Zim backsliding—New report

The report titled Zim Gov Barometer covers events that occurred in May and July and is the first edition in a planned series and was launched in Harare today.

The barometer series tracks government’s performance in the implementation of policies that are supposed to enhance democracy and the economy and to foster public accountability.

“Judging by events of the past two months (15 May to 15 July 2015) under review, Zimbabwe is virtually stagnant and on the verge of backsliding in its quest to transit to democracy and economic prosperity,” reads the report.

The coalition blamed government’s sluggishness in pushing for reforms as the major reason for the stagnation.

“The economy is under immense stress and indicators suggest Zimbabwe is moving towards an economic recession with negative consequences for people’s livelihoods.

“There has been lack of confidence in the economy because of policy inconsistency, uncertainty and a legitimate crisis for the Government partly borne out of a controversial general election,” added Crisis.

The country is also facing liquidity crisis which will is affecting all sectors of the economy.

Industry capacity utilisation is currently at 39.6 percent and Crisis said this had led to private companies retrenching and closing down in the past two months.

“The Government is also retrenching civil servants in order to cut the wage bill which at present is taking up 83 percent of the wage bill.

“The Government has revised its projection of economic growth target for this year to 1.5 percent from 3.2 percent. Revenue for the year is expected to go down to 3.6 billion from the projected 3.99 billion at the beginning of the year,” notes the report.

Because of this, government has a deficit of about $4 billion and desperately needs fresh capital.

Due to the limited flow of fresh capital the government has resorted to budget cutbacks and massive retrenchments.

“The system of economic patronage and corruption which is employed to reward political loyalty by Zanu (PF) is exacerbating the situation.

This is causing social dislocation, poverty, and rising inequality and might lead to political fragmentation and tensions.

“The economy will continue on a free fall in the absence of a radical reform process that will seek to address the security of investors and investments and the crisis of legitimacy of the state against a tainted record of human rights violations,” said Crisis.

The coalition urged civil society to come up with alternative ideas to save the economy and government to adopt pragmatic commitment to direct foreign investment, macroeconomic stability and socially inclusive economic policies.

It bemoaned government’s lack of commitment in aligning hundreds of laws with the constitution that was adopted in 2013.

“Bad governance, corruption and lack of accountability constituted a triple crisis in the past two months. Corruption has been a major blight on the country’s economic standing.

“In early 2014 corruption scandals involving senior managers of state owned enterprises were exposed where millions of dollars were fraudulently paid out as salaries,” said the coalition of civil society organisations.

Transparency International rates Zimbabwe at number 157 out of 177 in its Corruption perception index.

A recent survey by a local think tank, Econometer, suggested that the 78 percent of Zimbabweans believe that the current government has no capacity and will to curb corruption.