We Can't Afford To Go It Alone In A Global Village

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, of the kiya-kiya fame, was quoted in the government press as saying it was a joke to expect financial assistance from the international community in order to kick-start Zimbabwe’s comatose and ailing economy.

MKD party and all right-thinking Zimbabweans locally and abroad, can bear testimony that we have heard this kind boastful verbal nonsense before. During the burial of the late Vice President Joseph Msika, President Mugabe made similar remarks to the effect that Zimbabwe should not rely on foreign aid to develop its economy but on its own endowment.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has on numerous occasions remarked that “failure is not an option” and urged Zimbabweans to “think outside the box “ or even “ dispense with text book economics”.

Simply put, Mnister Biti is now in synch and resonating at the same frequency with both President Mugabe and Governor Gono. The trio is in agreement that Zimbabwe should go it alone.

What these three gentlemen have not told us is how our economy, now gasping its last breath of life, can mobilize its natural endowments to pull the country out of this perennial quagmire.

President Mugabe owes the people of Zimbabwe an explanation as to why foreign aid is no longer good for the country when he embraced the World Bank, the IMF, the European Union and many other bilateral donor funds all these years. How has the donor funds improved the lives of poor Zimbabweans?

Now the people are psychologically being brainwashed into accepting that donor funds are the poisoned chalice and the only way is to go it alone. Minister Biti is swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker. We all know that he is hoodwinking the people. He is using the excuse of the anticipated massive inflows of foreign cash which did not materialize, to sell off State assets. Definitely Biti’s eyes are fixed on ZISCO Steel, Air Zimbabwe, TelOne, NetOne, ComOne and the National Railways of Zimbabwe. Those assets will be sold for a song.

If the proceeds from the sale of these parastatals could be used to increase capacity utilization in the productive sectors of the economy, Biti can be excused. But we all know the money will be recklessly spend on consumption – buying cars for Ministers and MPs; or paying civil servants who are baying for his blood if he does not increase their salaries. If Biti strips all the national assets to the bone, what will happen when all the money is gone? Will he keep the restless soldiers in their barracks or prevent teachers, nurses and doctors from striking?

We feel pity for this brilliant young lawyer Tendai Biti, who is sinking deeper and deeper into troubled waters each passing day. He felt good in the opposition because all he did was criticize now he is in the hot seat and all he does is sweat.

Zimbabwe needs to enhance its creditworthiness to enable it to attract direct foreign investment so that it can produce goods and services that can be traded to create wealth. Selling off the family jewels for consumptive purposes only helps to accelerate the pace towards a failed State.

For as long as Zimbabwe’s ‘’exclusive’ Government remains fragile with the three parties fighting over positions, then investors will shy away and people sink deeper into abject poverty.


Perhaps the time has come for the people of Zimbabwe to realize how hopeless and directionless the coalition government is. The Government can hold as many retreats, seminars, symposia, workshops and more meetings, but for the old woman out in the rural village, and the jobless school leaver, there is no change. Its just continuous suffering and starvation, whilst the Ministers and senior government officials converge for another retreat and the feeding frenzy continues unabated.

As MKD, our position is very clear. Let us go back to the drawing board and start afresh. Let us wake up to the dawn of a new era where politicians are held accountable: where the rule of law is held sacrosanct; where investors are assured a return on their investment; where property rights are respected; where our children hope for a bright future not in the diaspora but in their own motherland.

In this globalized village, there is nothing like going it alone. Nations need and depend on each other. Zimbabwe is not exception, may be in the minds of those on the lunatic fringe.