BY KENNETH MUFUKA I listened to Professor Mthuli Ncube’s presentation on the relentless economic decline that has troubled the common worker in Zimbabwe. I became acutely aware of two problems. The Zimbabwean elites suffer from one serious problem. When they deal with African problems, they have one ear in Europe, to see if their professors are impressed by their much learning and Eurocentric solutions, which they offer for African problems.
The economic crisis in Zimbabwe is very simple. The value of money has been depreciated at the behest of imperialists and World Bank neo-liberal economists. Zimbabwean nationalists pretend to be stalwart and anti-imperialist, but continue to adhere to solutions offered by their enemies.
They are, therefore, in a dishonest situation; the result is that the solutions they give are “worse” (black English) than the disease.
Phone solutions
Here is a summary of the phony solutions, couched in beautiful English, obviously intended to pass a master seminar in a European setting.
All civil servants and government beneficiaries will receive a 100% increment in salaries and wages.
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Other beneficiaries will receive a Covid-related allowance of US$15 or US$100 denominated currency.
That looks generous.
Civil servants will also receive some non-mediated monetary benefits such as custom duty-free car allowances on imports as well as government guarantees on housing. The interest rates, however, will rise to 200% on loans.
These last two fall under monetary policy. We learned, way back in the 1960s that our Asian brothers usually borrow from family members and that our European counterparts usually have mediated circumstances. For instance, a white man can use his father’s certificate of deposit as collateral to mitigate the interest on his housing loan.
Readers will get my message, if therefore you raise interest rates, the people most affected are blacks who do not have mediated factors in their favour or assets to draw down on.
Point one.
When salaries are doubled, and the currency values remain the same, one is giving one a double dose of useless money. The reason why imperialists downgrade our money is so they can pay for our resources its dirt-cheap money. It is a long story. The Maharaj’s of India, way back in 1850, found that the East India Company was manipulating the rupee by as much as 25% in their favour (four rupees equaled one pound).
So, these black professors, full of books, allow our money to depreciate, and we find ourselves harvesting then bags of coffee for US100 whereas before we received the same amount of money for five bags of coffee.
That issue is nowhere addressed in this budget speech. You sluggard. The value of the Zimbabwe dollar is the issue, not the number of Zee dollars you can print.
By giving non-monetary benefits, such as customs duty-free automobiles, one creates or increases arbitration chances. These professors forget useful knowledge they should have learned. The great Roman Senator Cicero realised that the more laws and regulations one has, the more chances there are for arbitration. The arbitrator will demand “something” (Ghanian idiom) to interpret the laws. For instance, is it alright, if I buy a kombi with my duty-free allowance? Will the arbitrator say that a kombi is not for family use? Or is it not possible for me, after I have offered him “something” for him to rule in my favour because I have four children?
The lesson in all this is that dear professor, we do not need favours from you. Give the nurses what is due to them, and they will buy whatever they want.
Value of money
The Zimbabwe case is unique. A Zimbabwean consultant at the United Nations, a former minister in Zimbabwe, told me that Ethiopia has less means and resources of earning foreign money than Zimbabwe.
Rwanda does not have a single gold mine. Another United Nations report said that there was more gold sold between Uganda and Rwanda than there was in the Congo.
The main culprit in the demise of our currency has been the Reserve Bank. One does not need to remind the readers that it was the Reserve Bank which printed a Z$10 billion dollar note. Do I also need to remind our readers that Vakomana at the inter-city bus stations have in their pouches clean, nicely packed and wrapped in bank rubber bands, brick-shaped Zimbabwe dollars? Please do not tell me that they stole the money from the Reserve Bank.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been the cause of much mischief. It is time to close shop untilhonest men with moral sensibilities and self-sacrificial attitudes can be found.
There are other causes which must be addressed at the same time. Zimbabwe was kicked out of the Commonwealth. One reason is its failure to adhere to a semblance of the rule of law. Is anybody troubled that Assembly man and attorney Job Sikhala, to serve the interests of his constituency, namely deceased Moreblessing Ali’s family, found himself in a lock-up and denied bail?
I did not make up this story. Brother Pius Jamba, self-confessed person of interest, who had attempted to avoid the police, was advised by the prosecutor to seek bail.
To be fair to brother Mthuli, he cannot address these collateral issues by himself. But they are part of the equation. Confidence in an economy comes from a “raft” (his words) of factors that must be addressed at the same time with the critical issues.
In this case, the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has not been addressed. Use of multiple currencies will increase chances of arbitration, not lessen them. Finally, unless nurses receive their pay in the same denomination that the musketeers at the Reserve Bank receive, there is no end in sight to their plight.
- Professor Ken Mufuka is on a lecture tour of East and Southern Africa. He will be guest preacher at Bethel Ministries in Masvingo with the Reverend Somandla Ndlovu presiding July 10 (9am).
- Rev. Ndlovu graduated from Mucheke High where Mufuka Trust has provided school fees for needy students since 1991.