Zimbabwe: It's time to learn to be self reliant

It's been a few months since the Zimbabwean coalition government was conceived for the main reason of rebuilding the country and easing, if not outright eliminating the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans. Most ordinary Zimbabweans are indeed no longer suffering as much as they were doing prior to the formation of the coalition government (although the coalition government has got nothing to do with that fact) and that is largely because they now have their salaries paid in US dollars and so can afford to pay their rent, buy medication, pay fees and buy food, priced in US dollars which is something they were failing to do with Zim dollar salaries before the coalition government came into place. I am not saying that Tsvangirai and the MDC made this possible, the paying of salaries in US dollars is something that made sense in a dollarised economy and was taking too long a time to happen but had to happen anyway irrespective of who was in power. The dollarisation of the economy has impacted positively on the improvement of the welfare of ordinary Zimbabweans. Of course there are some ordinary Zimbabweans who are suffering now after the dollarisation of the economy but most of those suffering were into unprofessional black marketeering and illegal illicit deals which are all deals that died a natural death with the introduction of the dollarised economy. It was obvious that once the economy becomes normal the black marketers and the illicit dealers were going to suffer and as much as I can never rejoice at the suffering of another human being, I refuse to sympathise with them because they are the culprits that played havoc with the economy and are largely to blame for the abnormaly high prices that made inflation skyrocket at the speed of light. Now prices have stabilised and Zimbabweans can afford to budget their money as little as it is and are a little bit happy but not fully happy because they are still living with water supply and electricity cuts and the hospitals are not yet fully functional. The rebuilding of the country that the coalition government wants to implement is being hampered by lack of funds to finance the rebuilding projects. Most international donors are unwilling to bail us out because of three main reasons:
1.) most of the international donors have their own domestic recession problems that they have to deal with and that makes them unable to be generous with loans.
2.)the Zimbabwean coalition government's economic policy is not very clear about how the money will be used not only to rebuild the decayed infrastructure but to create sustainable projects that cause an economic growth that will generate money to enable the repayment of the loans.
3.) the imprisonment of Roy Bennet over allegedly trumped up charges, the refusal of Mugabe to fire the incompetent Gono, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor which smells of efforts to hide transactions of capital flight and the misuse of public funds by Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies , the deadly accident of Tsvangirai and his wife which is veiled in suspicion, the refusal of Mugabe to fire the partisan Attorney General which makes the independence of the justice system an unreachable illusion. So long as there is a question mark over democracratic principles in the country some international donors and investors will hold back their money.
So now that our out-stretched hand begging for donor funding has been snubbed or ignored what is the way forward.

The way forward is for Zimbabwe as a nation to learn to be self-reliant by not depending on international donor funding and instead relying on domestic funding to rebuild the nation. Yes, I know that most companies in the country have just started to rescuscitate themselves, trying to get back on their feet, and are in the process of strategising and formulating new policies which are in line with the new dollarised business environment. It will be for the country's best interest if in their business strategies they incorporate the channelling of some of their profits towards projects aimed at rebuilding the country's infrastructure as a form of corporate social responsibility. Such projects will benefit those very companies in the long run when Zimbabwe's economy booms and becomes vibrant. Reliance on domestic funding is possible if the coalition government enters into social dialogue with the country's corporations, the country's trade unions and all stakeholders whose cooperation is needed for this initiative to be successful. I strongly believe that social partnerships like this one can be succesful if both stakeholders are convinced of the advantages of the partnership and are willing to help in rebuilding the country. Like all partnerships, the social partnership should be structured in such a way that it benefits both partners. A critical component of the social partnership would be the lucrative cutting of corporate and capital-gains taxes for every company that donates money torwards the rebuilding of the country's infrastructure as well as low personal income tax rates to encourage domestic growth. The coalition government could in turn curb the government spending bill and introduce low interest rates to stimulate the economy.

The way forward for business and economic growth is if SADC and the AU decide to bail us out of our economic predicament with subsidies that can boost our economic growth. A lot of hope lies in our joining the Rand market area which has the potential to boost our exports if we utilise it with good business sense. In order for the country to experience an FDI boom Zimbabwe has got to become a low cost country and introduce low corporate tax rates to foreign investors so as to lure investors. The country's enterprise strategy should argue not only for more emphasis on high value-added sectors and scientific research but also for greater efforts in marketing and promotion in the global village which are areas that the country is weak in. Zimbabwe also needs the spur of more competition if its domestic
industry is to prosper.

Studying time has arrived so let me stop here for now, to be continued.

That writ large, is what the country now has to do so that it is able to sustain itself without too much dependence on donor funding.