IN the previous article on building Zimbabwe’s economy, I made reference to a conversation where two unemployed young men questioned Zimbabwe’s poverty in the middle of plenty.
They insinuated that the poverty of Zimbabweans as a collective is self-inflicted.
After we have blamed everyone and everybody, are we at a loss how to get out of our current problems?
Does it mean our sweat and blood is worth nothing unless someone brings foreign currency from across our borders?
Are our diamonds, platinum, gold, chrome and other valuable minerals worthless unless we bring in pieces of paper with the images of American war heroes or the head of the queen of England?
Can we not give value to our own sweat and natural resources?
If our resources are highly sought after as they are, why can we not use them to guarantee our own local currency?
Or has our self-confidence been so shaken that we are no longer capable of re-organising ourselves?
Can we rely on the Bretton Woods institutions to give us sound advice on the way forward with regards our economy?
We understand that we will become good boys if we pay up our debts.
We understand we will get more loans if we tone down our demand for the economic empowerment of our own people!
We must understand that Zimbabwe is making strategic retreats so as to get back into the western fold.
Are we not surrendering our heritage for a cup of soup like the Biblical Cain?
Only time will tell.
And so the question still begs: Why are we poor even though we are only second to South Africa in terms of platinum reserves and tops in terms of rough diamonds?
Take the demise of our local currency.
The Zim-dollar is now demonetised.
Those who go crazy at the mention of the Zim-dollar can now rest in peace!
Or is it in pieces?
Who said the Zim-dollar was bad?
It sustained our economy from independence in 1980 up to the mid-2010s.
Our enemies destroyed it.
What prevents us from creating new options?
The Zim-dollar was bad for the Europeans and Americans seeking to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
The Zim-dollar enabled the state of Zimbabwe to run its economy, facilitating the exchange of goods and services.
Zimbabwe’s enemies saw our local currency as a weak point (Archille’s heel) to attack.
They fought to destroy the exchange value of the Zim-dollar against other currencies.
Dr Gideon Gono fought a long lonely battle and finally recommended abandoning the local currency as a strategic move to seek temporary relief.
We must find a way to advance our cause, not to be lulled into a sense of false comfort; the enemy waits outside!
The poverty of Zimbabweans is not due to the Zim-dollar.
Neither can Zimbabweans expect to grow rich on foreign currencies such as Rands and US dollars.
They are reserve currencies.
We can only grow rich based on our own sweat!
There is no substitute for hard work for those who want to remain independent politically and economically!
The assault on the Zim-dollar created intense fear, alarm and despondency among Zimbabweans.
We must work to remove this fear and to create confidence among the citizenry.
Our economic (not political this time) commissars must work hard to define our new enemy.
We must convince our people that it is still noble to work and that when we work we create wealth, not US dollars!
In short working towards restoring our own currency is the most important step in fighting to restore the dignity of Zimbabweans and to end the endemic poverty now confronting the majority of citizens.
How can our bananas and tomatoes rot because the hungry who want to buy them have no foreign currency?
We are probably the only resource-rich country without our own currency.
That situation will guarantee our continued poverty.
The monetary authorities must think without the box to gradually build confidence in our capacity to run our own economy with our own money backed by our own resources.
It does not help when those who are leading the pack are the first to denounce calls for a Zimbabwean currency.
We will be fools to think that we can fight our poverty by amassing US dollars in everyone’s pocket!
How do you control the money supply in an economy where there is no exchange control?
Can we afford monetary authorities without money?
Greed manifests itself in situations where for example senior officials divert goods and services such as agricultural inputs, drought relief or building materials for community projects meant to improve the welfare of ordinary people or for infrastructural development for personal enrichment.
Need we ask why the people remain poor?
If thousands perished to liberate this country, who can claim as an individual to deserve to be rich while others wallow in poverty?
That is a question ordinary citizens must ask, especially of those who wallow in wealth, but have never worked for a salary that would support their bank balances.
Who has the right to take all the fertiliser from a GMB depot in a ‘gonyet’ to his farm while poor ordinary citizens, old men and women, watch helplessly and limp off to their homes to face another pre-ordained failed cropping season?
What conscience rests in the skulls of those who greedily grab what belongs to the many for their own individual selfish ends?
Or might this be the answer to the question as to why the majority are poor?
The arrogant will claim that the poor are lazy, they do not want to work!
In the village, they are jealous of the young man who has put up a nice little house for his parents.
They envy and are jealousy of the success of their neighbour’s children at school or in employment.
Some may even use evil magic to cause harm to those who are more successful. But can that explain why we Africans as a collective are generally poor in the midst of plenty of resources on the continent?
If the chief becomes jealousy of the success of his subjects, what are the prospects for development and improvement in life styles of people in his area?
If the chief executive of a company becomes jealous of his subordinates at work, where will that company go?
If the local Member of Parliament feels threatened or becomes jealous of the academic or business success of his constituents, what will be the prospects for development in the area?
Will they mobilise locally available skills to develop the area?
Can the reader now figure out the Zimbabweans’ secret for remaining poor even though resources are plentiful in their country?
The proverbial one finger pointing at someone else and three fingers pointing at you!
We still must be our own liberators, even from poverty!
Do we need to read economics texts or to think on our feet?
The struggle continues!