THE economy is the people and the people are the economy.
The sum total of all our activities makes up what we call the economy.
All economic actors must have a common vision and mission.
To build our economic independence today requires the same if not greater commitment as that which brought our political independence.
We draw the parallel to convince ourselves that today as yesterday, we are our own liberators.
Under the wise leadership of visionaries like President Robert Mugabe, Dr Joshua Nkomo, Herbert Chitepo, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo and others, the people of Zimbabwe committed themselves to free themselves from colonial bondage.
During our liberation struggle all our combatants, the masses and their leadership had one common vision: to be independent from British colonialism.
They had one clear mission: to liberate the country.
They had one common strategy: to fight using all available means to defeat the enemy.
The people of Zimbabwe invoked the divine mystic powers of Mwari, their creator.
They drew inspiration from their guardian spirits of our ancestors such as Kaguvi, Nehanda Nyakasikana, Chaminuka and Murenga.
On the ground the guerrilla commanders deployed political commissars who spared no effort in educating the masses on the vision, mission and strategy of the liberation war effort.
In the last episode of our discussion in this series, I called on our leaders also to train and deploy economic commissars, people who have a clear vision and mission of Zimbabwe.
This new breed of commissars must clearly articulate economic blueprint and the practical strategies that we propose to follow to achieve emancipation.
That we should have Zimbabweans bickering and criticising each other about whether or not we should engage the East (Chinese and Russians) or the West (International Monetary Fund etc) shows that we have no shared common vision and mission.
Some are looking to enrich themselves from the lucrative deals being brokered by the President and his men.
But the aim should be to uplift the whole economy, not individuals.
Hatichadi vanaNyati, the sellouts.
Just as our liberation war only succeeded because of the unity of purpose of the people and their liberation armies, so our economic liberation must come from a united economic struggle.
This is why today we are focussing on the human factor challenge in our struggle for economic deliverance.
Virtually all Zimbabweans agree that we have an economic war on our hands.
Put simply, only dedicated, committed persons can deliver in any sphere of human endeavour.
If you think you can, you will!
If you think you cannot, then you will not succeed!
So at leadership level, we need people who are committed to see that the projects that they oversee succeed.
This calls for an impact-oriented leadership style.
Leaders of housing schemes must work to ensure that all the money collected is used for the intended purpose be it laying sewers or building roads.
Progress must be marked by the number of members who acquire housing stands and build.
If corruption sets in, then the goal of providing accommodation to the majority is not achieved on the back of this human failing!
If the police arrest the culprits and the judiciary lock we say the system is working.
If individuals in these state entities accept to be bribed and to release the corrupt individuals, this critical aspect of our economy will fail to take off.
If senior officials divert funds meant for the fiscus for their personal gain, our economy suffers on the back of that human failing.
If we have large numbers of people employed in critical public and private enterprises indulging in economic sabotage activities, our economy is unlikely to recover.
This is the human factor challenge in the formal economy.
We can look at the challenge from an agricultural perspective.
At the farm level, all investments including inputs, equipment, labour and working capital are made for the purpose of realising profits.
There is an assumption that the farmers know what they are doing.
Some also argue that the workers left by the former white farmers are knowledgeable, but experience shows they worked under strict supervision.
They also were kept deliberately ignorant of key technical issues of agriculture.
Most of the farm workers have little technical knowledge or appreciation of the various operations at farm level.
So the assumption that the thousands of new resettled farmersmany of whom had no previous farming experience and their workers, are knowledgeable is false.
So here we have a major human factor challenge.
Are our farmers and their workers sufficiently seized with the vision and mission of our struggle for economic independence?
White colonial governments invested heavily in support of the imported white farmer population all the way to 1979.
Western and Eastern governments subsidise and closely support their farmers.
Food after all, is a national security issue.
Can we honestly say that we as a nation are investing appropriately in agriculture, especially with respect to the human capacity?
That is not to say the new farmers should not be on the farms.
Their lack of knowledge and inexperience represent a huge hole through which investments in agriculture are leaking to waste.
Banks will shy away from funding new farmers but this sector represents a major pillar of our economy.
The strategy is to empower the new farmers with knowledge, skills and the requisite financial support.
Various carefully targeted training programs must be put in place for the new farmers.
We do not need to re-invent the wheel.
This approach applies to other economic sectors where blacks are coming into businesses that were previously dominated by whites.
In Shona there is a saying: “Kugona kugova nhaka kuona dzavamwe.”
This translates to: you use the experience of others to solve your own problems.
Let us see how other nations have solved the human factor deficiencies in their economic blueprints.
A deliberate focussed investment in farmers’ education must be made as part of Zimbabwe’s commitment to defend and uphold its independence.
As we continue to discuss how we Zimbabweans can build our economy, we must learn from our experiences and those of others who have walked on similar historical tracks.
Many theorists from the West and their students would want us to read from their economics textbooks.
Think tanks in Europe and America propound capitalist economic theories where money or capital rules everything.
What model can we fashion for ourselves based on our circumstances.
In the next episode we shall look at the education sector in terms of its contribution to building the right human capital for Zimbabwe’s economic development.
Is the new curriculum being developed geared towards generating the right vision and mission for our economic development?
Are our universities seized with the noble task of training the next generation of independent Zimbabweans who will stand up and defend the economic interests of their motherland?
The struggle for Zimbabwe’s economic emancipation continues until final victory!