By Dakarai Tembo
Over the past week, there have been spurious calls for protests against Government by the opposition which argues that the living conditions for Zimbabweans are deteriorating. The calls to shutdown Zimbabwe unceremoniously failed to yield the desired outcome owing to a number of interventions by Government to cushion its citizenry amid the austerity measures it is undertaking.
It is of paramount importance to note that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, is currently focusing on mending the country’s macro-economics which had been under siege from the previous regime. The Robert Mugabe government practiced voodoo economics by wantonly issuing Treasury Bills and misappropriating funds, and in the process, ballooning the country’s domestic and external debt.
The austere measures being implemented by Government through the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) are aimed at extricating Zimbabwe from the economic cesspit that had dug by Robert Mugabe. The economic revival programme being spearheaded by President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not only necessary, but the panacea to the attainment of an Upper Middle Income Economy by 2030.
The opposition as usual found an opportunity to manipulate the stern measures by Government to create an impression that it is allegedly failing to tame the economy. They almost thrived on this cause, but the victory was to be short-lived as one economist after the other gave a nod to interventions by Government as far as effecting economic reforms is concerned.
Veteran opposition leader and economist, Eddie Cross, had to break ranks with his traditional peers to laud Government for its pragmatic approach to setting the correct economic fundamentals. He ran a series of articles on his blog indicating that the Government was indeed on course. What was to follow was an equally proportional thread of insults from his peers, mainly tMDC leader, Nelson Chamisa.
On her part, former Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, had to suffer the same rebuke from Chamisa and company for positing that ‘President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his administration deserved a chance.’
All these voices regardless of their standing in the local and international community were dismissed contemptuously by Chamisa and his acolytes.
There was to be silence from the international community over calls for economic reforms. The silencing was definitely in observation of the strides Zimbabwe was and is making towards accounting for public funds.
Indeed like a prophecy which comes to pass, the dividends of the austerity measures started to yield results, resulting in Prof Ncube touting and celebrating the budget surplus.
Cognisant of the effects of the belt-tightening measures on the ordinary man and woman, Government has put in place safety nets to mitigates the deleterious effects of austerity measures. To that end, Government has cushioned its workers by awarding them a cushioning allowance, setting up People’s Shops and subsidizing the country’s staple food, maize.
ZCTU General Secretary, Japhet Moyo, in one of their secret meetings remarked that the cushion allowance had worked against their plans by dampening the appetite for Government workers to participate in protests. Moyo indicated that “I foresee a situation where the Declarations of Incapacity by various organizations’ workers are to suffer still births as a result of the payment of cushion allowances. I therefore propose that we shelve the shutdown motion.”
Zimbabwe is thus evidently heading the right direction and patience will surely take the nation to greater heights.
Moyo’s admission got the buy-in from ZCTU President, Peter Mutasa, who in the same meeting revealed that he had received letters of advice from affiliate organizations, Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ), Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and other civic societies advocating that they shelve demonstrations and concentrate on dialogue.
Donors also halted sending through monies to oil demonstrations advocating for dialogue. It is thus clear that the monetary and fiscal interventions of Government are denying the opposition any chance to take to the streets. Every Zimbabwean should know that there is no secret to the peace prevailing but rather it is Government’s efforts.
