rculean task because the only principle the goons in Harare understand is that of personal and political survival.
Mugabe has frequently denounced the IMF and its policies in the past – and yet they keep going back for more. Just what do they think they can achieve by continuing to negotiate with Harare? The discussions are totally at cross-purposes. They will come to nought.
In order to keep himself and Zanu (PF) in power, Mugabe needs to keep certain people on side – notably the military, the police and the Border Gezi thugs. That is the only way he can thrash the populace into submission to the horrors they are enduring under his tyranny.
The business community is reeling under the effects of more than a decade of bad governance, economic mis-management and rampant corruption. Yet businesses are not permitted to price their goods accordingly. This fuels shortages, which in turn fuels the black market, which in turn puts money into the pockets of the politically well-connected.
Parastatals, by contrast, are given carte blanche to increase their charges constantly – in many cases for non-delivery of basic essentials such as water, electricity and fuel.
Mugabe resolutely refuses to take any meaningful action on corruption and profligacy that abound at every level of his government. Meaningless action, such as creating ministries of anti-corruption, investigative boards and commissions, etc, abound – but achieve nothing.
Everything Zanu (PF) does flies in the face of the IMF’s basic contention that governments should not interfere with business.
Just this week finance minister Herbert Murerwa has been quoted as saying Zimbabwe was unlikely to clear the remaining arrears of its IMF debt, currently at US$120 million, because it had no guarantees of new aid or having its voting rights restored.
In addition, there is Mugabe’s crazy Look East Policy, which has wrecked the nation’s once prosperous and diverse industrial base and turned the economy into a cash and carry bazaar.
Against this background, we are amazed that the IMF continues to persist in such an exercise in futility.
Word for Today
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned … for you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor … for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. Isaiah 9.