ZHUWAO BRIEF: Judicious exploitation precludes corruption

24 May, 2015 - 00:05 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

This week’s instalment will unpack this seemingly innocuous statement into its constituent parts as a way of illustrating how the implementation of ZimASSET can be accelerated . . .

The Zhuwao Brief continues its series on “Dialogues for an Empowered Society and a Growing Economy”. This week’s article borrows from the words of His Excellency President Robert Mugabe by taking on the theme of the last phrase in the first paragraph of the foreword to the ZimASSET document.

That phrase states that ZimASSET “will be largely propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources”.

This week’s instalment will unpack this seemingly innocuous statement into its constituent parts as a way of illustrating how the implementation of ZimASSET can be accelerated through addressing a number of the major binding constraints for this economy.

Some of these binding constraints include the resourcing of ZimASSET, the realisation of the optimal amount of value from our “abundant human and natural resources”, and the need to address abuse of authority and corruption.

On the first constraint of resourcing ZimASSET, this phrase provides the basis upon which ZimASSET will be resourced. ZimASSET will be “largely propelled” through the judicious use and application of Zimbabwe’s abundant human and natural resources in order to realise an empowered society and a growing economy.

One of the issues that is very instructive in that phrase is the deliberate inclusion of the word “largely” that President Mugabe used to direct how ZimASSET should be “propelled”. Yes it is good to have foreign direct investment, overseas development assistance, and the support of the so-called multi-lateral financial institutions (i.e World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc). But at what cost will this foreign funding be availed?

The cost of the foreign funding and support to the Zimbabwean economy invariably comes with strings attached. These strings most probably attempt to reverse the gains that we have won in terms of economic liberation. We would be forced to review, if not reverse, our empowerment policies such as the land reform programme and the indigenization legislation.

We are all familiar with the still-born idea of illegally attempting to withhold the bonuses of civil servants. This was an act, which is itself contrary to the country’s labour laws,that was about to be implemented by government; thus making government a law breaker. We must never forget how the multi-lateral financial institutions hoodwinked Zimbabwe into adopting ESAP with its deleterious effect on some of our national institutions.

The Grain Marketing Board is now moribund, and the successor of the Cotton Marketing Board is bankrupt. These were the institutions that supported the majority of our communal farmers. These institutions have been decimated. Our farmers are now left high and dry thus confounding the vision of an empowered society and a growing economy.

The second issue relates to the realisation of the optimal value that we can derive from the abundant human and natural resources that God has endowed on Zimbabwe. These human and natural resources are not just abundant, but they are in vastly superior levels of quality.

In a previous instalment of the Zhuwao Brief, I made the observation that the phrase under review chose to start with human resource as opposed to natural resource. My analysis of that choice of phraseology, coupled with a deep understanding of President Mugabe as the author of the foreword, confirms the pivotal role that human resources play in ZimASSET.

This same point is again illustrated in the vision of ZimASSET which seeks for “an empowered society and a growing economy” by placing society before economy. Professor Ken Mufuka, in challenging the Zhuwao Brief early this year, found the sentence with my analysis to be, in his own words, “meaningless”. He expressed an opinion that the ZimASSET vision was tautological.

There is no tautology in the enunciation of the ZimASSET vision. Those of us who have worked with President Mugabe will have a deep understanding of his meticulous attention to phraseology. It is the taking heed of that meticulous attention to phraseology that enables some of us to have better clarity on the direction that President Mugabe will be heading.

Human resources become the quintessential component for propelling ZimASSET. But it is the interplay of the human resources and the natural resources that must be closely managed and developed. Effectively, the implementation of ZimASSET needs to cross the divide between classical orthodox economics and move into the realm of heterodox economics with its nexus on history, social structures and the resultant institutions. This philosophical discourse needs to be ventilated in another separate instalment of the Zhuwao Brief.

By placing human resources at the centre of ZimASSET implementation, the leadership of ZANU PF is enjoined to facilitate the effective deployment of the human resources in pursuit of the vision of ZimASSET. Human resources become both the implementation mechanism and the object of the country’s developmental and transformational drive. Human resources do not become a commodity to be taken advantage of.

This then brings me to the third point in this week’s exposition in our on-going “Dialogues for an empowered society and a growing economy”. ZimASSET advocates for judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources.Critical to the realization of the ZimASSET vision is the term “judicious exploitation”. What is judicious exploitation? Is ZimASSET advocating for the exploitation of human resources? I think not.

Judicious is an adjective that provides for “having, showing, or done with good judgement or sense”. Synonyms for judicious include wise, sensible, prudent, sagacious, well advised, well judged, well thought out, clear sighted, and enlightened, amongst a host of others.

Judicious exploitation does not include the selling of stolen land to desperate home seekers under the cover of ZANU PF. Judicious exploitation does not include extorting flea market operators and vendors under the disguise and abuse of ZANU PF. Judicious exploitation does not include siphoning the revenues of commuter omnibus operators under the name of ZANU PF.

I have chosen to re-emphasise this point which was the main thesis of last week’s Zhuwao Brief. This is primarily the issue that will determine the success or otherwise of ZANU PF in the by-elections scheduled for 10th June 2015. This issue is more relevant for the urban constituencies that were so generously donated by the various formations of the MDC in their various shades of nursery school colours.

I speak from the perspective of one of very few ZANU PF candidates that have managed to recover an urban constituency from the opposition MDC. My experience tells me that the major problem that afflicts ZANU PF in urban areas in the issue of abuse of office and corruption by ZANU PF officials at provincial and district levels.

The close proximity of households in urban settings mean that the behaviour of ZANU PF’s provincial and district leaders is more readily scrutinized. Furthermore, when an injustice is perpetrated on a member of the public by ZANU PF leaders at provincial and district level, the issue is widely disseminated and discussed.

As a result, the nefarious activities of ZANU PF’s leaders at provincial and district level results in voters becoming disgruntled with ZANU PF as a party. Voters then take it out on the Party as opposed to the perpetrators of the injustice. I have therefore committed myself to assisting any of the ZANU PF candidates in the urban areas who require that the ZANU PF leaders at provincial and district level are brought to account. In that vein, I will borrow from the words of the First Lady Amai Dr Grace Mugabe and say to ZANU PF’s provincial and district leaders, STOP IT! Pasi nembavha. Icho!

 

About the writer

Honourable Patrick Zhuwao is the Chairman of Zhuwao Institute which is an economics, development and research think tank that focus on integrating socio-political dimensions into business and economic decision making, particularly strategic planning. Zhuwao is the holder of a BSc honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering and an MBA degree in Information Technology Management (City University, London). He also holds BSc honours and MSc degrees in Economics (University of Zimbabwe), as well as a Master of Management (with distinction) degree in Public and Development Management (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). [email protected]

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