via Whither Zanu PF’s election promises? – The Zimbabwe Independent by Iden Wetherell October 25, 2013
IT is nearly 100 days since the elections –– 86 in fact –– which saw a transfer of power back to its original incumbents who promised us the world if we voted for them.
Indeed, the enduring legacy of President Robert Mugabe’s electoral triumph was change. So it is pertinent to ask: what has changed?
Last week we carried a report by the National Social Security Authority detailing company closures in Harare for the period July 2011 to July 2013 rendering 8 336 individuals jobless.
So while the main focus of Zanu PF’s campaign was the creation of 2,2 million jobs and the revival of Bulawayo, thousands were being laid off in the capital as the economy sunk.
Companies with household names such as Spar, Dairibord, Cairns and Olivine were retrenching workers, so were major companies such as Zimplats, Unki, Bindura Nickel and PG Industries. The total came to over 711 firms.
Trade unions said their members had experienced intensifying problems since the beginning of the year with Zimplats platinum mine alone retrenching close to 2 500 employees.
Following Zanu PF’s victory there has been little or no sign of resuscitation in the economy.
Companies continue to close. And the source of the problem is lack of confidence. Foreign investors will not put their money in Zimbabwe so long as damaging policies such as indigenisation persist.
While workers have been laid off, MPs have been pampered with top-of-the-range vehicles.
A new initiative –– ZimAsset –– has been launched with a glowing foreword by Mugabe, but what will stick in the minds of potential investors will be the president’s remarks at the UN General Assembly session in New York where he made it clear he was on the warpath against Britain and the United States, the very countries he needs to cultivate good relations with.
Seasoned observers will recall earlier initiatives beginning with Esap which were similarly ditched by their owners.
To be fair there have been some reforms. Land invasions are now frowned upon and there seems to be an improved commitment to upholding the rule of law.
The president’s remarks denouncing corruption and promising to take action have been widely welcomed but similar remarks in the past have not led to any culprits being brought to book except perhaps in Willowgate.
The fact is some people have become tactlessly wealthy on their modest government salaries.
As the hundred-day mark, a traditional measure of government performance, nears, so will public scrutiny of those in office.
People will recall the extravagant promises and ask what happened.
COMMENTS
EMPTY AND HOLLOW!
The chiefs still await their promised trinkets for forcing votes for ZANUPF… they’ll get them just prior to the next election.
It’s a no-go on clamping down on corruption. The government is very well aware that ZANUPF has high jacked the distribution of farm inputs from the government, and food from NGOs, but turn a blind eye. With that as an indicator of legitimacy, it’s obvious corruption will continue as usual at the hands of ZANUPF unabated and even encouraged.
No foreign investment is forthcoming. Investors have many places to look for returns, and ZANUPF has a proven history of mismanagement, theft, and fraud. Risk management does not make Zim a viable opportunity.
Due entirely to Mugabe and ZANUPF, Zim has become a 4th-world beggar nation… having gone from feeding much of Southern Africa to its present state of looking for handouts… from leading the SAU in so many categories, to being at the bottom of the barrel. ZANUPF took the jewel of Africa, and turned it into a cow pie. That is their legacy.
Disgusting.
I think Tsvangirai will have the last laugh here