Source: Zim must now stand on its own: Chinamasa – The Standard September 25, 2016
Finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa on Friday hinted that Zimbabwe had been abandoned by the international financial institutions on whom it had pinned its hopes for economic revival and was now literally on its own.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
The minister indicated in his speech that the country would have to stand on its own in terms of sourcing critical credit lines. He all but appeared to have given up on his earlier attempts to implement cost-cutting reforms as a condition demanded by the international community for financial bail-out.
Speaking at a Zimra Taxpayer’s Appreciation Awards ceremony on Friday, Chinamasa said with little prospects of getting external support, the government now needed to seriously step up efforts to get money from the informal sector to fill in the gaps.
This comes amid reports that investors have adopted a wait and see attitude in the wake of worrying and unusual policy shifts from government — the latest being the trashing of Chinamasa’s proposal to cut the civil service wage bill. The Finance minister had proposed to cut the number of civil servants, their allowances as well as suspending bonuses for two years.
Within days of the announcement of these proposals, the minister had been shot down by a fellow Cabinet minister, who declared Chinamasa’s proposals had no Cabinet approval and were therefore null and void.
Chinamasa said the African Union had encouraged African economies to intensify domestic mobilisation efforts as development aid might be a thing of the past.
“What this means is that as individual countries, we can no longer rely on development assistance to support our budgets. In the case of Zimbabwe, we have not had any budgetary support from outside for a very long time,” he said.
“In truth, therefore, we are on our own. We now have to seriously look at domestic mobilisation as paramount to our economic development. Talking about domestic resource mobilisation, the issue that comes to my mind has been that of the structural shift that is taking place in Zimbabwe’s economy over the past 20 years.”
The structural shift Chinamasa was referring to was to do with the economy turning into an informal market, making it the main contributor to government revenue.
Economic experts and analysts said Chinamasa’s statement that the country was now on its own referred to the tripartite partners, namely, The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Bank, which had promised to revive funding to Zimbabwe.
The government effectively disregarded the tripartite partners by not implementing conditions set by the three preferred lenders to cut the civil service wage bill that consumes over 97% of government revenue.
This has come as a potential capital injection of $5 billion, according to financial experts, was expected.
Economist John Robertson said the country had not done enough to demonstrate why it deserved help from the international community.
“How do proposals that are agreed upon with Cabinet later get reversed? We are on our own in respect of international bodies like the IMF and the World Bank, but we are receiving humanitarian aid. The minister is not admitting that we are receiving a charity as it would mean admitting to failure,” Robertson said.
However, contrary to Chinamasa’s statement, aid organisations have been keeping the country alive, with USAid being the biggest aid contributor, having spent $2,6 billion over a 36-year-period to date.
The second biggest donor is the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development aid organisation which has given hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.
The increasing headaches of his job seem to be weighing heavily on Chinamasa’s mind after he said he hardly slept owing to the downturn of the economy.
“I yearn for the day I can have a good night’s sleep. I can only have that good night’s sleep when our economy is performing, which is when all our economic players are generating sustainable business levels. I will also go to sleep when we are generating sufficient resources to support government programmes,” said Chinamasa.
Given Friday’s position put in the open by Chinamasa, Zimbabwe may be facing a real possibility of prolonged and deepening economic woes.
COMMENTS
Zanu pf believes it can rig the economy; eheee! Let them prove all of us wrong – by rigging the economy. They forget that they tried it with their Gonomics. Then, the Zanu pf idiots went overboard shouting (from zero-to-hero) , gyrating & puffing, as they clownishly believed their on stupid lies that the “mere cancelation of zero = elimination of inflation”. Now they think John Magudya has come up with the best ever solution to rig the economy (i.e. bond notes). In their moronic thinking Zim can suddenly have a currency as strong as the US dollar ( i.e. much stronger than the Pula, the Rand, etc.).
What kind of weed is Mugabe & his lieutenants smoking? Only drug addicts, would take this nonsensical clowning as laughable, let alone as solutions to the country’s economic morass.
Nxaaaaaa!
You cannot make money just because you want it. You have to sacrifice, plan and execute. Zanies just do not know how period so please do not waste frigging time writing screeds and screeds of absolute rubbish. I have said it a number of times. Those with HIV , 70 % of them have it infecting their brain and hence the current outcomes. They are all infected except Mugabe who has no Dick to get it in the first place.
That is foul language. We deserve better thoughts than spewing such vagaries upon elders be they of the gukurahundi mould. They killed our people but using such terms reduces us to their level. We show we are no better than they. Withdraw the vulgar words.
…so let’s see now. Saying a naughty word is the same as butchering 20000 civilians including the slitting opening of pregnant women’s stomachs with bayonets. I think you need to take another look at your moral compass. Clearly yours is a 180 degrees misread.
The point is that lies can be countered, truth told, without stooping to their level. Vulgarities accomplish nothing but to expose the writer’s weakness. Unintelligent rantings compromise opposition, and reduce effective communications.
Yes, justice must be brought for many injustices, especially Gukurahundi.
Don’t help them. They must’nt give them not even a single cent.This govt has lots of criminals very corrupt individuals who would use that money for their own benefits not for the zimbabweans.We are rich in mineral resources and good agriculture, so why are we suffering, all because of corruption. Until they account for the monies they received from minerals and properties they have ,then zim does not deserve to be helped at all. How many times have they failed to run the economy and still cling to power for 36years nothing improved instead the country is sinking.They don’t even have shame.
Pres M got one statistic right. $15bln he allowed to be stolen from the nation’s diamond fields. And that’s conservative. The $10bln owing would be affordable if this was a Govt for the people by the people. It is not. Thomas Jefferson wrote “People get the Govt they deserve “….. ie we deserve what we get if we are not prepared to remove these kleptomaniacs at any cost. And when they are gone we must have zero tolerance for theft by their replacements.
So, bring back all the monies you swine have stolen over the year. Sell the flash Mercs and Hummers. Get down to seriously working for the country instead of for themselves. Sound good? Sorry, pipe dream.
Sadly, Doris, I agree. There is no compromise in zanupf; no rehabilitation; no changing those leopard-spots. Their mentality is that of murderous gangersters. Their moral compass is so warped they do not understand civility… in fact to them, civility is identified as weakness.
The only way toward a future is the elimination of zanupf from any form of power. Unfortunately, we may not see justice served as we would like in this life, but surely it will be established in the next, when every lie and theft and injury and murder will be revealed and recompensed… with no appeal process.
china admit it you have lost