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Gift Mugano
Zimbabwe has gone through periods of low confidence over the past two decades, on the back of political instability and poor economic performance. During the 1998–2017 the country went through a rough patch which saw the Zimbabwe dollar being one of the major causalities of the economic turbulence, high unemployment, loss of pensioners savings and high poverty levels to mention a few.

As a result of the above factors and justifiably so, we lost our self esteem as a nation, we lost confidence in the entire leadership; the reasons why we have close to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

Today we find ourselves in a new political dispensation, which came on the back of our collective efforts as Zimbabweans in removing the old regime after realising that the aeroplane had lost direction. Together with the international community, we celebrated this new dispensation and we are still celebrating it to date.

Rightly so, President Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered an inaugural speech aimed at sustaining the happy mood by promising a number of policy changes, aimed at bringing sanity in the country; such as eradicating corruption, reforming the doing business environment, attracting investments (both local and foreign), dealing with sticking issues on land (such as compensation, tenure and productivity) and electoral reforms among other things. This speech enticed not only Zimbabweans but also the international community.

This was a huge step in building confidence. The next step is walking the talk. In walking the talk, within a week, the new administration has already put in place the following measures:

Three months ultimatum to bring back externalised funds. Considering the fact that we lost over $3 billion through externalisation, this measure was spot on and will certainly help in easing liquidity challenges and eradicate the three–tier pricing system over the next three months.

There is no doubt that the money will come back considering that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has the names of the people fingered in the offences. I do not think that there is anyone who wants to take the Government head on;

Reduction in the size of Cabinet, although it does not mean automatic reduction of Government size, is a move in the right direction when it comes to creating fiscal space;

Inclusion of technocrats in the new Cabinet, our expectations were met in some way. The new Minster of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Murwira and Prof Nyathi as well as Mr Chitando as special advisor to the President and Minister of Mines, respectively demonstrated that our President is a good listener. He wants to walk with us.

Sadly, since the appointment of the new Cabinet, in particular, there are a number of schools of thought, being postulated as part of disgruntlement. Some schools of thought are of the view that the Cabinet is the best team to take us to Canaan. Others think an inclusive Government is the way to go. Others expect immediate results, that is, jobs, health care and improvement of liquidity.

With respect to the new Cabinet, in my view, there are three things to look at. First, before one thinks of whether the Cabinet minister will deliver or not, one has to ask himself/herself if the Cabinet minister is being supported by good technocrats, that is, the permanent secretary and the rest of the management in a particular ministry.

In my view, if you bring the best minister in the world to work with a weak administration, the minister will fail dismally. In as much as he/she may be highly educated and experienced, he/she will not be able to be the machinery of implementing the same policies he/she develops. Undoubtedly, Zimbabwe has the best civil servants technocrats in Africa.

They need a minister who is hungry for success and provides an enabling environment for them to deliver. Rightly so, His Excellency’s first meeting was with the permanent secretaries. He called on them to be productive! In his wisdom, the President acknowledges the role which is played by the technocrats. Get me right. The President did not meet the ministers first, but the technocrats because he knows that they are the foot soldiers to success.

Second, one needs Cabinet ministers who are quite familiar with their portfolios. Without naming the whole Cabinet, I will look at the ministers responsible for Finance, Agriculture, Mines and Industry and Commerce. These four ministries are key in giving the country economic quick wins.

With respect to the Ministry of Finance, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa, I believe he is the best minister ever regardless of the fact that he is not an economist. Yes, he presided over a national debt of $4 billion, which I can forgive him that it was not his making.

Those with a sharp memory may recall that the minister twice tried to avoid civil servants bonuses and was rebuked on public forums like Independence celebrations and through press release.

He worked hard with the Governor of Reserve Bank to work on clearing national debt but came under a lot of attacks from his colleagues in Cabinet and eventually he lost his position as the minister of finance and became the Minister of “WhatsApp”, a portfolio I am happy that he eventually did not assume after the changes in Government. So, here we have a good minister.

When other ministers concentrated on factional fights, the Minister of Industry and Commerce Mike Bimha was the most visible minister and came up with measures which were aimed at resuscitating this economy. The industry can testify. Again, here we have a good minister.

With respect to the minister of Agriculture, Perrence Shiri, we have a capable minister since he worked with the Ministry of Agriculture from the times of Operation Maguta to Command Agriculture Programme.

In him, we have a minister who has institutional memory on matters regarding agriculture, and coming in with military horned efficiency, but we are complaining.

Ironically, the then Minister of Agriculture Dr Joseph Made presided over the very same ministry harvesting hunger for about a decade and half. Instead of giving the new minister the opportunity to deliver we are already complaining. There is need for people to be patient, Rome was never built in a day, we need to give him adequate time.

The Minister of Mines Winston Chitando is a mining guru who has depth of knowledge in the mining sector by any imagination. With him we expect to see a turnaround of the mining sector, which is one of our major foreign exchange earners. Again, people are complaining, but without an plausible suggestions on what alternative individuals they had in mind.

Third, for any administration to work, the head of the administration must provide the political will needed. In my view, the absence of political will and commitment to it will result in dismal performance of the entire administration regardless of the quality of the team in it.

Clearly, if one looks at this analysis in terms of what makes the whole Government machinery work, one will agree that we became subjective in our analysis of the new administration. No one looks at the role played by technocrats, the President himself and even cabinet ministers. We just allowed ourselves to be shrouded by emotions.

By comparison, the new dispensation feels like coming out of an abusive marriage. However, it is counter productive to continue to mourn and murmur with your newly found love on how you were abused and keep on questioning him or her if he/she will not repeat the same atrocities which were committed in the previous marriage. This will certainly destroy the marriage.

His Excellency’s speech when swearing in new Cabinet ministers called on Zimbabweans to work with him. Rightly so we work with him regardless of our feelings. What binds us is one thing which is to create a better Zimbabwe for all.

We cannot delegate the role of building confidence to Government alone. It is our collective responsibility. Our murmuring creates perceptions, which as usual turns into reality.

Zimbabwe’s current perceptions which is negative in the global map was created by Zimbabweans as a collective unit. Ironically, media, that is, both local and international speaks largely to the private players and civilians than to Government.

With our negative thoughts we will certainly badly market this country. This will have a negative dent in building the impetus needed to attract foreign investments. Let us give the new administration an opportunity to serve us as we support them to build a better Zimbabwe.

Together we make Zimbabwe great!

• Dr Mugano is an Author and Expert in Trade and Development. He is the Registrar of Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University and Research Associate at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Feedback: Email: [email protected], Cell: +263 772 541 209.