Zim: Towards science for economic development President Mnangagwa

Forbes Madziya Correspondent
The “new” Zimbabwe, thanks to a transitional process that gave us a new order under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, needs to purposefully move forward both economically and politically.

Moving towards development, it is essential for policymakers to establish where the country was, where it is now and where it needs to be purposefully steered towards. Zimbabwe has evolved from the colonial state, an independent/post-colonial state, to a post-independent state.

President Mnangagwa is coming when freedom, the foundation for real economic development is in place. Former President Mugabe and his liberation generation removed white domination and went a step further to forge national unity across the racial divide.

This national unity was ironically deepened by economic hardships and a thirsting for a common goal, economic development that yields real per capita GDP growth and improved quality of life. Under the two regimes prior to President Mnangagwa, development was affected by discriminatory policies and political patronage respectively.

During the latter era, efforts for development were made, but there was not enough development will and practical capacity to undertake it.The focus was on ensuring that the political power base of our erstwhile colonial masters and their latter-day trojan horses were vanquished. The rise of opposition politics also took essential energy from Government as the ruling party sought to consolidate its power.

One can see a streak of fixation on the politics of winning elections at the expense of economic development. Ironically, the seemingly secondary issue of the economy would come back to haunt Government and the ruling party even when the opposition was pacified.

The absence of an economic development agenda began to birth hunger and discontent among the citizenry.This left zanu-pf trying to maintain an intricate balance between party unity, growing intra-party factions, which ultimately split the party membership and development needs under a crippling sanctions environment.

The intervention of the army in Zimbabwe under Operation Restore Legacy, will assist to explain the politics and economics power matrix. It posed a new question on how should the gun, the party and the Government interface the development agenda.

This new administration of President Mnangagwa offers us an opportunity for an economic development paradigm, a development that failed in the internal process of the previous leadership as the liberation party had to transform into a development party. There is need for a governing party to continue to be dynamic and adapt to changing local and global geopolitics.

Any political party whose sole agenda is political independence has to reinvent itself into a development vehicle to avoid irrelevance. With economic sanctions and challenges associated with the land reform programme, zanu-pf ideally requires more brains, humility and less arrogance — all right ingredients for change and embrace a new way of doing things under a new paradigm.

Politics of conceit and arrogance will not take the country forward. Some individuals were seized with negative energy, which they expended on factionalism and work on how some people would ascend to power at the expense of others. This, of course, is something that was not part of their job description as policymakers. The economic and political matrix in governance was best described by Alfred Marshall, who said “economics is the handmaiden of politics”.

Though economics is subservient to politics, it is a development tool which must be used to create wealth and the well being for a nation. When economics is badly handled, it can destroy the power of any governing party. No political scientist can tame a hungry populace. When there is social consensus, nothing can stop the tide of national discontent.

The Arab Spring demonstrated the power of people when passionately united on causes that affect their families and livelihoods. While politics manages both economics and the gun, when social ills multiply through bad governance, economics will ultimately command the gun, albeit silently.

Good economics is the reason why we must not just talk of corruption, but investigate, identify and root it out. One of the ways being that employees must be paid adequately. The relationship between the gun and politics was properly explained by Chairman Mao when he said, “political power grows out of the barrel of the gun.” This is self-evident when one looks at the Second Chimurenga. The gun gave political power and with it came the ownership of economic policy making.

Former President Mugabe loved to quote the second part of the gun and the party. This also was Chairman Mao who said: “Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” What Mao did not explain was what happens when the party goes grossly rogue as during the days of the Mugabe administration.

The question then is, should an errant or corrupt party continue to command the gun? Even with repeated citations of Mao, Cde Mugabe found himself in a place where the gun, in the end returned not only to command, but save the party. The liberation struggle and the removal of Cde Mugabe was necessary for Zimbabwe to embark on a new and irreversible path of development.

It is in itself a phase of economic development. There can be no development in the presence of oppression or discrimination of any shape or form. President Mnangagwa has a real opportunity to create a new nation because the conditions and the environment are right. With a weak and dilapidated infrastructure, poor money supply, unemployment, politics of personal gain and a charitable or third sector equally ridden with greed, where do we begin the Zimbabwe development thesis?

Much of the development that took place in previous administrations had wrong bases: racially skewed during the UDI government and aid driven after our 1980 independence. Unfortunately, aid-driven development answers the view of the donor nations as opposed to the necessary local relevant processes. Such development was not nationally coordinated.

It was also not designed to take advantage of the foreign markets, as such it did not result in sustained growth, neither was there continuous wealth creation. The first stage for the Mnangagwa administration is to master and implement the science of economic development, a must for every executive if a country must rise above the pack.

  • Forbes Madziya is a Zimbabwean British Consulting Development Economist. He can be contacted at [email protected]

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