tion in South Africa. It was
thrilling stuff with the man of the match winning the game with a four
on the second last ball.
The sight of those kids pouring onto the field and hugging each other
and then taking a lap of honor was something as was the sight of the entire
team praying on the side of the field when their immediate jubilation had
been spent. I have said it before and it is worth repeating – we are
probably the most Christian of countries in the continent.
It reminded me of a cocktail party in London put on by a firm of
commodity brokers in about 1977. We had just won the CC Cup – the top accolade
for cricket nations in the second league. I was a guest at the function as
Chief Economist of the Agricultural Marketing Authority and was talking to
some brokers about maize sales when we were joined by an elderly man – one
of the senior partners who, when he heard where I was from, turned to me and
said “there is nothing wrong with a country that can play first class
cricket!”
In one sense he is right – if we can produce 20 kids who can play the
best and win and then hug each other and pray together, we must be doing
something right. If only we could do everything else the same way, but
we do not and we continue to violate all the rules for a sound functioning
democratic and prosperous nation. There is nothing wrong with Zimbabwe,
we have the people, the resources and the knowledge to be a winning nation
but in an era where world commodity prices are at record levels and Africa
has started to grow rapidly in economic terms (the continent will average 6
per cent growth this year) Zimbabwe remains a shrinking, impoverished and
disabled country sliding into the category of a failed State.
The reason – we just do not play by the rules.
The State continues to recklessly print money – trillions of dollars
every month and our currency continues its collapse. Today the local currency
is trading in some quarters at 350 000 to 1 – near the levels reached in
June when the State tried to buy foreign exchange in the open market for
essential needs. I suspect the same is happening today.
We have just devalued our official exchange rate – from an effective 16
000 to 1 for the USD to 30 000 to 1. That is still only 10 per cent of the
value of the US dollar in the open market. Interest rates are all over the
place – you cannot get an interest bearing deposit rate for money on short term
deposit and long term money earns about 350 per cent per annum in an
environment where inflation is now probably about 25 000 per cent.
Under these extreme conditions savings and capital just evaporate.
The root causes of our collapse are political – the oligarchy who came
to power in 1980 as a result of the liberation war and negotiations
facilitated by the big nations of the world, hangs onto power and defends their
hold on power at the expense of every value that they sought in decades of
struggle against white minority government. They have failed, but refuse to
leave the field.
They exploit our inherent character as a Nation – our law abiding
people and their open and peaceful character and abuse these worthy traits to
secure their positions and privilege. They abuse the people who have built up
the country, robbing them of their assets and destroying their enterprise
and savings. They behave like feudal demagogues who think we are all
peasants and serfs, here for their pleasure and nothing more.
Our greatest enemy is the idea that we can do nothing about this
situation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Listening to the commentators
last night, time and time again they said, “Can Zimbabwe really believe they
can beat the Australians?” That was the key to the match – was it possible
that they might imagine that the invincible might be taken down and
defeated? The answer was yes; it is possible.
We in the MDC have spent the last 8 years working on a democratic
transition to a new government and society. We have been denied that victory three
times by a regime that has simply moved the goal posts; arbitrarily
changed the rules and bribed the umpires and even when that was not enough,
they have arranged to beat up the opposite team and intimidate their
players. When that was not enough they even interfered with the scoreboard.
Now we have negotiated with the association that governs this sort of
game in Africa and have an agreement on the rules to be applied to the next
round. Not ideal, but at least they give us a chance to prevail this
time round. The question is, do we believe enough in ourselves to think it
can happen and to go out onto the field – still the minnows in this game,
but ready to win and take the prize back home?
Our greatest threat is that we have no vision of what the future might
be like. We saw a little of that last night. The Bible says that a Nation
without a vision dies. That’s where we are and we need to break out of
the slough of despond and get back up and say we can do this. We can become
a winning nation again – but it’s all up to us.
Eddie Cross