By Professor Sheunesu Mpepereki and Basil Nyabadza

ECONOMIC development requires hunters, skinners and cooks where the hunters are those engaged in research and production; the skinners engage in processing while the cooks focus on the marketing and utilisation end of the commodity value chain.
In a vibrant economy, there should be a balance among the three categories of actors.
Out of 10 technocrats, a viable balance could consist of five hunters, three skinners and two cooks.
This model of development can be applied to various categories of economic actors.
In academic training, the hunters come from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) cluster of study disciplines.
Graduates from this STEM cluster acquire practical skills and knowledge for the production of goods and services for the economy.
Even the ‘skinners’ and ‘cooks’ also require some STEM skills and competencies.
The commercial and arts disciplines provide soft skills for the smooth administration of the entire value chain.
To some extent, they are part of the ‘cooks’.
Operational dimensions of hunter, skinner, cook theory?
In Government, ‘hunter’ ministries include agriculture, energy, mining, manufacturing, industry and commerce.
They are engaged in generating wealth and must constitute the majority of operational ministries.
These ‘hunter’ arms of Government spearhead generation of wealth through production, while skinners and cooks focus on processing, marketing and utilisation critical to achieve Vision 2030.
The skinners and cooks belong to the same cluster, but are more related to marketing and other commercial activities related to consumption.
The service ministries will include Finance, Foreign Affairs, Education, Sports, Arts, Culture, Tourism, ICT, Internal Affairs, Local Government, Housing, Labour and Social Welfare as well as Defence.
These are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the nation’s systems.
Human factor rot, which is often manifested in high levels of corruption, hit these sectors hardest.
Thus, the ‘hunter-skinner-cook’ theory speaks to the structural balance of skills required to achieve Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030.
Hunters, skinners and cooks are also prevalent in the various private sector industries.
The leadership of corporate bodies must be dominated by hunters and to a lesser extent, skinners.
The chief executive officer, the company chairperson and top management, such as the business development executive, must all be hungry hunters, constantly seeking for opportunities to grow the asset base of their organisations, constantly sniffing out business opportunities and devising strategies to increase enterprise profitability.
In academia, hunters, skinners and cooks are also required. Universities and research institutes must be led and dominated by hungry hunters consumed with a passionate desire to excel in research and innovation.
The research scientists must be driven by a desire to invent, design, develop and manufacture unique new products for local and export markets.
A system of rewards and recognition of excellence provides incentives for these hunters to remain on the prowl.
Unfortunately, Africa has continued to lose thousands of hunter scientists who, for want of resources, have relocated to countries and institutions where financial resources and equipment are availe to support research.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s pledge to set aside one percent of the national annual budget for research will be welcome news to the hunter research scientists scattered in the various academic institutions and research centres.
The private sector is generally considered a hunters’ paradise. The public sector is yet to catch up in developing a hunger for innovation and discovery of new technologies that can be turned into goods and services for sale.
Many organisations run by ‘cooks’ and ‘skinners’ make little or no progress as their leaders are content to maintain the status quo while enhancing personal benefits.
They survive on corrupt deals that bring nothing to the fiscus (smugglers, tax evaders).
Skinner and cook-led organisations are well-represented among parastatals, some private sector companies and civil service departments.
Many are typical cry-babies running to Government for bailout after exhausting their approved budgets.
The budgets are depleted through corrupt deals specifically geared to fleece the mother body for personal gain.
The fight against corruption must be viewed as a fight to bring back the hunter culture into these organisations.
Private sector companies are constantly knocking at the RBZ door for foreign exchange to import essential goods.
They exploit Government’s political sensitivity to the plight of the masses who need basic commodities.
They export and externalise all or most of the proceeds.
They are not hunters, they are poachers.
The war against such poachers must be won if there is to be any hope for Vision 2030.
Vision 2030 is for creating wealth to raise the people’s standards of living. This will not happen if the hunters have turned into looters.
Retailers who seek to exploit their customers through unwarranted exorbitant price increases are neither hunters, skinners nor cooks.
They are crooks.
They are downright thieves preying on unsuspecting citizens and taking advantage of lax law enforcement agencies riddled with corrupt officials who are now unable to pursue the looters of public funds because they are conflicted.
Currently, the President is engaged in a protracted firefight to rid the nation of graft.
That fight against graft is to bring back the hunters into leadership at various levels so they can ‘catch meat’ for the nation.
Where do ordinary citizens stand in light of the hunter, skinner cook theory of economic development.
Do we have hunter citizens or economic saboteurs?
Citizens who have rejected their own currency for the love of the US dollar – a dollar that real Americans in their own home country rarely see in physical form, relying as they do on electronic transactions!
Citizens who laughed at the fall of the Zambian and Malawian kwacha years back but now watch with jealousy those currencies soldiering on.
Citizens who draw salaries that they do not work for.
Hunters?
Skinners?
Cooks or downright crooks?
Let each one judge for themselves.
The hunter-skinner-cook theory can also be applied to how we allocate our working time.
Mornings are prime time, which is hunters’ time.
Important appointments and engagements are scheduled from 7am to 11am.
From 11am to lunch is the period for skinning issues.
Afternoon activities are considered cooks’ time and are characterised by low levels of still relevant essential activities. But what do many workers do?
Sixty percent of time is spent on social media, a little on real work and the rest on politics.
If we do not hunt, we might as well forget about eating meat! The US dollar that many clamour for comes from hard work and sweat, not ‘kiya kiya’ and crooked deals.
The sooner we adopt a hunter spirit, the better for our Vision 2030 dreams!