Clive Thabo Dube
ZIMBABWE’S vicissitudes from being Africa’s breadbasket to be the continent beggar continue to hog the limelight as the local currency continue to crumble.
Zimbabwe, endowed with more than 70% fertile soil for agriculture, unearthed precious minerals, spectacular wildlife, literate and unrelenting labor force, has become but nefarious of misery caused by abject poverty which is being driven by corruption and greed of the few elites, has pushed the economic to its brink.
The Southern African country’s golden days are but over and the Government’s propensity for bringing measures to try and arrest the now galloping inflation are failing dismally.
Chinese firms are looting the country’s precious minerals with impunity in the mining sector, pushing further the already drowned labor force under water. Industries have failed to pick up and continue closing and farms for agriculture for tobacco, corn, cotton and wheat, and other crops that would generate the much needed Foreign Currency Injections are mismanaged by a few elite individuals.
Prophetic was former Rhodesia Prime Minister, Ian Douglas Smith in his 1975 statement when he said,
“If blacks are to rule themselves people in towns will walk on sewage until they believe it’s normal, all the gains from colonization will vanish, infrastructure will collapse, roads will be impassable, trains will kill people until they’re abandoned as an unsafe mode of transport, hospitals will be closed, farms will be grabbed and nothing to feed the people.”
Then Southern Rhodesia under white rule in the 1890s and early 1900s, experienced economic boom with farms, mines and the construction of railway lines which gave jobs to the majority of the black labor force, this placed the Southern nation as breadbasket of Africa. Until the late former President Robert Mugabe embarked on the fast track- land reform program, seizing all farms from the white settlers, chasing them out of the country.
The country quickly jubilated not knowing those farms were for enriching only those in power and not to improve the conditions of the impoverished general populace, who have just been awakened by yet another divorce of the elite, the startling revelation surrounding Bona Mugabe’s properties.
Despite holding the world’s third largest reserves of platinum and other minerals such as Lithium, Zimbabwe’s economy still fails to get up from its bended and bruised knees. Those in power point a finger at sanctions rather than focusing on sound strategies to feed the nation, fight internal corruption, open closed industries and arrest inflation.
Inflation which rocked Zimbabwe in 2008, re-awoke in 2018 with the coming in of the Second Republic. Like its predecessor (Mugabe regime), the current ZANU-PF government is failing in its mandate to resuscitate the economy and fees the impoverished populace.
Through continuous interference by the ruling party using legislation, the opposition is sailing on the same boat with the ruling party as it has failed to improve the Urban areas where it is in charge through commanding the local authorities.
The Ian Smith regime strived under gruesome sanctions, under the UDI era from 1965. Current leaders are however hesitant to admit their failures and hide behind the embargo ban finger.
Zimbabwe now is suffering inside the web of poverty, spikes in prices, weakening currency which at one point government touted it as “the strongest in Southern Africa” and a forever soaring inflation.
Just a few months into the elections, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), has revealed that a standard family of six requires ZW$1 Million to cover all basic needs. A shift from ZW$611 275 in April.
According to CCZ director Rosemary Mpofu, Zimbabwe’s cost of living has risen by 62% within a span of a month (April- May). Goods and services in United States dollars declined by 31,4%.
“The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe low-income urban earner monthly basket for a family of six stands currently at $1 015 962,61,” Mpofu said.
“This is a sharp increase because the basket has shot from the month of April, where it was $611 275. When we look at the basket as we measure it, we find out that the low-income earner is mainly earning in the Zimbabwean dollar.
“But the cost of living has really increased from the April figure to the May figure and it has constituted a percentage increase of 62,2%.
“The new analysis that we use in US$ has decreased by 31,4% so prices have increased in Zimbabwe dollar terms and yet in US$ have decreased by 31,4%.”
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency figures show that annual inflation rose by 11,3% from April to a staggering 86,5 percent in the month of May. Making the monthly inflation reach double digits from a mere 2,4% two months ago to 15.7 in May, leaving economics experts rating the country’s year on year inflation at 717%.
Zimbabwe has long standing history with inflation but the current economic landscape is the worst the country finds itself in. Those who claim to have bravely fought in the 1930s-70s and liberated the masses against colonial rule are finding it hard to revive the country. Being sanctioned, the country hasn’t stopped trading its minerals and tobacco with South Africa and China being the central point for all imports and exports.
Subsequently, Zimbabwe’s economic woes are not mainly caused by sanctions, but none-transparent tendencies by the ruling elite.
When the local currency crashed last week, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor placed measures that curtailed the use in the banked United States dollars. This sent a roller coaster panic as individuals and businesses ran to withdraw their hard earned cash as the lose of yesteryear glared in the face.
Facts are there for everyone to see, all those at the top live lavishly, while the majority who put them in power are wallowing in abject poverty.