Zimbabwe Business Watch : Week 16
April 14th, 2009
Once more business is being held to ransom by politics as the honeymoon of dollarisation relief is coming to an end.
Decision-makers grapple with severe cash flow constraints and various other anomalies in the economy.
The banks are desperate for a more efficient clearing system in order that the multiplier effect of forex in circulation brings rewards. However, this will only provide minimal relief as the political cat and mouse game delays foreign investment and funding for the financial sector.
The Transitional Government receives revenues of about $20 million a month when it needs $100 million to fund its basic operations.
Zimbabwe has asked its neighbours for $2 billion, half to support retail and other sectors, and the rest to help schools and restore health and municipal services. It requires billions more from other donors. However, Western countries have reiterated their demands for the restoration of the rule of law, respect for title and the cessation of farm invasions.
The Price Index dropped by 3% in March but Zimbabwe still pays inflated prices for such things as fuel which is slowing down the pace of revival.
Foreign Currency remains scarce.
April 14th, 2009 16:27
Why can’t the secretive cabal who runs the security and legal apparatus of the transitional government under Zanu-PF tutelage be smoked out, and shown up for what they are: Criminal failures under one of the most corrupt and greedy administrations in the history of the world. Ten years ago the Zimbabwean economy sustained a population of 15 million and supported an education system that was the pride of Africa. But now 75% of the population has to be fed by foreign donors.
These people are supposed to have an agreement to work together to get the country back on its feet, and yet they violate it at every step of the way: Farm invasions, theft of property, illegal detentions, false allegations against agreement partners and other states, abductions, murder, torture, illegal appointments, manipulation of ministerial mandates…the list goes on. Have they no shame what they are doing to ‘their’ country? Do they think that they can get away with all these wrongdoings and not expect to pay a price? They must not think that the can delude Africa and the world for ever.
April 15th, 2009 13:59
Hear Hear @True Grit -
April 15th, 2009 14:45
Do they think that they can get away with all these wrongdoings and not expect to pay a price? They must not think that the can delude Africa and the world for ever……yes I agree,but it seems to carry on as usual with just no change in sight and Mugabe is here to stay until who knows when … Very sad indeed especially for the young generation.
April 15th, 2009 18:30
@ exbulawayo: “…very sad indeed especially for the young generation.”
Yes, but let me also say that a socialist/workers revolution is not the answer either. For sceptics of democracy – who argue that it enables tyrannies of the majorities, and that it ranks lower than economic development – miss the central point about the Zimbabwe experience: When a ruler operates without constraint, he can institute a tyranny of the minority, and he can plunder his country’s economy and he can starve his people without any potential corrective. Democratic accountability is the bedrock concept that no developed or developing state can live without.
An outspoken press, a healthy opposition, periodic (unrigged) elections, and a constitutionally independent judiciary are rightly valued for themselves, but their greatest virtue is a practical one: They deter and thwart top-down demolition of a state. Also, however distant the days of imperial rule may be, resentments are still so huge as to create a psychological impediment to sensible action by African leaders who simply use this excuse to deflect attention away from their own failings.
The time is now more than overdue to stop hiding behind the past and take responsibility for the present. Mugabe will not change, even if he lives to be 100, so it is for civil society to remain brazen in their dissent, and ultimately show that they can, against all odds, mend a shattered land.
April 16th, 2009 17:50
….”so it is for civil society to remain brazen in their dissent, and ultimately show that they can, against all odds, mend a shattered land”.That is the way to go at all costs and to stay positive and never give up, things have to change eventually.