Letter from America: Zimbabwe: I want a divorce

By Ken Mufuka

When it comes to the economy, Americans have the right idea, no wonder why they are so successful. As I write in the middle of Hurricane Mathew, my church and four states around South Carolina are preparing to offer free help for the rebuilding of those lives (and houses) which were in the way of the storm.

Americans believe that a poor neighbour is a very poor customer indeed.

By the same token, to the powers-that-be in Zimbabwe, the word economy is a dirty word. As I speak, the President is in Singapore, Malaysia. Last week, he was in Dubai, and before that, he was visiting some Southern African Development Community country, and the United Nations. Economy refers to frugal use of resources, and the wise management of money with the hope of increasing material prosperity of the country.

My sources in Masvingo say that 250 Philistine brothers are parcelling out the choice plots from Triangle Sugar Estates. These brothers expect the company to haul their loot to its milling plant, and pay them for the sugar cane. The same government, which has dealt an evil hand to the company is trying rebuild Kondozi Estates at Odzani River, which once employed over 20 000 workers. Kondozi, like Triangle, was once the favoured employer in its province of Manicaland.

My Philistine brothers have learned nothing from the past, and have forgotten nothing.

The results are chilling.

When I heard that the political elite are seeking treatment abroad, I wondered about our great doctors. I remembered Professor Michael Lightfoot, a gynecologist who was so learned that he could tell a girl the date she would give birth without even touching her. Apparently, the doctors are starved of equipment; now the ruling elite go abroad for treatment.

In my previous life in Jamaica, we imported sugar, cabbages and bananas from Florida, only to find out that these products had originated in Jamaica. This kind of dis-economic thinking is what drove vice-chancellor Sir William Arthur Lewis, my employer at the University of the West Indies into a state of rejection and his departure to “civilisation” in England.

I see the same trajectory for Zimbabwe. I want a clean divorce. I no longer feel that I am part of this cuckoo land. No horse sense.

I used to think that I have seen all possible surprises. The President was giving a great speech at the United Nations 73rd Conclave only a week ago. “My country is being punished for pursuing sovereign independence…we are simply trying to repossess our own natural resources and listen to the basic needs of our people.”

Brother Fungayi Mukosera says that Zimbabwe’s “millennium goals have always been heavily hinged on input by foreign development agencies.”

Please stop right there brother. Listen to what you are saying. If equation A, that we chased Kondozi and Triangle planters in order to regain our sovereign independence, why are you proposing equation B, relying on foreign development agencies you have chased away? My great schoolmaster, J M D Manyika would say: “Logic, my boy, logic.”

I swear to you that I have a genuine doctoral degree, but I cannot always understand the explanation given by my beloved Brother Tafataona Mahoso. “All the projections of economic growth and economic recovery made for Zimbabwe since 2009 have been off the mark. They have been baseless and over-optimistic because of the tendency to shun the real economy which the majority experience daily.”

So what is the future, I ask? Too much learning doth make Brother Mahoso mad.

“The economic projections have routinely downplayed the need for a national currency, because the G-0 are in love with the United States currency, (which) they treat as disposable income what should in reality be our foreign currency reserves.”

These convoluted arguments miss a common sense approach. If 1 000 companies have closed shop since 2011, it goes to show that Zimbabwe is not producing anything saleable on the world market, which in consequence, creates foreign exchange.

If, by the same token, Triangle and Kondozi Estates produced products for the British grocery chains, that is the sum of foreign exchange.

My Philistine brothers think that by driving out doctors, regaining sovereignty over Kondozi and Triangle Sugar, they gain dignity by traveling to Singapore for medical treatment, and can force Britain and the US to buy their looted product.

Verily, I say unto you, there are no leaders, even in Israel, who are more confused than these brothers.

Even more fearful is the inability of our present politicians to grasp the true nature of Philistine rule. Brother Morgan Tsvangirai, in his 17th year celebration of struggle, says Mukuru: “For the sake of his legacy, needs to send out a message that the country is more important than individuals.”

Surely, the loss of US$15 billion would have been such a watershed in any other country.

“If he loves this country, his departure will be the first positive sign to set the country on a new trajectory for recovery and growth.”

There is an assumption that pressure, and love of country, will force them to relinquish power.

Of course the Philistines love Zimbabwe; only there could a ruler get away with creating Zimbabwe.

And making trillions, all savings and insurance policies disappear into thin air.

No more talk, I want my divorce. Financial Gazette