President correct on Zim’s economy

12 May, 2017 - 00:05 0 Views
President correct on  Zim’s economy

The ManicaPost

Patience Rashai Post Correspondent
WHILE naïve opposition  leaders have gone to town and back, bickering on President Mugabe’s refutation to pronounce the country a fragile state, terming him delusional and out of touch with reality, on the state of development in the country, it is of significance to first unpack what a fragile economy is.

Literally, fragility is something which is weak or uncertain, and unlikely to be able to resist strong pressure or attack. Certainly this doesn’t  describe Zimbabwe, an upcoming economy in its infancy, with stable growth recorded over the past year as IMF even revised Zimbabwe’s 2017 economic growth upwards from minus 2,5 percent to two percent, having seen the progressive development.

Critics and oppositional politics gamblers awaiting any opportunity to poke fingers at the President, grabbed this opportunity to discredit his sentiments that Zimbabwe was actually one of the most highly developed countries in Africa.

During the President’s participation in a discussion at the ongoing 27th conference of the World Economic Forum for Africa meeting in Durban, South Africa, President Mugabe challenged the panellists, arguing that Zimbabwe had the highest literacy rate on the continent and its economic development may be second after its neighbour South Africa.

A proven fact that Zimbabwe’s literacy rate had always been regarded in high esteem, ironically its literacy levels had to be re-evaluated soon after the land redistribution programme, only to be placed 11th in Africa. How dramatic.

No wonder in his discussion entitled “Eye on Fragile States”, President Mugabe questioned the rationale used to categorise the country as a fragile state when the country is actually in an economic progression period working on various programmes to uplift the living standards of people, for instance the Zim-Asset initiative.

This initiative saw the country’s agricultural sector booming after the implementation of the command agriculture scheme which saw at least 9 600 farmers benefiting.

In Industry and Commerce, the country recorded a 47,4 percent capacity utilisation from a previous 30 percent. Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) statistics prove that capacity utilisation rose to 90 percent in the cooking oil manufacturing sector, 85 percent in yeast production (which had almost closed down), 75 percent in biscuits manufacturing, 70 percent in furniture and 60 percent in detergents.

In October 2016, Zimbabwe paid up debt arrears amounting to $107,9 million to the international borrowing institution, a situation which highlights an improvement in the country’s economy as this couldn’t be achieved in a depressed economic environment and yet Zimbabwe is still categorised as fragile.

“Zimbabwe is also rich in resources and cannot be classified as fragile. Every country has some areas of fragility including even the developed ones like the US which went down on its knees seeking assistance from China to restore its industries,” said President Mugabe.

Likewise this is more or less the situation the country is battling with. Economic conflicts from developing countries largely emanate from bigger economies wanting to exploit resources from developing countries and poor oppositional politics intending to chow a few dollars from naïve donors.

MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, through his spokesperson, Mr Luke Tamborinyoka, was quoted saying: “With unemployment of over 90 percent, a virtually dead industrial sector, acute cash shortages, where people are sleeping in bank queues, the fragility of our country is not in doubt. If you add health and education, then you have a fully-fledged crisis.” Sadly who then is out of touch with reality here?

Other fatigued opposition leaders such as Mr Tendai Biti, leader of People’s Democratic Party seized the opportunity to discredit the President in an effort to seek relevance with Mr Tsvangirai whom he anticipates will lend an open hand into signing a unit pact.

Mr Biti also claimed that over 75 percent of Zimbabweans live in extreme poverty and 70 percent use the bush as toilet.

Honestly how can the use of a bush toilet be a measure to assess the fragility of the nation, not to mention the figures which Biti came up with out of the blues?

It’s about time Zimbabweans decide for themselves what’s rational and not, who to believe or not. Fragility or not, no one has the right to determine that for us.

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