By Charles Motsi
As a child I used to like fairy tales because they had all the magic and stuff just happened so easy and everyone would be happy in the end, with ease. Take for instance the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp, he would just rub it and the genie would magically appear and make his wishes come true. My other favourite was Ali Baba and the forty thieves, he just shouted ‘Open Sesame’ and the rock mountain opened up and he was rich.
Alas, I grew up and started to live in the real world with real life issues, where there is no lamp to rub or magic phrases to open up the hard doors that life presents. I started to see that life requires hard work, patience, sacrifice and resilience.
The people of Zimbabwe have always been hard working and patient that is one of the things that have kept this country safe and an envy of many. Now comes the time to fix our ailing economy that has been in critical mode for some time, close to twenty years to be exact. This is where every Zimbabwean has to exercise that resilience and sacrifice.
I have to say, this is not a piece to romanticise the precarious situation that this country is in but simply a reminder to fellow Zimbos that in life nothing is easy and it needs all of us to be like iron ore in the smelting furnace. The process is difficult and painful but at the end of it all it produces a strong formidable iron rod that will even uplift sky scrapers and protect them from the harshest of conditions.
When President Emmerson Mnangagwa was making his cabinet selection last year he opted to place a technocrat in charge of the all-important finance ministry. This was probably one of his master strokes because the man in charge, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has an outstanding track record and vast experience in the economics field. Moreover, since he is not a politician he would not be distracted by political ambitions or allegiance instead he has only one job, which is to concentrate on the economy and make it better.
Prof Ncube’s ‘Austerity for Prosperity’ mantra seems to have shaken many in the economy especially those who had been used to the era of getting rich over night at the expense of the poor and ordinary man. It was his brief communications expert, Acie Lumumba, who exposed the fuel cartels in our midst and this seems to have scared the cartels and they have responded by choking the economy and depriving it of the much needed precious liquid. But koodos to the President as he has refused to be manipulated into losing confidence in his economic guru.
President Mnangagwa and Minister Ncube have maintained that the only way to a stronger economy is to restructure, rebuild and reform. This call seems to have been heeded by ZANU PF legislators who have resolved not to take up luxurious parliament issued vehicles as this would further stress the fiscus. This is a first in the history of this country to have MPs forgo this luxury for the good of the nation. This is just one of the small signs that exhibit the force of positive change promoted by the new Commander-in-Chief.
Many are crying for the return to a dollarized economy as the antidote to our current predicament but really we tried this already and it did not work so why waste time with an already failed tactic. This proved to be a short term solution and what is needed now is a long term permanent solution which Prof Ncube has promised in the form of returning our own currency to address the currency crisis we have now.
Others are even yearning for the return of the Mugabe tactics to force businesses to tow government’s line and control prices by any means necessary. This was a dictatorial practice fuelled by populist policies and it never was a lasting solution. President Mnangagwa has decided to go the other way and not resort to populist policies, sadly, the chosen route is a painful one but in the end it will yield the required long term solutions we all need as a country.
Zimbabwe will have its ‘happily ever after’ but first it will have to go through tough times and this will not be as easy as our childhood fairy tales, there are no magic wands in real life.
