Govt fails to deliver

Since Zanu (PF’s) disputed election “victory” on July 31, many local companies have closed down or downsized their labour force – pushing unemployment levels to unprecedented highs.

Reminiscent of the period from 2002 to early 2009 when Zimbabwe went through an acute economic crisis, winding queues have resurfaced as banks find it difficult to cope with clients due to low liquidity.

According to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, some 350 workers are being retrenched every month. This follows an admission by Zanu (PF) that they would not be able to create the more than two million jobs promised in their election manifesto.

ZCTU President, George Nkiwane, said the current situation pointed to a serious crisis. “To tell you the truth, workers do not even know where they are coming from or where they are going. There is no policy thrust as to where we are going- this can be seen in the absence of a national budget that would have provided us with the direction things are going. We have seen many companies closing down while others are retrenching,” said Nkiwane. He said his union remained sceptical that Zanu (PF’s) economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social-Economic Transformation, would turn around the country’s economic fortunes.

“It may be a good framework, but over the years we have produced very good economic blue prints. The problem is there hasn’t been any implementation and because of that, we doubt that anything is going to come out of it,” said Nkiwane.

Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is currently estimated at above 88 percent. In July, a National Social Security Authority report revealed that between July 2011 and July 2013, a total of 711 firms closed down leaving 8,336 people jobless.

Shortly after the election results were announced, MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai, who claimed the polls were a farce, warned that the country would slide back into an economic crisis that Zanu (PF) would not be able to contain.

Economic analysts point out that, since coming into power, Zanu (PF) has only managed to come up with proposals likely to fail to achieve the desired results due to the party’s widespread corruption and lack of sound developmental policies.

“We haven’t seen anything of substance except the proposed economic recovery programme. Even if you look at agriculture, government has not been funding farmers well because they do not have the resources. We are most likely going to have a bad agricultural season. But government will blame that on bad climatic conditions,” said economist Eric Bloch.

So far, government has only managed to distribute 40 percent of agricultural inputs sourced under the Presidential Inputs Scheme owing to logistical challenges. However, Zimbabwe Farmers Union President, Silas Hungwe downplayed fears of a bad harvest.

“The inputs programme shows the commitment of the government and we are expecting production to increase this year if we have good rains. But it needs beneficiaries of the agricultural inputs programme to be committed,” said Hungwe.

Analyst Innocent Makwiramiti, said there was nothing tangible to suggest that Zanu (PF) would be able to uplift the status of ordinary citizens as outlined in its election manifesto. “If you look at the manifesto in terms of basic social services, employment creation and growth of the economy, you would find out that they have not been able to make progress since they came in. Right now, they have not been able to raise money for our budgetary requirements and the economy is actually going backwards. The situation is being made worse by the fact that our indigenisation policy is scaring away potential investors,” said Makwiramiti.

Analysts are of the view that the party needs to re-engage with the rest of the international community as the Look East Policy, launched in 2003, had failed to bear the desired fruits.

Political analyst, Ibbo Mandaza, said “They have no choice but to make sure that they do that. It would be in their best interest as well to re-engage with the international community and we have to wait and see what happens but it’s something that is inevitable.”

Zanu (PF) spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, insisted to this newspaper that the party just needed time to deliver on its promises. “Delivering is a process and it takes time. We have quite a number of projects taking place at the moment so I do not think that anyone should doubt our ability to deliver. We are making efforts towards poverty reduction and ensuring food security through the farming inputs programme.

“The Ministry of Mines is making consultations to find out ways through which we can amass maximum benefit from our minerals as well as assisting small scale miners. So, there are a lot of things happening but the problem is that sometimes you people expect us to give you instant results,” said Gumbo.

Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, recently returned home empty handed after failing to convince the International Monetary Fund to provide the government with financial assistance. Zimbabwe owes IMF millions of dollars that it has to repay before the world financial institution can reconsider rendering assistance.