When greed impersonates need

Bernard Bwoni

Economic inequalities in a resource-abundant country like Zimbabwe are iniquitous and inexcusable and in most if not all instances provide a breeding ground rife for corruption to flourish. There were disparities in the distribution of wealth in Zimbabwe before independence and the imbalance still persist today. Most if not all human beings are inherently self-seeking, self-indulgent and acquisitive by nature, whether acting individually or in groups. In Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole, many due to economic necessity and following their own survival instincts have taken advantage of some of the inadequacies or outright detachment from the electorate by some players within the upper echelons of power to accrue more than they are morally entitled to. When greed impersonates need through unscrupulous means then you know that your moral impulses have betrayed you. The stability of life as we know it then becomes a fallacy. The problem with a money-orientated society is that no matter how rich you are or get, you can always imagine being fathomlessly richer and thus the need to grasp for more is always present. The more your own individual imaginative faculties exceed your economic reality depot the more corrupt you are likely to get and with politicians the more disconnected with the despondent electorate they become. Our society revere power and money and to guard against the decadence people must remain guided by the ideals of integrity, honesty and morality. But is that actually possible in such a rapacious society as the one Zimbabwe has turned into?

 

In Zimbabwe at the moment I find it is impossible to imagine that all those persons entrusted into positions of strategic importance in industry, in government and other critical sectors of the country getting into bed at night and sleep throughout with a clear conscience under the current cataclysmic unravelling. In all fairness heads should be rolling right now and people should be having sleepless nights. There is no way anyone in a position of strategic importance can afford to sit back and wish it all away. This is the final lap in the country’s economic genesis and what is required now is extraordinary moral and mental stamina to see this through to its logical conclusion. This requires hours and hours of hard work and commitment. Those entrusted into positions of influence and positions of strategic importance have to give up on all over-indulgent excesses and embrace that totally altruistic desire to uplift the country and upgrade the lives of the perennially downtrodden citizens. Our great grandchildren will rest on our behalf and that is the legacy. The liberation war heroes presented the nation with independence and the freedom we enjoy today and now is the time to compliment the ideals of the liberation struggle with unparalled commitment to this final push for economic independence. Economic independence is for all and not for the emerging privileged clique of elites. Zimbabwe is in need of mending, for Zimbabweans by Zimbabweans. The fact of the matter is that no knight in shining armour is going to descend from some offshore alien land to do it for the love of Zimbabwe and her off-springs. The duty lies with all Zimbabweans irrespective of political affiliation. President Mugabe’s dedication to the Zimbabwe cause is one of the key benchmarks that can be used. Zimbabwe has the human capital, the right education and an abundance of natural resources but all this is of very little if any use without a definitive corporate strategy. Zimbabwe’s current economic problems will not be wished away but require extraordinary commitment by men and women of virtue.

 

The reality is that institutional dishonesty has become the norm to the extent of being acceptable and embraced without question. There is no way corruption can take place without the knowledge of the state administrators and that is fact. The fact that this can happen thus implicates those who are the representatives of the electorate. The idea that elected representatives of the people can redirect national wealth from public use to personal-private use has the detrimental effect of reducing the legitimacy and trust of the government in the eyes of the people. HE President Mugabe has spoken incessantly against the degeneracy and how that puts the name of the ruling party into disrepute as it creates a cushy culture of corruption where national resources are siphoned from productive and social investment into personal wealth but many have not heeded the calls. Now is the time for men and women of principle to stand up and be counted. There are many upright and committed cadres in the ruling party and it is only the few who put the name of the ruling party into easy access for vilification. There are many ministers who are excelling and credit has to be given where it is due, Joseph Made, Professor Jonathan Moyo, Obert Mpofu, Patrick Chinamasa, Douglas Mombeshora, Walter Mzembi just but to name a few and President Mugabe’s commitment is the glue that binds this nation.

 

There is no denying that politicians are human beings and by virtue of being human they are therefore fallible. Those who find themselves on the wrong side of the moral fence are not necessarily crooked but rather they tread in the murky immoral waters and as humans they give into the alluring wants the corridors of power often presents to them. Most if not all politicians are bound to make trade-offs to reach that happy middle ground but the crux of the politician’s virtue is where they draw the line on what is negotiable and what is not. All politicians are susceptible to actions and behaviours they might end up regretting unless they remain focused on the duty to serve the people.  But then there are those who have no moral limits and they derive political pleasure from unrestrained accumulation. There are many who may have very good intentions but get things confused whether deliberately or not it does not matter.

 

Greed is a paradise island of the disconnected elite whose wants and desire to amass more than they morally deserve takes priority over all else. The simple want for wealth is cupidity rather than greed itself and on its own cupidity is harmless but when fused with immorality and irresponsibility it is catastrophic. Greed and incomprehension are mutually underpinning. Many in Zimbabwe society and some of our politicians have taken more than they morally deserve out of ignorance and others have willingly inflicted economic murder on the degenerate dance-floor. Corruption, ignorance and greed are all mutually exclusive and in most cases it is the greedy politicians who exploit the ignorance of the expectant electorate through corrupt tendencies. It is very simple to make sweeping statements about politicians as corrupt, disconnected and not responsive but the reality is that they are just like all of us and in most cases try to serve those who elected them into office. All politicians pursue political power and when they do acquire that power they find themselves in exceptional settings a lot of people will never in their lifetimes find themselves in. Those who go into politics all have ambition and it would be concerning if they did not. Tsvangirai came into the GNU in 2009 and five years down the line he had upgraded from Strathaven to the Dales of Zimbabwe.

 

The combination of the economic sanctions against the country, the insatiably acquisitive and self-serving practices by an emerging elite minority has created a huge imbalance in the economy and undermined real wealth creation for the underprivileged majority at the bottom of the economic perking order. The chronically unappeasable greed of some within the ranks has only served to condemn the same majority they purport to represent to a lifetime of abject poverty. These are the same grasping politicians who have betrayed the Robert Mugabe vision of economic empowerment of the ordinary men and women on the streets. The former colonisers have a lot to do with some of the deep-rooted problems that continue to afflict Zimbabwe and other African countries but constant repetition of this will not address the challenges we face today. The nation’s priority should be enhancing basic services and building on infrastructural capacity. The country will have to tackle corruption head-on and if unorthodox means such as lie-detector tests on administrative and law enforcement officials, public humiliation or others have to be used then so be it. There is an urgent need to rebuild respect and capacity of the country’s institutions thus dealing directly with the twin evils of corruption and political patronage to make the civil service more professional. The country can start investing in people through pragmatic and prudent economic initiatives backed by genuine principles of selflessness and integrity.

 

It is often said that Zimbabwe is rich in natural resources and that is true but that is not enough to guarantee economic success. All elected representatives of the people have to prioritise representing the people and not their own narrow interests. Many elected officials have made wrong choices not because they did not know of better choices but because the right choices were running parallel to their own personal self-interests. These are the same elected representatives who thrive on telling the electorate what they want to hear not what they need to know. These are the gluttonous inhabitants of the elite paradise called greed who pose a direct threat to the ruling party’s vision of economic emancipation of the ordinary folk in Zimbabwe.

 

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Massaging the investor whilst marketing Zimbabwe

By Bernard Bwoni

It is a very delicate centrepiece of economies worldwide and it can easily fall apart under the burden of unpredictability, unreliability and uncertainty. Investor confidence is built on pillars of probity, certainty and preciseness. It is a fact that investors require mollycoddling by virtue of being the bearers of the much-hyped and much-needed foreign direct investment into the country. It has to be said that Zimbabwe as a country has a just cause for some of the economic decisions and policies the country had to embark on in the past. Unfortunately some of these decisions have led to conflict with potential investors mainly those from the western world. This is such an unfortunate scenario because Zimbabwe has a contrived but shared history with the West especially the former coloniser Britain. The past shared history has been far from rosy but there is a shared history all the same.

 

Words are very powerful and even more so in business. Getting the right tone of voice is probably one of the most important steps in rebuilding Brand Zimbabwe to the outer and wider world. The tone is often an external prognostication of Brand Zimbabwe’s core values and it needs to consistently continue to demonstrate what really defines this brand called Zimbabwe. The fact of the matter is that Brand Zimbabwe is warm, welcoming, peaceful, fair, accommodating and flexible and all this needs to be conveyed appropriately. The national tone has to be consistent as it is a key determinant of how potential investors, visitors and other interested stakeholders view Brand Zimbabwe. It is the nature and nurture of the tone that either pulls in or push out those interested in doing business with the country. In any business relationship and setting, tone is critical because words are precise and can be precarious if not measured accurately to gauge potential reactions of the recipients of the message conveyed. It is stating the obvious that low confidence impedes economic growth, destroys national reputation and reduces investment into the country.

 

The national tone and marketing of Brand Zimbabwe is not the prerogative of the ruling party alone but all Zimbabweans. The opposition in any country is there to challenge the ruling party on matters of policy and that is a good thing. However there is need to separate the lure of political mudslinging from the marketing of Brand Zimbabwe. There is everything wrong with Zimbabweans themselves de-marketing Zimbabwe. Negativity devours at national spirit, it fractures the very essence of our potential as Zimbabweans and cripples every deoxyribonucleic acid traits dedicated to national progression. The thing with negativity is that it amplifies itself thousands of times and if unrestricted it has disastrous and ruinous consequences. The mind is susceptible to negativity and negativity has a life of its own. Zimbabweans of all affiliations have a duty to market the country and market it well. This negativity destroys national vision, results in individual internal blindness and makes it impossible to see any of the opportunities the country has to offer. That Zimbabwe is confronted with many challenges is an understatement but when addressing these challenges it is important to focus on the unlimited possibilities of tomorrow.

 

The country has to start looking at all available strategies to rebuild Brand Zimbabwe, lure investors, to instil confidence and add real value to the economy. For Zimbabwe to build a sound and dynamic market it has to build on exceptional standards of corporate governance premised on key principles of impartiality, honesty, clarity and responsibility. Zimbabwe has the right policies and people in place and all that is required is to offer assurances to those who want to bring their money into the country. It is their money at the end of the day and the country could do with that money right now anyway. Changing the tone cannot be that hard surely, for the sake of Brand Zimbabwe. The information to potential investors has to be precise and sufficient to enable them to make properly informed decisions. There is need for clarity and composure in terms of communicating and presenting the brand called Zimbabwe. The frustrating thing is that Zimbabwe has massive potential yet it has continued to fare poorly against regional neighbours on the global investor confidence and perception scales. The key stumbling block has been communication, the conflicting tones from some sections of the upper echelons of power and the inter-party and intra-party squabbling.  There is an urgent need to find the right balance between local value addition to the economy and providing a positive investment climate for all investors.

 

Zimbabwe has to urgently start simplifying processes, improving the country’s attractiveness and start massaging the investor with open palms using the locally-packaged Brand Zimbabwe attractiveness oils. The country is an attractive investment destination but not to everyone apparently and as such has to address those areas where it is less attractive. There is need for simplification shocks and in some cases the over-simplification of the lives of potential domestic, regional or international investors. The country will have to simplify all systems and manners of doing business in Zimbabwe, simplify everything and start looking at case studies from regional neighbours to see where they are excelling and lacking and can look into improving and buttressing its own internal systems. Zimbabwe has to start looking into attracting more entrepreneurs, more regional and international inventors, thinkers, brains and the best that is out there. There is need for thorough, robust and corruption-resistant mechanisms to follow up on every investment project presented into the country from the moment the investor lands until they leave.

 

The country has a well educated population but focus now should be on attracting more talent into the country. The key word here is ‘talent’ not just education on its own. There is a highly talented Diaspora community and beyond to tap into.  Zimbabwe can draw on the experience of regional neighbours such as South Africa and Botswana who have all been benefitting from Zimbabwe’s own talents, skills, expertise and experience. The priority now should be on creating the right environment to attract these exceptional minds and this critical human investment back into the country. The United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and many other countries have provided attractive conditions to Zimbabwean expatriates and Zimbabwe has to match those conditions to be able to gain this crucial resource back into the country. This is in no way meant to say that there are no great minds, skills and experience in Zimbabwe presently because there are but there is need to highlight the fact that there is competition out there for skills and talent and the reality is that the country is not benefiting at all from any of this.

 

The indigenisation and economic empowerment policies have no doubt been misunderstood and misrepresented and this has created some doubts in some potential and current investors. The country’s VP Emmerson Mnangagwa has rightly pointed out that there is need to look at addressing some of the bureaucratic bottlenecks that continue to frustrate potential investors into the country. Attractiveness is about looking into comprehensive responses to investor enquiries taking all the specifications into account and adding others such as health systems effectiveness, quality of life and good infrastructure and public transport systems in place. Investors want to know that workers will be healthy and are able to get into work on time. Businesses run smoothly on good infrastructures.

 

China is Zimbabwe’s saviour from the East and learning from how she went about attracting investors during the 1970s when she initially opened her economy to Foreign Direct Investment is crucial to the country’s own re-emergence. Interestingly the decision to open up China to the world economy was drafted into the state constitution adopted by the Six National People’s Congress whereby investors were allowed to undertake their own infrastructures development and other investment as long as they could raise the funds from taxation, from profits of the businesses they owned or from banks. Zimbabwe has just had its extraordinary Six Peoples National Congress and could take a leaf out of the Chinese approach by calling upon more investors to develop their own businesses inside the country thereby creating more formal jobs the electorate would so much prefer compared to the unpredictable informal sector. The key here is to continue building and updating the country’s infrastructure and industrial development zones where investors can enjoy investment incentives and some exemptions to make the country more attractive and a better destination than regional competition. Credit has to be given where it is due and the Ministry headed by one Obert Mpofu has been by far the best performing and with the recent news that the China-Zimbabwe deals sealed by President Mugabe in China last year have started is great news. The Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion, the Kariba South Hydro Power Station and Gwayi-Shangani Thermal Power Station have all started and are due for completion in 2018. This is music to any potential investor and the country has to continue to serenade the investor with the same consistent ballade.

 

The niggling issues of corruption and unsustainable government spending have to be addressed and nothing else will do. The government has to tackle corruption, keep taxes low and continue with the infrastructure rehabilitation and construction drive rather than use revenue for consumption expenditure. The country has to create loud, gentle, sexy and effective marketing strategies to lure more potential investors. Zimbabwe cannot continue on this complacent path because there are still a number of issues that hamper the entry of new investors into the country. The government can offer tax breaks as well as looking into reducing tax profits on those investors who are in joint partnerships with local Zimbabweans. They can also set minimum numbers of local employees that any new business starting to operate in Zimbabwe should employ and again tax breaks could be offered for those who comply. This is about offering incentives to attracting more and more investors into the country. These are just suggestions and there is more that the country can do. To realise the required over 6% economic growth rates Zimbabwe has to target at least $3 billion dollars in foreign direct investment.

 

Zimbabwe has a large local market, sound infrastructures and a well regulated banking system and that makes it a haven for potential investors. Foreigners are allowed to invest in all sectors of the economy except those reserved for locals and foreign investors have the option of going into partnerships with locals. The country could start looking into Bilateral Investment Agreements to offer the assurances that potential investors have continued to clamour for. The idea is to find the right balance between enabling the country’s economic empowerment policies and offering assurances to potential investors.

 

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Imperialistic impediments to economic empowerment in Zimbabwe

By Bernard Bwoni

Zimbabwe has been left frazzled by the aftershocks of imperialism and the firm hold of capitalism and that is exactly where the imperial state wants it to be. The squabbling over the flimsy, the soft and surface issues whilst the core issues are relegated into insignificance clearly highlights this. Imperialism manifests itself in many forms but the end goal is always the same. Since time immemorial imperialism has sought to subjugate, conquer markets, to eliminate competition and to always protect their own domestic producers and markets. The imperial state has always protected its areas of strategic importance and still does that through various ways and in fact frowns upon reciprocity in terms of all economic relationships hence the constant scrutiny of indigenisation and economic empowerment initiatives. The imperial state operates in unison with its multinational corporations and indigenisation conflicts with imperialism. This is not an argument against Foreign Direct Investment but the never-ending case of querying the Indigenisation Act by the bearers of FDI and the accompanying conditionalities illustrates the insidious and deeply-embedded role of imperialism in the mastery of markets and the accumulation in the former imperial states like Zimbabwe, neoliberal states and the protection of their domestic markets.

 

The country is confronted with challenge after challenge and the current dumping of imported manufactured goods from neighbouring South Africa is unsustainable and will never help in stimulating domestic manufacturing capacity. The South African Rand has fallen sharply against the United States dollar and the uncontrolled importation of cheap products is not bringing money into Zimbabwe. There is capital flight as the stronger dollar is used in South Africa for products that are being brought into Zimbabwe for resale. The market is saturated with these cheap imports and the market has seen prices falling down drastically as there is no money in the country to purchase the products. Prices are going to continue plummeting and the economy will continue to descend into deflation. It is a vicious cycle of trying to balance economic efficiency with social responsibility. Zimbabwe is basically buying more than three times what it sells and hence why we have seen the trade balance worsen and the economy continue to slide into chaos.

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing capacity will not be resolved by FDI alone but by reviewing the country’s infant industry protection and other policies that will encourage home-grown initiatives for economic growth. Excessive and inessential imports have suffocated the domestic market and this has seen demand for domestic goods fare poorly as consumer preferences have been understandably for the cheap imports in the current harsh economic climate. The domestic producers are left in a quandary as they are faced with limited choices to either produce less or sell at reduced prices. This to some extent explains the closure of businesses as they cannot compete. This state of affairs is just no sustainable at all.

 

Zimbabwe just like the majority if not all African countries is handicapped by poverty and economic stagnation and that is not by accident but by imperial design. It is the aftermath of imperialism and colonisation and indigenisation and economic empowerment are some sure remedies of these after-effects. However imperialism and capitalism by their very nature will always frustrate such initiatives as they thrive on the back of exploiting the developing world. This exploitation has taken many forms over the centuries with slavery, colonialism and resource extraction out of the developing world for the benefit of the imperial powers. Capitalism just like imperialism specifically works at disabling the developing world’s self-sustenance potential by putting breaks and blocks on economic progression. The developed world encourages those countries in the developing world to open up their markets which in most cases instantly eliminates domestic production and employment creation.

 

The problem with imperialism and capitalism is that they both have monopolies on development in favour of the already developed countries which makes it impossible for developing countries to follow the same developmental pattern. Without some form of government initiated protection, domestic production will continue to suffer. Zimbabwe will need to continue looking at policies that recognise the importance of managing trade with the main objective of facilitating and achieving real development and economic growth. The country’s manufacturing potential lies in putting measures in place to protect domestic industries whilst gaining strength, absorbing new technologies and giving local communities enough time to build up capacity and manufacturing potential to compete on equal terms without the need for extended protection.

 

Foreign Direct Investment into Zimbabwe is welcome to augment the indigenisation and economic empowerment initiatives of the land. However there seem to be this imperial intervention to neutralise and eliminate indigenisation to “make way for this investment that will finally bring Zimbabwe out of the economic mud”. The fact of the matter is that indigenisation and economic empowerment in Zimbabwe is a direct threat to the economic hegemony that multinationals have enjoyed without question for a very long time. They have only known guarantees of 100% remittance of profits and minimal if any restrictions on how they conduct their businesses in sovereign states. Indigenisation and economic empowerment seeks to review that and ensure that the home country benefits from this investment into the country. There is no point of investment into the country that does not benefit the country surely.

 

Many of the strong Asian economies including China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea started off by building up their international trading strength on the foundations of government protection strategies such as subsidies, tariffs and significant investment in infrastructure and skills development. Zimbabwe’s current focus on rehabilitating and retooling of the country’s infrastructure is a step in the right direction. The next phase should be focus on developing key human skills through a thorough re-evaluation of the curriculum. Schools, Colleges and Universities cannot continue churning out graduates who cannot even make and package a single product year in, year out. Countries like Mozambique have registered stable economic growth on the back of high level protection strategies and similarly Zimbabwe can take the same route.

 

Imperialism is still very much alive and the fact that the former colonies have remained exclusively underdeveloped decades after independence, Zimbabwe’s future can never be planned without referring to and narrating the colonial past. The development of Zimbabwe is inextricably linked to imperialism and that is a reality that has to feature in any developmental dialogue on Zimbabwe. Colonisation reconstructed and distorted the Zimbabwean development pattern and today the very same system works clandestinely to continually squeeze the country out of its natural resources. Indigenisation and economic empowerment seeks to restore the original patterns that will see the country on the path towards total economic emancipation.

 

The indigenisation and economic empowerment route is the only sure way towards equality and mutually beneficial coexistence in this global village. This brings about competitiveness and real development not these many promises of FDI which never seems to materialise. Developing countries depend largely on exports when it comes to supplying goods and services anywhere in the world. Technological advances have meant that noble policies like indigenisation and economic empowerment are forever ridiculed and gimmicks like globalisation are thrust forward as the panacea to Zimbabwe’s economic woes. The fact of the matter is that with technological advances the erstwhile colonisers maintain their advantage whilst the former colonies continue to lag behind sitting on top of resource abundance. The government is quite right in allaying fears about the policies and offering reassurances to would be investors into the country.

 

For Zimbabwe, indigenisation and empowerment initiatives have to translate into economic growth and job creation to be taken seriously by the ordinary man and woman. Capital formation has to increase as a result of economic empowerment and foreign direct investment. Once the benefits of the policies start trickling down to everyone then the full potential of these noble policies will be realised. In this bigger ‘global’ economic village markets can no longer be left to operate alone because the impact on the poor is devastating as these free markets are often the preserve of the loaded and powerful multinationals to make quick, easy and extraordinarily large profits from their investments. The developing countries will have very little benefit from it all. This is where the indigenisation and economic empowerment policies in Zimbabwe come in handy. The country has to effectively manage the markets for the benefit of the ordinary people. The international lending market used to be solely controlled and managed by the IMF and World Bank and poor developing countries have struggled with the conditions put on their lending. Many African economies have been exposed to economic structural adjustment programmes which have only produced disastrous results. The emergence of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has seen China offering crucial developmental loans to struggling economies with very little of the conditions that used to be imposed by Bretton Woods. The impediments to economic empowerment are many but have slowly been reducing and hopefully economic recovery will continue.

 

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