The Sunday Mail
Impunity is the norm in an elitist culture where a social hierarchy exists and those at the top are beyond reproach.
Have you ever been told to “follow your dreams or else you’ll be working for someone who did?” Or maybe in discussions about our education you’ve come across the comment that “the problem with our education system is that it creates too many employees and not employers”?
Such condescending and elitist perspectives devalue the worker or employee. It is good to esteem individuals who achieve their creative business dreams to become employers. However, it would be unfortunate if such admiration came at the expense of undermining workers.
The greater the productivity from workers the better the chance of our entire economy growing. That is why strikes are economically harmful. Consider the economic output lost if workers in an entire industry decided not to show up for work.
Businesses employ as a response to consumer demand. The more people with money in their hands, the better everyone’s chances of finding employment. So countries with the widest middle class base, composed of these workers, typically have high employment and strong economies. There is no way the greater percentage of our population is going to be running businesses. So by discouraging formal employment, who will work in those businesses? Nigerian migrants?
Zim-Asset itself, our leading economic policy, recognises the value of remittances from people who are common workers in the diaspora. Maybe the issue is that we do not value contribution anymore. We once did. I remember a time when people actually introduced themselves by profession; nurses, civil servants, architects, teachers, engineers and bus drivers. In those days society valued everyone’s contribution to the economy.
What is important to us now is hierarchical position. How else are we finding comfort with such elitist attitudes? It is because the higher a person reaches in position of stature, the more that person is valued in our society. A culture that reveres social standing and validates people by their position.
This sets the backdrop to some of our recent grievances. Salarygate type scandals come from a sense of entitlement in which people feel entitled to hefty sums of money because of their social position. They are the elite CEOs at the top of the social ladder. By the social contract that comes with accepting elitism, the highest positions warrant lavish reward. Hence an individual can demand $30 000 a month plus benefits because of his title, little consideration given to his performance. You will notice that most of the culprits contributed little to the organisations they bled. We must value contribution.
Harare City Council reportedly bought luxury cars using the US$140 million loan meant to rehabilitate our water and sewerage infrastructure. It is the entitlement that comes from a belief that the big wigs in the council are elite and therefore they are at the top of the social hierarchy. As such they deserve excess perks yet our public works are in an appalling state.
If we do not value contribution how do we expect to enforce accountability? Impunity is the norm in an elitist culture where a social hierarchy exists, and those at the top are beyond reproach. Ultimately this is what it comes down to: People often think of the economy in superficial terms of figures and indicators. An economy shows us a lot more. An economy is a reflection of social perspectives that form the thread of our community. It is a reflection of how we view one another and interact as people, the social contracts that exist between us. It shows how we allocate equity to our fellow citizens.
Our current economic circumstances must teach us that some attitudes are undesirable.
