RADICAL economic transformation policies adopted by
President Mnangagwa at the advent of the Second Republic, despite their
short-term political unpopularity, are beginning to pay off as the economy is
stabilising after enduring two decades of poor governance, illegal sanctions
and serious natural calamities, Finance and Economic Development Secretary Mr
George Guvamatanga said in a television interview.
When he assumed leadership of the country, the President
embraced a raft of measures to revive the economy with a vision to turn the
country into a middle-income economy by 2030, and part of those measures were
bringing in a technocratic group to run the Treasury, including Mr Guvamatanga
who was snapped up as permanent secretary after FMB Bank, who had bought
Barclays Zimbabwe, parted ways with chief executive Mr Guvamatanga, although
the bank had to pay him a substantial golden handshake as it was a no fault
split.
In his ZBC interview, Mr Guvamatanga hailed courageous
though painful steps taken by the President towards reviving the economy.
That kind of bold leadership by President Mnangagwa kept
the Treasury team on their pedals as technocrats in their endeavour to build a
better economy.
“That is one major success, to make politically unpopular
decisions, which in the long run are good for Zimbabwe and for the people,”
said Mr Guvamatanga.
It was one of President Mnangagwa’s biggest achievements
when he took the tough measures to ensure the economy was brought back to life
to allow the country to become an economic giant once again.
The fact that the decision taken by the President was difficult
for the people, did not necessarily mean it was wrong.
“There is a difference between a difficult and a wrong
decision,” he said. “A difficult decision and a wrong decision are different.”
He hailed the President for being able to support the difficult
decisions they had to make on the economy, as technocrats.
Mr Guvamatanga said President Mnangagwa’s finance and
economic milestones came in the face of sanctions, drought, Cyclone Idai and
now Covid-19, and without international support.
“If you look at what was thrown at us over the past two
years as a new Government and where we are today and the stability that we
have, you will not find it easy to believe it. Shops are full, people are
trading,” he said.
“If you compare what is happening now with what used to
happen in the past you will realise that this is the most stable economy we
have seen over the past 10 years.”
Under the stewardship of President Mnangagwa trade balances
have vastly improved, as the country is now exporting more than it is
importing.
“The country is now manufacturing more, as evidenced by the
shops that are now full with local products.”
The fiscal balance was achieved faster than what we
thought, said Mr Guvamatanga.
Government has reduced spending that is channelled to
salaries from 96 percent to 50 percent of its tax income.
Mr Guvamatanga said economic business sense dictates that
you pay the true value for products and services you get.
“We do not have fuel fields here for you to buy fuel at 13
cents, which was not being paid for. We are paying for it now. We are paying
for everything you are consuming now and everything that you consumed and paid
the wrong price for in the past decade.”
At the time Mr Guvamatanga entered the civil service at the
top of the Finance Ministry, Government was saddled with huge debts from the
previous administration and had equally a huge task to clear the foreign debts
for electricity, fuel, maize, wheat and medical equipment worth over US$100
million.
And value had not been received for some of those debts.
The equipment was unusable in local hospitals.
Mr Guvamatanga also noted during the interview that in the
past, people were used to consuming things they were not paying for.
The finance secretary, who was happy to have cleared most
of the debts, said: “Sometimes if you consume things you are not paying for,
then you do not know their value and you will price them incorrectly. If you
give electricity for free, so it would be cheap, you run out of power since
power stations break down, new ones are not built and foreign suppliers will
not deliver unless they are paid.’’
Mr Guvamatanga said electricity supplies had been
stabilised by ensuring that there is efficient and proper management of Zesa,
including making sure that people pay market related tariffs even for fuel.
This, he said, required proper and bold leadership to make
such calls and a strong understanding of the economy to make appropriate decisions.
Herald
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