Zanu-PF on the decline, failing Zimbabwe

I know Zanu-PF leaders are not going to like this but they have got to be told the truth. They are failures and their greatest failure has been the failure to support local industry and the local job market which depends on that industry.

It is a matter of record that senior political leaders of all persuasions, and rich business people, are commercially disloyal to Zimbabwe. They consider it a sign of status to buy things outside Zimbabwe. They have their holidays outside Zimbabwe. They go and splash money all over the world except inside Zimbabwe.

They even consider status symbol to send their children to obscure backstreet universities, as long as they are outside Zimbabwe's borders. Yet much of SADC runs on professional services provided by top quality Zimbabwean trained professionals.

They associate Zimbabwe with backwardness and whenever they want to do something they perceive as sophisticated they rush out of the country to spend money. In the process they impoverish the country by taking money out of the country unnecessarily.

Not only do they take money out of the country, but they are also the biggest culprits in stripping Zimbabwe of revenue. Of all these farms, mines and businesses run and owned by ministers and the politically connected, how many are paying their taxes correctly? I would love to know.

They seem to be completely ignoring the free advice that I gave them in an open letter to cabinet and MPs. If they listened to just half that advice, Zimbabwe's economy would be much better than it is.

One of the major points of advice in an open letter to President Mugabe was that he should not include people trying to get rich as quickly as they can in his cabinet. Again that seems to have been ignored.

I also complained of mafia like tendency in government. Some in government are using the provision of services as an excuse to extort money from the public. That money is then skimmed out of public coffers by officials who award themselves unbelievable salaries and perks at the expense of service provision. Just look at the salarygate scandal to see what I mean.

There is only one way Zanu-PF can turn around its fast sinking record. Corruption and patronage must go. Corruption and patronage are placing a massive stress upon Zimbabwe's budget. The reason why Zimbabwe has run out of money is that over the years too much money has been wasted in giving people posts and perks, when they have no real functional role in the running of the country. On top of that, those people engage in corrupt activities, siphoning more money from state coffers.

I did a quick research on the size of Zimbabwe's executive relative to its budget, and compared it to some of the world's leading countries. My conclusion was that there is very little chance that Zimbabwe's economy can recover while current spending patterns continue.

I also made it clear that in Zimbabwe right now there is a huge and growing divide between the haves and the have nots. The haves are lavishing off public money which is supposed to provide services for the have nots. They are not engaged in any meaningful productive activities which would increase the national wealth pool.

I have never ever tired of stressing the Zimbabwe needs a small lean government not the current patronage bloated behemoth.

The irresponsible use of resources was highlighted by the then minister of finance, Tendai Biti. Despite that, he continued to preside over this irresponsible state of affairs. Even after the tenure of the massive government of national unity, resources continue to be wasted. Especially by never ending travels.

I have lamented that unless the mentality of political entitlement changes, even a constitution written by Mwari Baba, Sekuru Chaminuka, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Allah, Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, the Brahman, Jah, and all the good supernaturals you can think of, will not make a difference.

I have not concealed my opinion is that one of Zimbabwe's biggest problems is dishonest leaders who manipulated and are manipulating the country's laws to rob people of their possessions. The raft of lawsuits against the RBZ's practice of just taking foreign currency and replacing it with worthless local currency bears me out on this.

I have also not hidden my strongly held belief that some of our worst economic woes have been caused by plain incompetence and ignorance. Particularly the incompetence of a man who failed to run the country's financial systems so dismally that he resorted to selling scorthcarts, ploughs, plough-chains, majoki and tractors just to try and prove that he was good at something.

He was not good at that too. Right now the government is grappling with the problem that he just took tractors and materials from suppliers without paying for them running up a massive debt.

The quality of Zanu-PF's leadership has been declining. From the days of freedom stalwarts like Josiah Tongogara, Hebert Chitepo, Edgar Tekere and others, the party finds itself sliding into the hands of people like Grace Mugabe. Apart from a foul mouth and a chance landing in the right bedroom, such people have no other credentials.

The only one left of the old crop of leaders is Robert Mugabe himself. It is difficult to predict how the party will fare once he too, inevitably departs. Personally I don't think the party will do well once Mugabe's generation is out if the picture.

With the sinking in the quality of Zanu-PF's leadership, so are the hopes of many Zimbabweans.