The Sunday Mail
These are not times to be honest in Zimbabwe, because honesty does not pay!
Every country is organised on a systemic structure. Congruent systems make society and economy function properly.
A segment of the economy carries out its practices knowing its efforts will trickle over onto the next. An educational system produces a readily qualified workforce taken on by awaiting industries.
A business in the trade sector carries on operations with the trust that customs authorities will be diligent in their responsibilities. A sequenced value chain that adds to our country’s national output.
In a country with a stable systemic structure like this, the country’s social mindset gears itself to conform.
After all, the society and economy are organised into an equitable sequence of things. Individuals simply concern themselves with finding where to fit in.
If you work hard enough, develop a valuable skill, you will join into the system and be fairly rewarded for your contribution to the country’s output.
In an environment where systems decay, or in extreme cases of entirely broken systems within themselves, it also affects the social mindset. It creates vultures!
Our country’s systemic structure is so compromised that there is barely a functional value chain to join anymore. Individually, there’s less incentive to fit into the social and economic order.
There is little reward for conforming. Actually, following our systems may lead one to a worse standard of living, lessen one’s chances to secure resources, and even close one’s chances for personal advancement.
If a recent graduate is lucky to get a job that pays $500 a month, is that a reasonable return from investing in 16 years of education?
Are noble professions like teaching, nursing or accounting paying equitable salaries? Following formal systems these days is like swimming against the tide. In fact, it is foolish.
Therefore, we are now vulnerable to a mindset in which people aim to position themselves into situations where they benefit from our systemic flaws.
The vultures that capitalise on where our systems are broken. Because our systems are broken in many places, these situations present themselves every day!
Standing in line for 3 days just to get from window 6 to window 7 at the Passport Office was a systemic flaw. A conducive situation for vultures to exploit.
Pay them a fee and skip the line. This is an example of how vultures have become a necessity in our economy. Let’s be honest, you would not get a passport without them.
The system at the Ministry of Home Affairs was incomplete without a vulture. I understand that things are changing for the better but we are not there yet.
There are a number of ways in which our systems are breaking down.
Paying State enterprise CEOs an unsustainable $30 000 a month at a time when the parastatal is $44 million in debt is a business model that corrodes our economic system. Misappropriation of $2 million of funds at ZIMSEC only adds to the decadence of our educational system.
Having law enforcement coerce citizens into paying money in bribes breaks down the legal system. Why would any capitalist pay import duties when they can just bribe the 24-year-old ZIMRA officer?
You know the everyday stories we are hearing and reading about in the news. These are our systems decaying! While they may seem like isolated incidents, they have a pervasive effect on society and the economy as a whole.
Systemic decay and the attendant vulture culture is the greatest long-term threat this country is facing.
It is of our own doing. I see no external forces involved here. Hence, only we can solve it for ourselves.
Other solutions that we are suggesting for economic recovery cannot be effective if this issue is not addressed.
Would any investor with honest money happily invest in a country ridden by our systemic flaws? Can youths ever be fully empowered under such systemic chaos?
Is a political process necessary when this systemic decay existed and throve during the Government of National Unity?
Can a national policy like Zim-Asset be soundly implemented when dependent on systemic execution?
Our country’s systemic structure determines how we as citizens act and behave.
It dictates our way of life. Therefore, if our systemic structure has decayed into breeding vultures amongst us, and is converting many of us by the day, can we not agree that this is the core of our national predicament?
