34 years on: Zimbabwe and the begging bowl

An objective look at why Zimbabwe "The Land of Milk and Honey" is still begging from multilateral lending institutions and donor countries only 34 years after adopting a vibrant and strong economy.

34 years after independence, 14 economic blueprints and yet we still are begging.  What has gone wrong with our nation?  How have we become paupers when our neighbours in the region are recording growth?  

Here are a few points I believe will help explain what has kept us begging and why all the donor support never cascade down to the ordinary citizen.

Bad negotiators

Judging from the way Zimbabwe has fared with the IMF, World Bank, China, Russia, European Union and other institutions, the government are bad negotiators.  On deals that fell through, we have benefited less as than our partners have.  It is usually the ruling elite who are close to the action who reap the rewards of such deals.  On most occasions, government does not honour their end of the bargain and most deals die either at the ‘MoU’ or ‘feasibility study’ stage.

Lack of vision/long term plans

Without a plan or vision, we go anyway the wind blows.  Initiatives like ESAP of the early 90s left us in a ditch.  According to research economist Godfrey Kanyenze, ZimAsset (which is vague) is Zimbabwe’s 14th economic blueprint since 1980.  All its predecessors have been aborted all half implemented.  We are a nation in perpetual fire fighting mode.  Government has never made the effort to establish what Zimbabweans want.  The result is most blueprints are not people centred and are not inclusive so they die a natural death.  We have no long-term plans.  When you do not have a plan, anyone can lead anywhere.

We do not know our worth

We brag about our resources yet we have little data on their quantities, quality and monetary value.  We are yet to explore our diamond fields and as a nation, we do not know how much diamond deposits we have.  ZimAsset made an attempt to monetize the value of our resources but most of them are wild estimates that reputable mining experts are yet to verify.  Unless you know how much you are worth, how do you negotiate on the bargaining table?

The beggar mentality

Since 1980, a huge chunk of national budget and a significant number of government initiatives and projects have been funded by donors.  Government fell into the trap and began to see donor aid as a right.  As a nation, we have gone on to pursue wrong and unworkable policies with the belief that there is always someone to clear the mess.  Government budgetary allocations have deliberately left gaps especially in education (BEAM) and health for the donor community to fill.  Even the land reform was premised on the belief that the British would chip in to fund some of the projects.  We are yet to wean ourselves from the donors 34 years after independence.

We cannot differentiate reality from fantasy

Zimbabwe is still caught up in a political romance of the Soviet era when nations stood by each other both politically and economically.  The world has changed and the new reality is that although China or Brazil stands by Zimbabwe politically, they have no room for economic sympathy.  The talk of creating a ‘bipolar world’ or ‘democratisation of the UN’ are sound ideologies to the Chinese but they will not give us billions for that.  Their nationals do not feed on that.  The US and Russia are the same for when it comes to the negotiating table they all put their countries’ economies first.  

Whether we look east or west, we will not gain anything as long as we are guided by fantastical ideologies.  It is time we get real.  Realise that we need the international community not as donors but as partners.  We play with the big players knowing our worth and knowing what our nation needs guided by the reality that it is all business and people do not live on political ideologies.