Rudo Saungweme
The American Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols this week called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Retired Lieutenant General Sibusiso Moyo where he among other things praised the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) and the recently agreed on International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff monitored programme (SMP) as the way forward in achieving economic turnaround.
The TSP, which was introduced last year in October by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube and is set to run from October 2018 to December 2020.The programme is an economic roadmap to attain Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030. The programme needs all stakeholders’ participation for it to succeed.
“Zimbabwe has tremendous potential and wonderful human capital. But you cannot fix two decades of failed policies overnight. The IMF Staff Monitoring Program and TSP are the right way forward to get Zimbabwe back on its feet,” said Ambassador Nichols on his twitter handle.
If the outside world appreciates the efforts of the Zimbabwean Government, one wonders why some Zimbabweans just criticise everything good done by the Government for the sake of criticising. Despite the ongoing economic challenges, which were expected as they are characteristic of national economic turnaround programmes, Government is on the right track. It only takes an honest analytic person to see where our country is heading and how much progress it has made.
Through the TSP programme Treasury is now registering a monthly budget surplus of RTGS$ 100mn. Government is now allocating RTGS$8 mn per month in subsidies to the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) to enable the company to provide affordable commuter transport services to urban dwellers who have been hard hit by private commuter transport operators who have been unreasonably hiking fares since January. Government’s targeted intervention through providing subsidised transport has provided welcome relief to commuters.
The TSP programme has been instrumental in enabling Government in reviving the economy as well as improving the livelihoods of the people. The implementation and success of the programme is a journey that needs people to be patient and to be united.
It seeks to implement productive sector reforms in order to revive the Zimbabwe’s industries and to boost the agricultural sector. Zimbabwe’s economy depends largely on agriculture for inputs and it is therefore important to revive the sector.
The programme, in the eyes of some, seems to be a challenging one especially to those who view issues in the short to medium term. The successes registered so far should therefore be sources of hope and proof of success for the programme.
Under the TSP programme farmers no longer get farm inputs from Government for free. Minister Ncube has already indicated that farmers should graduate from relying on Government for farming equipment.
The programme is very clear on the need for farmers to wean themselves from depending on Government for farming inputs.
“The Transitional Stabilisation Programme recognises the need for farmers to graduate from practices where the greater part of their requirements, for such equipment as tractors, and disc ploughs, is provided for by Government.
“Movement towards a market based supply and demand driven approach would be more efficient and sustainable, and also reducing the greater burden of reliance on the fiscus. Government would provide and target the necessary incentives, such as extending duty concessions on importation mechanisation equipment to also include spares,” reads part of the TSP document.
The programme was also put together to help Government to tackle corruption. In this regard, Government has started to dismiss those who dabble in corruption activities. Some ZESA senior employees are already on suspension to facilitate for unfettered investigations.
The Government has also included the private sector to help in championing a corrupt free society, so as to achieve much higher standards of transparency and accountability in the conduct of economic growth and development.
Government, through the accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) unearthed the rot and corporate malfeasance at power generation and distribution entity, where millions of United States dollars were siphoned through elaborate schemes of overpayments, purchase of obsolete equipment, luxury vehicles and accessories for the parastatal’s executives.
The PwC 6000-page voluminous report dated 22 January 2019 detailed the rot at the parastatal.
This development of a tighter and more punitive penalty regime for corruption will help close loopholes for corruption, including enhanced automation, enforcing greater transparency and accountability in the conduct of business and financial activities.
Under the TSP programme, Government is also carrying out business reforms that are targeted at reducing the time, costs, and the bureaucratic burden of doing business in the country.
Government wants to address all these shortcomings and improve competitiveness through the implementation of TSP. Government will capacitate the National Competitive Development Agency (Zida) as a one-stop shop for speedy processing of investments applications.
