Diaspora money won't change anything as long as mismanagement remains

In 2002 I held a very well paying international job. I was paid a four figure amount in US dollars at a time when such salaries could only be imagined. In terms of ability I was a top performer in doing my job, one of the reasons why I had been quickly plucked from Harare to international postings for that organisation. The benefits included flights home twice a year for my family.

It was a good job, but I had one problem. I loved my country. I was an oasis of patriotism.

I therefore saved up as quickly as I could, so that I could invest back home. In 2003 I setup a business, invested in an existing family farm and moved back to Zimbabwe.

To this day I regret that move. When I moved to Zimbabwe the exchange rate was around 54 Zimbabwe dollars to 1 US dollar, a figure which seemed unbelievable then. I trusted that there was no way the government would allow things to get worse.

I converted a lot of money to Zimbabwe dollars, moving money from international accounts I held to Zimbabwe. What a stupid fool I was.

In between 2003 and 2008 when I left Zimbawe again, my money disappeared. Up to now I cannot explain to a non-Zimbabwean how my money disappeared. They simply can't comprehend what happened in Zimbabwe. How we ended up with ludicrous quadrillion dollar notes, that were worthless.

First three zeros were removed and then another nine were removed. Even after the removal of twelve zeros, we still had to print quadrillion dollar notes. That means the true figure of our currency's worthlessness, was probably nonillion or decillion.

In practical terms a figure of 1 million Zimbabwe dollars (worth about 19 thousand US dollars in 2002) would have been reduced to one millionth of a cent in 4 years after the removal off twelve zeros. And, of the new zero adjusted currency, you needed a quadrillion dollars to buy a single loaf of bread.

By the time I left Zimbabwe again in 2008, I left holding a paperbag with couple of trousers and shirts, wearing a jacket with torn elbows. From flying home whenever I wished, in less than five years I had been reduced to begging relatives for busfare just to make my way across the Limpopo.

The thousands of US dollars I had moved to Zimbabwe had simply disappeared from my Barclays Bank account as Gono juggled with zeros.

Fortunately I had had the sense to process a skills based worked permit around 2006. I was able to land a good job within a month and slowly start building my life again.

And then Obert Mpofu gets a brain wave and decides he wants to come and ask people like me for a billion American dollars. Kwaaaaaaaaaa! Seka zvako mwana wekwaPunungwe.

There is no way I, Jupiter Charles Punungwe, am going to invest money where politicians give themselves the right to take my money whenever they wish for their travels and luxury expenses.

If others want to, they can go invest. I do not touch hot fire twice. As they say in my Shona language, "Rega zvipore wakabva mukutsva". Loose translated it means "He who says let it cool, has been burnt before."

If Obert Mpofu needs to be reminded, they took our money from FCAs. Do I also need to remind him of the way they printed and 'burnt' the Zimdollar resulting in us loosing life savings and investments.

I had education policies with Old Mutual and First Mutual that would have taken care of my children's education till university. As I am writing this I am scrounging around trying to raise money to pay school fees next term.

The actions of the Zimbabwe government have resulted in people loosing trust in it. The people who squandered that trust are still very much ensconced in positions. Not a single one of them has been held to account. Occasionally a lot of noise is made about small fry, like Cuthbert Dube and Happison Muchechetere, but the big fish, the blue whales of corruption are left alone. Burping with distended stomachs full of loot.

Mr Obert Mpofu, listen very carefully. The main reason why people are not willing to put money in your government's jurisdiction is they don't trust you. Look what you have just done in Chiadzwa. Do you think that engenders trust?

Personally I was foolish once, I won't be foolish again. That is a promise.

We have a government which places taking foreign trips ahead of paying the salaries of civil servants. We have a government that re-directs much of the little tax they collect to Dubai and China. We have a government that tells ordinary people 'rambai makashinga' (persevere), yet they do not want to forgo their multi-car and foreign holidays luxury lifestyle. We have leadership that takes holidays abroad while hunger looms at home.

Whatever money is raised is simply going to be swallowed by the very same bottomless pit of corruption and entitlement that swallowed Zimbabwe's once good economy.

Mr Mpofu let me give you some very simple advice. The problem you have is not money. The problem you have is mismanagement of money. Giving you money is like looking after goats in a forest full of hyenas. Kusaira mbudzi musango rine mapere. Instead of a lot of fat goats people will simply end up with a lot of dead goats.

Secondly you must get rid of the notion that people in the diaspora have got lots of cash to spare. We don't. Most of us are struggling to make ends meet, especially given that we have to look after relatives who can't find work in Zimbabwe.

We are supporting multiple families, some of whom cannot support themselves because of the government's economic mismanagement. Why should we stop supporting our families and relatives in order to support the government. Why should we top-up the pockets of politicians wallowing in luxury, enjoying foreign holidays, million dollar parties and the like. They control government and they take whatever they want from government coffers.

After all their profligate and uncontrolled spending is the root cause of the economic situation.

Zuma's relationship with the Guptas is a very bad case of mental colonisation.

Zuma's relationship with the Guptas is a very bad case of mental colonisation. Frankly speaking I do not see what Zuma's sees in the Guptas apart from a subconscious need to please and earn plaudits from some-one who is not a black African.

Zuma is conditioned to believe that he has to do things to please a non-African boss. All reports surrounding the Gupta saga talk about Zuma and ministers trotting to the Gupta residence is if to receive instructions. I have not heard it mentioned even once that the Guptas go to Zuma's office, home or even Nkandla. It is him who trots to them like a faithful servant always.

It is as if the Gupta Saxonwold compound is the headquarters of South Africa, not just another home in the country. Why Zuma, president of the entire country, has to be trotting there every now and then, like a faithful poodle, is beyond my comprehension.

It seems to not have dawned to him that he is the boss of the country. Zuma's family and friends seem not to understand that Zuma is the president of a democracy supposed to act through and with the elected representatives of the South African people.

Even Duduzane has no reason to be approaching ministers to discuss government business. South Africa is not a kingdom and he is not a prince. He should not be meddling in state affairs as if his father is a king.

Having him summoning ministers to meetings is like having Sasha and Malia summoning John Kerry and Ashton Carter to give them instructions on behalf of Obama.

 I do not know if the ANC have been watching developments in Zimbabwe. They are a classic example of what happens when friends and family are allowed to usurp government functions.

After Grace Mugabe entered politics and started tussles with elected officials, it sowed serious divisions in the party itself. To be blunt, she destroyed Zanu-PF. The party will never ever be the same again.

The same could be said about the relationship involving the ANC, the Guptas and Duduzane. This past week serious accusations have been flying. Elected members of the ANC, government ministers on the one side and the Guptas, Gupta functionaries and Zuma's family (so far Duduzane) are on the other. But mark my words it won't be long before Edward joins the fray.

The monkey business that is on-going has seriously eroded the ANC's stature and gravitas in the eyes of the public. That is bound to translate to losses in votes at some point.

Stop it! Zimbabwe government should not grab schools' money

No sooner had I spoken about Zimbabwean roulette than the imbecilic and nincompoopish practice reared its ugly head.

In my blog post I mentioned that when the Zimbabwe government get desperate for cash that they will grab anyone's money or property. No sooner had I spoken than it happened. This time the desperadoes are targeting money invested by parents in the education of their children. According to The Herald the ministry of education was demanding that schools hand over money from parents to the national treasury. The money should not be kept in accounts administered by the schools themselves as is current practice, the government decreed.

Schools in Zimbabwe are allowed to be funded by parents through SDAs (Schools Development Associations). These are bodies funded by levies administered by a parent's association in conjunction with the teachers of the school. The money comes from parents of pupils currently enrolled at the school.

Remember FCAs

In the mid-2000s something similar happened. The government then decreed that all money earned by exporters should be kept in FCAs (foreign currency accounts). Due to the hyperinflation then rampant, people were keeping foreign currency as cash rather than banking it and having it converted to Zimdollars. The decree said people should bank their money as foreign currency and it would be kept as foreign currency.

One morning all holders FCAs woke up to find that their foreign currency had been emptied from accounts and been replaced by worthless and unusable Zimbabwe dollars. The government simply declared that it needed the money and took it.

To this day organisations and companies like the Miekles hotel group have not recovered their money. Some of them fought and won court battles but the government simply responded by passing laws that it cannot be sued or have its property attached.

Where does the money go?

Even a blind worm deep underground knows that once in the hands of the treasury Mugabe's wishes and insatiable hunger for cash take precedence over the original purpose of the money. Of course his number one wish is trotting the globe with a huge entourage of cling-ons.

This particular decree was made at the same time as a Mugabe trip to attend a 'cultural event' in India that even the prime minister of India did not bother to attend. Mugabe had to call off the trip and beat a hasty retreat from India.

I do wish the monumental wastage of money that took place organising the trip could also simply be called off.

What kind of mentality is it that leads a government to take money from schools in order to fund lavish lifestyles of politicians. What happened to conscience?

Zimbabwean Roulette

The Zimbabwe government has been chasing away investors, both foreign and local. Investing in Zimbabwe, has become a very dangerous gamble simply because of government actions unpredictability.

When stranded for cash, the Zanu-PF led government has not hesitated to act outside the law to effect quick grabs of cash and assets. They do not seem to care about the long term consequences of such abrupt and illegal actions.

That has made investing in Zimbabwe worse than playing Russian roulette using a six-gun with five loaded chambers!

If you put your money and assets in there, you never know when the Zimbabwe government will get so desperate for cash that they will make a grab for your assets.

Some people have called this policy unpredictability. These actions have nothing to do with policy but the notion rife among government officials that they must 'benefit' from the exercise of power. This boils down to grabbing any cash and assets they can.

Most of the time this simmers on as low-level misuse of government property. Actions such as using government workers, materials and machinery to build private buildings are common. Misuse of government fuel in private vehicles and farming operations is rampant.

Now this is frequently boiling over to the grabbing of private assets. This happens when government coffers run but there is a desperate need for cash.

Cases in point, among many, include the taking of money from FCAs (foreign currency accounts) during the heydays of inflation. Add to that during the price controls days big supermarket chains like Makro and Jaggers had their shelves emptied of goods, ostensibly for overpricing, only for the same goods to end up on the more exorbitant black market, pilfered by government officials.

The most recent case is the sudden grab of assets from diamond mines in Chiadzwa. The government told mining companies to leave immediately, leaving all assets such as bulldozers, excavators, trucks and other machinery behind. It seems the Zanu-PF government intend to take this machinery it does not own and continue to mine themselves. According to some accounts, officials were even demanding keys to safes and vaults.

To me that amounts to using government authority to steal the private assets of miners. Fine the land based claims belong to Zimbabwe but why not let the miners take their bulldozers and machines? Why force them to leave their assets unsecured?

I know some would want me to include land on the list of assets illegally grabbed by the government of Zimbabwe. However it is important to remember that a war was fought by the people of Zimbabwe whose main objective was to recover land stolen by the British and handed over to the queen's subjects on racial grounds. The current government by and large have misused that objective, but I would be lying to the world if I claimed the people of Zimbabwe do not care about their land.

Everyone also knows that it is difficult if not impossible to do big business in Zimbabwe without regularly 'donating' to Zanu-PF functions. That is why events like Mugabe's birthday always manage to raise hundreds of thousands dollars. It is basically a shakedown to make people pay protection money for them not to be harassed by the Zanu-PF controlled state organs. If you are thinking mafia you are on the right track. Rambai makashinga with what you are thinking.

Often the cash is grabbed for useless things such as funding Mugabe's never ending trips outside the country. In 2015 alone he set foot in foreign countries more than 52 times, an evarage of more than a trip a week. Where does he expect a non-functional economy to get the cash for all that extravagance.

Their rhetoric and actions suggest that Zanu-PF is not even considering trimming down government size and expenditure to a size that is manageable for the severely shrunken economy. The reason is simple. Nobody wants to loose the 'benefits' of skimming government money into private pockets.

Some like Amos Midzi reportedly committed suicide over the issue of loss of these corruption 'benefits'. He had been kicked out over the ferocious Mugabe succession fight that is ongoing in Zanu-PF.

People kicked out over succession fights are promptly replaced with other benefit grabbers, keeping the gravy train bursting at the seams. Consequently the overburdened revenue streams are not given room to breathe, meaning that the need to grab cash from other sources including private assets is likely to keep growing.

Fewer and fewer investors are willing to risk their capital in this environment. Those who do are usually looking for very quick returns, and are likely to use any means necessary including tax evasion and revenue concealment to maximise profits.

They are also unlikely to invest in long term infrastructure. For example not a single additional road was paved in Chiadzwa. Even the highway passing near the diamond area has not been maintained let alone upgraded. Yet airstrips to fly out diamonds were quickly constructed.