negativities that are impacting on the macro-economic environment.

BY SUITABLE KAJAU,OUR READER

A man picks up grains of fallen maize by the Harare-Masvingo road
A man picks up grains of fallen maize by the Harare-Masvingo road

In that vein, the government has a mammoth task to alleviate this predicament. Some of the factors affecting the economy are natural such as the impending drought due to erratic rains.

The natural calamity has spurred the government to take measures to rescue the starving populations.

Meanwhile, it is refreshing to note that some families countrywide are already receiving food hand-outs.

As for the urban populations, millers are managing to access maize for making mealie-meal, which is evidenced by the availability of the staple product in supermarkets.

The problem with natural disasters, such as droughts, is that they cannot be predicted easily. They normally catch people unawares.

This was preceded by the decline of the local currency, which was ultimately dumped. This resulted in massive job losses. It is worth mentioning that resuscitation of the economy is everyone’s responsibility, which is not only confined to the government.

The modern world is ruled by the principle of corporatocracy, where the business world is mandated to expand their business empires and create goods and services that are needed by society, at the same they are making profits.

Before we turn to foreign direct investment, we need to focus on ourselves and assess our capacity to transform our local economic landscape.

In the process, the citizens will gain employment and arrest this unemployment taking a toll on the local people.

Local examples to that effect would challenge well-performing corporates like Econet Zimbabwe.

They have the capacity to diversify their business into needy areas, such as the perennial load-shedding problems facing the nation.

They can commit themselves to establishing new power-generating stations, which feed the national grid for the good of the whole nation.

The same can also apply to similarly cash-rich local companies, which can broaden their contribution to the economy.

Instead of being prophets of doom, we need to deploy our energies towards positive ways of making our economy better.

It is a pity that some of us take pride and comfort in denigrating our own situation, with no practical input that can save us from further sinking into oblivion while we are watching.

Everyone has a natural obligation to ensure that we work for the country to make sure we can have the Zimbabwe we want.