ORDINARY Zimbabweans’ loss of hope has become palpable as
the prices of basic goods and services continue to skyrocket, with no imminent
solutions in sight to address the country’s worsening economic crisis.
This comes as consumers who spoke to the Daily News
yesterday said while they were worried about the lethal coronavirus, they
feared hunger and starvation more — pleading with the government to pay more
attention to Zimbabwe’s economic woes than was currently the case.
It also comes as analysts have once again implored
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government to re-introduce the
stability-inducing multi-currency system — like what happened a decade ago
after Zimbabwe had endured similarly debilitating economic problems.
Some of the consumers who spoke to the Daily News yesterday
dismissed today’s Presidential National Day of Prayer on Covid-19 as “a waste
of time” as it did not include “the more urgent need” to find solutions for the
country’s deepening economic challenges.
“The government is busy organising prayers yet the prices
of basic commodities are increasing daily. Organising a prayer without dealing with the root cause of
our country’s problems will not solve anything.
“We can fast and pray, but will still be confronted by the
same harsh reality,” Harare resident, Bernadette Mazaiwana, said.
Another consumer, Chamunorwa Marecha, also said it was
“futile to pray about one challenge without paying attention to other key
issues such as the country’s political divisions.
“Prayer only works when you admit your sins and repent from
them. President Mnangagwa and his government need to admit that they have
failed.
“They must invite MDC Alliance leader (Nelson) Chamisa and
others to the round table … to find ways of solving the country’s worsening
problems,” he told the Daily News.
The consumers spoke as most shops have once again increased
their prices of basic commodities, including for bread, maize-meal, cooking
oil, sugar, eggs and milk.
A survey by the Daily News crews yesterday revealed that
apart from the price hikes, items such as subsidised roller meal and sugar were
still in very short supply.
Some shops were only allowing consumers to buy sugar if
they spent a certain amount of money at the tills.
Meanwhile, a loaf of bread, which was retailing at $34 a
mere three weeks ago, is now selling for anything up to $68, depending on the
shop.
Meanwhile, economists said yesterday that the government
now had no option left to stabilise the economy other than to “revert to the
multi-currency system” — which was first introduced in 2009 after the Zimbabwe
dollar was decimated by hyper-inflation.
“If you look at the last time when we had this same problem
in 2009, the solution which worked was the stabilisation of the exchange rate
through the introduction of the multi-currency regime.
“The government had tried all things then, including the
printing of money and price controls, but all these strategies failed. The problem that we have right now, apart from issues with
the exchange rate, is that we have a government with no economic strategy
whatsoever.
“It is completely clueless on how to revive the economy,”
respected economist Tony Hawkins told the Daily News. The government keeps talking about implementing political
and economic reforms, but nothing is being done to implement the reforms.
“What we need is a radical solution, and that is to fully
dollarise the economy and start planning the way forward from there.
“When we talk about stabilisation, it is economic in as
much as it is political.
“This can be very difficult for any country, especially Zimbabwe
where politicians are led by their own party or selfish interests instead of
those of the people they lead,” Hawkins said further.
“If you look at the latest figures, Zimbabwe is being
ranked as the second worst performing economy in Africa and number 10 in the
world.
“So, this is a huge ask on the Government of Zimbabwe to
turn around such an economy because we don’t have anyone in the government who
is willing to stand up and admit failure and make way for others with
innovative ideas to solve the country’s economic problems,” he added.
Veteran economist John Robertson echoed the same sentiments
saying authorities were running out of time to end the country’s worsening
economic crisis.
“Stabilising the exchange rate is key to stabilising the
prices. The reason why prices of basic commodities continue increasing is
because there is no balance between the foreign currency we need for imports
and the foreign currency we are generating as a nation.
“We have become net importers of everything and that is not
what it is supposed to be like.
“We should be able to produce for ourselves and export to
other countries to generate foreign currency reserves,” Robertson told the
Daily News.
“If we continue importing more than we are exporting, then
there won’t be a balance between the supply and demand of foreign currency, and
the prices of basic commodities will continue increasing.
“The government keeps on saying that we are implementing
economic reforms, but this is just being said for political reasons.
“No ground work is actually being done. This country
desperately needs sound economic reforms which can attract investment and
stimulate production, which will see our industries being reopened again,”
Robertson further told the Daily News.
“So, if the government doesn’t know how to improve
policies, then what we need is a new government capable of doing what needs to
be done to revive this economy,” he added.
Meanwhile, University of Zimbabwe political science
lecturer, Eldred Masunungure, has warned that the skyrocketing prices were a
recipe for disaster for the country.
“When people’s livelihoods are affected at individual and
community level, and they can’t make ends meet, that is a recipe for disaster
for the government because people cannot be over-stretched for long.
“However, this is avoidable and the only way to avoid an
implosion is by finding a political solution to the country’s problems.
“This is not about trial and error, it’s about doing
something that was tried and tested in the past and it worked,” Masunungure
told the Daily News.
“I am talking about the government of national unity (GNU)
which was created in 2009 when our economy had hit rock bottom. It worked as a solution to our problems back then and it
can still work even today,” he added.
“That is why the majority of Zimbabweans we have spoken to
in our research have indicated that they want to go back to that era.
“They are nostalgic because they know that is the only
solution that we can adopt to solve inflation and the exchange rate that is
resulting in price increases,” Masunungure also said.
The country’s worsening economic rot has triggered
restlessness among ordinary Zimbabweans.
Despite being feted like a king when he first replaced the
late former president Robert Mugabe, via a popular military coup in November
2017 — Mnangagwa and his government have found re-building the broken economy a
tough ask.
Only recently the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) painted a gloomy picture of the future as a result of the effects of the
Covid-19 pandemic. Daily News
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