The Sunday Mail
Editorial Comment
Anyone who has liaised with Chinese government officials on why their country took just 30 or so years to transform from a sprawling economic joke into the world’s second biggest economy are bound to hear one recurrent theme.
Of course, there is no single ingredient to economic success. Development requires a cocktail of measures, a potpourri of interventions that come together over time to deliver better, sustainable livelihoods.
Development theorists will proffer all manner of solutions, many certainly less effective than others. While theory is good, providing the hypothetical foundation needed for development-oriented action, it is much simpler to take away the practical example of a country that has lived the experience and is now a super power in its right. So what is it the Chinese say about their development experience and how they contrast it with African countries?
Chinese government officials will tell you – and we will take the calculated liberty of paraphrasing- that: “We have embraced predictability. We plan long-term. In Africa, you’re unpredictable. In many countries in Africa, you never know who the president/prime minister will be tomorrow.”
If one is patient, senior Chinese state officials will gladly expound on this. They will explain how bitter experience has taught them to avoid long-term planning in many African countries. They will speak of how Africa’s preoccupation with politics has driven politicians to mold societies that easily swing to the extremes of the political spectrum of right wing and left wing. They will lament how populist posturing makes it difficult for investors to engage African governments. And they will conclude by asking for something as simple stability. It appears Zanu-PF, under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa since November 2017, has taken this to heart. The ruling party is moving boldly to foster a stable social, political and economic environment that will allow not only long-term planning, but will nurture structured implementation of those long-term plans.
The ruling party has done that firstly by enunciating an economic vision that seeks to steer Government on the path to establishing an upper middle-income economy by 2030. That is essentially a 12-year vision, and its supporting planks are shorter-term strategies, such as the Transitional Stabilisation Plan (2018-2020) that Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube unveiled this year.
Diligent implementation of the TSP and honest evaluation of overall progress as structured under the Rapid Results Initiative and 100-day ministerial plans will foster that economic stability that promotes productivity and attracts both domestic and foreign investment. Whatever plan succeeds the TSP must build on these initial planks from 2020 through to 2030. And the cadres that the ruling party seconds to Government must have this broader vision in mind, as well as appreciate the nitty-gritty of the practical implementation of the successive development plans that will take us to upper middle-income status by the stated target year. Which brings us to the second thing that the ruling party has done to encourage, and indeed entrench, the necessary stability for long-term planning.
At Zanu-PF’s 17th Annual National People’s Conference that ended in Esigodini yesterday, the ruling party made it clear that it had resolved to second Cde Mnangagwa to Government as President and Commander-in-Chief for the constitutional two terms.
The various organs of the party were clear on this, and Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga and National Chair Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri were unequivocal in their declaration that stability and long-term planning should trump narrow, uninformed personal ambition. Some sections of the notoriously anti-Zimbabwe media have claimed that Zanu-PF is already preoccupied with the 2023 harmonised polls and yet we have just come from a general election and the ruling party, through cadres seconded to Government, has only just started implementing the TSP.
They opine that this will breed instability by keeping the country chartered on a political course. The reality is that the people making these claims are actually turning the entire issue on its head. Rather than keeping the country “unnecessarily politicised”, the decision by the governing party to declare Cde Mnangagwa as its candidate puts to rest any potential factional, destabilising politicking that may arise.
The declaration at the Conference ensures the party and the Government it leads will focus on what Cde Mnangagwa has said it should: the economy.
There have been attempts by some individuals to divide the governing party’s leadership, in particular trying to create a rift between President Mnangagwa and his deputy VP Chiwenga. Obviously such characters are mostly found in the political opposition, which is quite expected of them after a thorough licking in the elections. What is disturbing is when rumours arise of some Johnny-come-lates within the governing party latching onto that false narrative of division at the top and in the process giving legs to shameless lies that otherwise would not have found a way to get around.
By stating loudly and clearly its political stabilisation plan (PSP), Zanu-PF is not merely putting to shame those who would prefer to engage in under-developing brinksmanship, it is establishing the environment necessary for its cadres to direct Government operations in a manner that takes us to the promise of 2030.
The TSP requires a PSP.
That said, it would also be good for the political opposition – specifically MDC Alliance – to start feeding into this key narrative of long-term stability. The opposition needs a PSP. The first step could be for them to finally be democratic and elect a leader for their long-suffering supporters with whom, as fellow Zimbabweans, we empathise and sympathise with. After all, President Mnangagwa has subjected himself for acceptance or rejection at both party and Government level.
It’s a lesson the election-fearing opposition could do well to learn.
A psp for the TSP
The Sunday Mail
Editorial Comment
Anyone who has liaised with Chinese government officials on why their country took just 30 or so years to transform from a sprawling economic joke into the world’s second biggest economy are bound to hear one recurrent theme.
Of course, there is no single ingredient to economic success. Development requires a cocktail of measures, a potpourri of interventions that come together over time to deliver better, sustainable livelihoods.
Development theorists will proffer all manner of solutions, many certainly less effective than others. While theory is good, providing the hypothetical foundation needed for development-oriented action, it is much simpler to take away the practical example of a country that has lived the experience and is now a super power in its right. So what is it the Chinese say about their development experience and how they contrast it with African countries?
Chinese government officials will tell you – and we will take the calculated liberty of paraphrasing- that: “We have embraced predictability. We plan long-term. In Africa, you’re unpredictable. In many countries in Africa, you never know who the president/prime minister will be tomorrow.”
If one is patient, senior Chinese state officials will gladly expound on this. They will explain how bitter experience has taught them to avoid long-term planning in many African countries. They will speak of how Africa’s preoccupation with politics has driven politicians to mold societies that easily swing to the extremes of the political spectrum of right wing and left wing. They will lament how populist posturing makes it difficult for investors to engage African governments. And they will conclude by asking for something as simple stability. It appears Zanu-PF, under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa since November 2017, has taken this to heart. The ruling party is moving boldly to foster a stable social, political and economic environment that will allow not only long-term planning, but will nurture structured implementation of those long-term plans.
The ruling party has done that firstly by enunciating an economic vision that seeks to steer Government on the path to establishing an upper middle-income economy by 2030. That is essentially a 12-year vision, and its supporting planks are shorter-term strategies, such as the Transitional Stabilisation Plan (2018-2020) that Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube unveiled this year.
Diligent implementation of the TSP and honest evaluation of overall progress as structured under the Rapid Results Initiative and 100-day ministerial plans will foster that economic stability that promotes productivity and attracts both domestic and foreign investment. Whatever plan succeeds the TSP must build on these initial planks from 2020 through to 2030. And the cadres that the ruling party seconds to Government must have this broader vision in mind, as well as appreciate the nitty-gritty of the practical implementation of the successive development plans that will take us to upper middle-income status by the stated target year. Which brings us to the second thing that the ruling party has done to encourage, and indeed entrench, the necessary stability for long-term planning.
At Zanu-PF’s 17th Annual National People’s Conference that ended in Esigodini yesterday, the ruling party made it clear that it had resolved to second Cde Mnangagwa to Government as President and Commander-in-Chief for the constitutional two terms.
The various organs of the party were clear on this, and Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga and National Chair Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri were unequivocal in their declaration that stability and long-term planning should trump narrow, uninformed personal ambition. Some sections of the notoriously anti-Zimbabwe media have claimed that Zanu-PF is already preoccupied with the 2023 harmonised polls and yet we have just come from a general election and the ruling party, through cadres seconded to Government, has only just started implementing the TSP.
They opine that this will breed instability by keeping the country chartered on a political course. The reality is that the people making these claims are actually turning the entire issue on its head. Rather than keeping the country “unnecessarily politicised”, the decision by the governing party to declare Cde Mnangagwa as its candidate puts to rest any potential factional, destabilising politicking that may arise.
The declaration at the Conference ensures the party and the Government it leads will focus on what Cde Mnangagwa has said it should: the economy.
There have been attempts by some individuals to divide the governing party’s leadership, in particular trying to create a rift between President Mnangagwa and his deputy VP Chiwenga. Obviously such characters are mostly found in the political opposition, which is quite expected of them after a thorough licking in the elections. What is disturbing is when rumours arise of some Johnny-come-lates within the governing party latching onto that false narrative of division at the top and in the process giving legs to shameless lies that otherwise would not have found a way to get around.
By stating loudly and clearly its political stabilisation plan (PSP), Zanu-PF is not merely putting to shame those who would prefer to engage in under-developing brinksmanship, it is establishing the environment necessary for its cadres to direct Government operations in a manner that takes us to the promise of 2030.
The TSP requires a PSP.
That said, it would also be good for the political opposition – specifically MDC Alliance – to start feeding into this key narrative of long-term stability. The opposition needs a PSP. The first step could be for them to finally be democratic and elect a leader for their long-suffering supporters with whom, as fellow Zimbabweans, we empathise and sympathise with. After all, President Mnangagwa has subjected himself for acceptance or rejection at both party and Government level.
It’s a lesson the election-fearing opposition could do well to learn.
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