allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Need for a Pre-Runoff Pact in the Interest of the Economy (Page 1 of 4)

OVER the past four years, I have come to appreciate even more the enormity of the challenges confronting the Zimbabwean economy like no other man or woman in this country.

I have known the economic gymnastics that I have had to do or engage in with the obvious guidance of my principals in order to move the country forward like no other man or woman would know in this country.

I have known when we have had the last drop of oil in our pipeline, when we have had the last tonne of maize or wheat in our silos and I have also known when we have had or about to have the last consignment of medical drugs.

In the same breath, I have also known when Air Zimbabwe, our national flag carrier, had almost failed to take off because of one reason or the other like no other man or woman has known in this country. And every day I have prayed for better economic fortunes and better days for our country.

I believe, therefore, that I am qualified to give advice based on my personal reflections. I am quite aware that many people have taken many things for granted, and that the modest success we have registered has also been taken for granted.

No one has ever paused to imagine what this country would have been had the team at the Central Bank, guided by its principals, not taken certain decisions and acted in certain manners, which are still to be documented.

First and foremost, for the avoidance of doubt, I wish to state at the outset that what I am expressing herein are deep personal reflections, motivated and guided by my own convictions on what is right for the Zimbabwean economy and the sustenance of the welfare of its people.

In expressing these entirely personal views, I therefore, neither hold any brief from ZANU-PF nor from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-Tsvangirai) or from anybody for that matter, local or foreign.

Electoral processes, as we are experiencing, can be long and winding. But in our case, the proverbial grass that is suffering is the economy, which is where I come in as one of the superintendents for our economy.

My constituency as the governor is not political, but the economy; and the enemy which I seek to fight -- and fight to win -- is called inflation, simply defined as the continued rise in the general level of prices.

My customers are to be found not just in the two main political parties, ZANU-PF and MDC-T, but in all the socio-economic constituencies of the Zimbabwean landscape, within and outside the country, within and outside the voting age, across gender considerations, across regional, provincial, religious, and any other sectoral considerations.

It is with these constituencies in mind and realising the enormity of their plight and, at the same time vulnerability to political processes within and or outside their control of influence that I submit the following thesis for intellectual debate and practical consideration by those capable and able to influence events of the day in bars, soccer fields, boardrooms and political meeting places.

Like my advice given to the nation at the start of the price blitz and price wars at the beginning of July last year, good and noble intentions do not always result in intended outcomes.

There will be those, as was the case in July last year, who will be tempted to give or to attach unpatriotic labels on the people who seek to make a positive difference, and therefore, will be compelled to attack this governor and my response to those so inclined is that the governor in his personal or official capacity is not new to such attacks.

As governor, I modestly submit that, over the years, I have gathered experience, which some in our midst do not have and exposure to economic histories of other countries by way of actual visits and interactions with different people and or wide research/reading - with understanding, which has always given me and fortified me with courage of my convictions where national matters in areas of my competency relate.

Therefore, here are my humble views:

Politics and the economy

Fellow Zimbabweans, at no other time has it been demonstrated that the Zimbabwean economy's state of affairs cannot be separated from the politics of the day than now.

This reality remains as factual as it has always been since 10 or so years ago, when the country started to be confronted with the burden of what are essentially politically motivated sanctions.

Others have sought to suggest that the country's economic policies, specifically those of the Reserve Bank, have been the causal factor to the current hardships.

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