Tell-tale signs of economic reality

OPINION

Tell-tale signs of economic reality

PULLOUT: Most of the world’s manufacturing industry has moved to China, so we can’t hope to get ours back quickly

BY MAGARI MANDEBVU

I have every sympathy with civil servants, some of whom even serve cheerfully despite everything, but I have my doubts about this strike. Before anyone demands more, we need to ask two questions:

1. Is the wealth there? A lot of us need to be producing things that other people want to buy. Otherwise, we’re only asking someone to print more meaningless money and we saw where that left us when the former regime tried it.
2. Is everyone who gets a share of the little there is, working to earn what they get?

Some efforts are being made, we know, to weed out ‘ghost workers’ and other parasites who got their snouts deep in the trough under the former regime. We need to look more closely at the first question.

Large-scale industry was seriously damaged by ESAP and every event since 2000 made things worse. Most of the world’s manufacturing industry has moved to China, so we can’t hope to get ours back quickly.

Small-scale industry was the backbone of the ‘informal sector’ and we know what Operation Murambavanhu did to that. We won’t get out of the economic mess until we can at least keep the equipment working that we already have.

Or keep our clothing wearable. I have a good pair of jeans that I can’t wear because one button that should close a vital gap has broken. Where do I get another? The shop that used to supply every kind of button, hook and other things the ladies or a tailor know better has moved. Nobody seems to know where it has gone. Maybe it closed? Are more people forced to buy imported clothes because we can’t do simple repairs here?

If any ladies read this, you might have a better answer than I’ve found yet.

Then I have been hunting for months for a handful of one-inch wire nails. There are always small repairs around the house that need those. I’d settle for 20mm nails, but the hardware shops don’t have those either. But I did get one nail and the loan of a hammer from a carpenter near Siya-so.

I should probably search among the tailors there for the denim button to make my jeans wearable. Siya-so is reviving after the devastation of five years ago, but if some economist tells you it has grown 100% in six months, 100% of nothing is not very much.

The formal outlets for basic materials we all need just to keep going are still struggling.

Most people know the stationery shop where you can get almost anything at wholesale prices. Not just for offices and schools: they even supply those plastic boxes for the fast-food outlets. In the last few months they have moved; not far, but their new premises are smaller. That is a warning sign.

The same is true for Khatri’s, the watch repairers, where watch menders buy tools and spare parts. Near their new place is a shop where one used to be able to get any kind of paint. That has closed. We are not on the easy road to economic growth yet.