The Impact of Technocratic Economic Policies

As Zimbabwe's economic farce proceeds, it is worth remembering that before Mthuli Ncube took the reigns of Finance Minister, individual taxation was way down the list of Zimbabwean people’s concerns. Indeed, it was not looked upon as contributing to already existing hardships within poor households.

The central point is that price increases became the focus for all manner of discontents, many of them understandable. But increasing taxation would indubitably not be the answer to them, and would be guaranteed not to make the discontents into any better than before.

Indeed, it would exacerbate the sources of this discontent. Why? Surely it is becoming increasingly obvious that growing swaths of Zimbabwe industry – much of it foreign-owned by conglomerates that enjoy the advantages of the single market – are cutting back their investment plans and in many cases planning to relocate outside the country. The prospect of the diminution of the economic base of the country has dire implications not only for employment and living standards, but also for the tax base on which living standards depend.

We have spent 40 years becoming an integral part of SADC, creating an economic omelette that no one in their right mind would try to unscramble. Unfortunately there are a lot of not-so-right minds about, some of them in charge of the economy, and we have the misfortune to have a finance minister who transmits but does not listen, and is fixated on a treacherous mission.

The past fortnight has been particularly interesting. The finance minister’s dealings, a weak attempt to please those who awarded him the post while offering half a loaf to the large populace, has satisfied – it would be an exaggeration to say no one, but manifestly very few. The size of the revolt against him was so formidable, indeed overwhelming, that the honourable thing to do would have been to resign, or at the very least decide not to plough on towards the cliff edge.

But, as has been obvious for some time, his “strategy” – if one can dignify it with that name – has been to frighten everyone into having to accept a bad plan, to avoid a disastrously having no plan at all. 

Who shall decide when doctors disagree? Well, certainly not our eccentric reserve bank governor John Mangudya. In circumstances when our parliamentary representatives cannot agree on a way out of this mess, changing the whole script seems to more and more people I meet to be the only answer.