COULD Zimbabwe be sliding to her previous default state of economic anarchy such as the one that peaked after the 2008 presidential election run-off?
2008 became an unforgettable year as people’s aspirations to a democratic dispensation hallmarked by self-sufficiency and reasonable modernity were frustrated by a thuggish yet clueless Zanu PF government.
The year 2008 will go down the annals as a period when Zanu PF masterminded a great escape from the jaws of defeat by subjecting the already subdued people to a brutal presidential vote where Mugabe featured prominently as the only candidate.
With the future of the whole nation seemingly hanging precariously on a rotten rope from a precipice, a GNU (Government of National Unity) was hurriedly cobbled up by regional powers.
This gave the people of Zimbabwe some breathing space and for the first time in years, the economy started posting some year to year growth. Zimbabwe had been saved from total wipe-out and her people could stand up to be counted.
Fast forward Zimbabwe’s political clock to 2014 and the economic gains achieved during the GNU have all but disappeared.
After Zanu PF pulverised the MDCs in the July 31 2013 polls the country started to drift back to where it was before the GNU Global Agreement. The shrinking economy provides ample proof on the developing crisis.
An imminent meltdown can be gleaned from the progressive demise of the private sector and the exponential growth of the untaxed informal sector.
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Any surviving elements of the private sector are facing cashflow problems and most are naturally folding down. In the shrinking zone is the private sector which has otherwise been unfaltering in remitting taxes to the State.
The numerically unsustainable public service is in intensive care.
The government is struggling to fulfil its obligation to pay civil servants as it is collecting pittances in form of taxes from diminishing business. Morale within the civil service is generally low and corruption is endemic.
The government’s desperation for revenue has culminated in an audacious plot to tax the informal sector. This could prove to be a very taxing undertaking.
Although the government is facing problems in paying workers, there seems to be no mention of the uniformed services experiencing delays in their remunerations.
There is suspicion the government is doing everything to keep the uniformed services regularly paid.
By taking all steps to keep the uniformed services happy, the government is behaving like a reckless driver who ensures that the car insurance is paid in time to avoid embarrassment in case of an accident.
The Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa is a troubled soul. He has an unenviable mandate to mend the economy with absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately he has no clue as to how he could go around mending the battered economy. He has very limited options. He is a man living his own Damocles sword experience.
In defending the outright indefensible, Chinamasa has blamed the adoption of the United Sates dollar as the country’s preferred currency.
The minister refuses to openly blame his party’s policies for the untenable economic situation the country is in. This is expected of a man who owes his allegiance to the party ahead of the country.
The party blames the targeted sanctions for the prevailing situation and Chinamasa has to be seen toeing the party line.
Of course deep in his heart he knows that the blame lies with the commissions, omissions and skewed policies encouraged by President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Chinamasa’s position is made worse by the careless and contradictory statements made by some of his colleagues in Zanu PF.
The beleaguered Finance minister wants unconditional reengagement with the European Union and the US yet Mugabe’s regular rants directing the west to go hang themselves somewhere far away do not make Chinamasa’s job any easier.
Mugabe’s infatuation with his sterile Look East policy is not doing much to contain the slide to doom. Chinamasa, Mugabe and others in Zanu PF can draw some comfort from the proven docility of the people.
Zimbabweans are instrumentally conditioned to bad governance and tyranny. For the past 34 years Zimbabwe has experienced several similar economic meltdowns yet there has never been any serious threats to Zanu PF rule.
Mugabe has made sure that no souls take their meltdown frustrations to the streets of Harare.
The only time there were some semblance of dissent on the streets of Harare was in 1997 when the city’s inhabitants made feeble attempts to take their cause to the streets.
Needless to say, the riots were contained within Harare. The riots only managed to politically destroy the then Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa who sent in the army and bragged that soldiers were trained to use bullets unlike the police who were using button sticks.
Indeed, there is a disastrous collapse of our way of life in the making. Even Mugabe who is reeling from poor eyesight as a result of cataract can see that things are not as rosy as his propagandist would want him to believe.
How much more suffering should Zimbabweans endure before they are spurred by that poignant moment of a “Damascene Conversion” into a spontaneous reaction?
As the meltdown bug spreads like the Ebola virus, Zimbabweans will just cower away in their bunkers of despair and hope that Sadc will come to their rescue.
Other imaginative citizens of the once mighty Zimbabwe will find solace in foreign countries.
Masola waDabudabu is a social commentator
