Zimbabwe celebrates its 44th Independence Thursday, April 18th amid hunger stalking the generality of the populace due to the El Nino-induced drought.
Also, the newly introduced Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency has triggered anxiety and uncertainty in the market.
The El Nino weather phenomenon affected Southern Africa hitting Zimbabwe hard with little or no rain received in most parts of the country during the 2023-2024 season.
Recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the drought a national disaster and appealed for humanitarian aid worth US$2 billion to feed 2.7 million people, who are in dire need of food aid. Zambia and Malawi have also made similar declarations.
Prices of some basic commodities such as maize and sugar have already gone up, amid arbitrage behaviour by some unscrupulous retailers.
Zimbabwe is expecting a harvest of 868,000 metric tons of grain this year which is far short of expectations and leaves a deficit of 680,000 metric tons.
"Preliminary assessment shows that Zimbabwe requires more than US$2 billion toward various interventions we envisage in the spectrum of our national response," Mnangagwa told reporters as he declared the national disaster.
Early this year, the United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP) said it was working with Zimbabwe's government and aid agencies to provide food to 2.7 million rural people in the country.
It revealed around 20% of Zimbabwe's population was at risk of hunger having been caused by poor harvests in drought-ravaged areas.
Effects of climate change are being felt the world over and Zimbabwe is no exception, but other factors are worsening the situation.
These include poor governance coupled with uncontrolled corruption by authorities and a currency crisis characterised by inflation and exchange rate distortions.
Early this month, the newly appointed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, John Mushayavanhu gave a chilling revelation on how the drought would affect the economy.
"The EL-Nino-induced drought, which has turned out to be more severe than initially anticipated, is expected to impact negatively on the domestic economy's growth trajectory.
"lt will also be affected by a slowdown in commodity prices, and subdued aggregate demand," Mushayavanhu said in his Monetary Policy Statement as he introduced the gold-backed currency ZiG, recently.
In interviews with NewZimbabwe.com, young Zimbabweans felt they had nothing to celebrate and lacked confidence in government institutions.
Zondi Marufu from Budiriro high-density suburb in Harare said Zimbabwe needed a complete overhaul to give citizens confidence in the new ZiG currency.
"The introduction of the ZiG is just a repetition of what has been the case in the past where Bearer Cheques, Bond Notes, RTGS and the Zimbabwe Dollar and others have been printed, disadvantaging the people and increasing inflation. The government just slashed zeros but I do not think this new currency has any backing.
"Demand and supply should determine the market price, not the government imposing it. The central government dictates the level of production and controls the distribution and prices of commodities and services, which is wrong economics," she said.
Marufu said the command economy does not work in this era, therefore authorities must allow a free market system where demand determines the production of goods and services.
She added, "I feel robbed as a young person. At 33, I should be having my small farm or a stand in an urban area but this is not the case because of the distortions on the exchange rate. I have become a beggar at such a tender age as l have no savings.
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"An ordinary person does not have access to the local currency, one has to buy money for transport from the street. Only the elite have the privilege to access the ZiG from financial institutions.
"On production, those who got farms should be feeding the nation and the region at large bringing in forex for the country."
Another youth from Mbare told NewZimbabwe.com that she had no problem with Zanu PF leadership but her concern was the lethargy or failure to turn around the economy since the late 90s.
"Little to no development has taken place in terms of road infrastructure, financial and communication, etc. More needs to be done to realise growth which slowed down decades ago," Netsai Matambo said.
This year's Independence theme is "Unity, Peace and Development Towards Vision 2030".
Meanwhile, 70 000 people are expected to throng Murambinda B High School in Manicaland province where the national independence celebrations are being held.
