The Zimbabwe Review

Interrogating Mthuli Ncube's 'Austerity for Prosperity': Will ESAP 2 work where ESAP 1 failed?*

Aug 19, 2019

In the weeks leading up to the poorly kept secret of his impeding appointment, he campaigned hard for the position, coming out of a long diasporan silence to write articles outlining what he would do to tame Zimbabwe’s unwieldly economy. His many slavish supporters played up his scholarly qualifications, the international finance organisations where he had been a functionary and so forth.

It was as if the man could walk on water like Jesus purportedly did, or leap over skyscrapers with a single bound, like Superman. Given all the hype around him, his eventual appointment in October 2018 was almost an anti-climax.

It wasn’t long before he began to backtrack on some of his pre-appointment expressed views, such as the need to swiftly ‘abolish’ the widely derided ‘bond note’ currency/non-currency (which it is depends on who you ask, and what time of day it is.) Having been parachuted into his position after more than a decade in places like Switzerland, the Zimbabwean social, economic and political realities quickly, rudely began to dawn on him.

Zimbabwe's inflationary plague of doctorates

Jul 7, 2015

“Zimbabwe is the most literate nation in Africa,” you will often hear it boasted. While we instinctively reject not-so-flattering measures of our national performance as ‘machinations of the imperialists,’ this one we eagerly, unquestioningly embrace as obviously true. To ask how much we have used that high literacy to improve our national condition is to risk being accused of being unpatriotic and counter-revolutionary.

So prized has become the generalised notion of ‘being educated,’ or at least being perceived to be so, that it now matters little whether we seek education as a means to live better lives or to be more productive and innovative citizens. In Zimbabwe the idea of ‘education’ now is to a great extent another means to satisfy our national obsession with ‘status;’ or convincing ourselves that we have more intrinsic human worth than the people next door.

The real origins of the ZIFA soccer cheating scandal

Oct 23, 2012

Chido Makunike

There is a huge, terrible new 'crisis' in Zimbabwe that is causing much public gnashing of teeth and weeping and wailing. It threatened to eclipse this week's Harare constitutional conference. It diverted media and public attention away from the sexscapades of the randy prime minister. What new calamity has befallen hapless Zimbabwe? The national soccer team lost a match in Angola under what are widely considered to be disgraceful circumstances, meaning they are out of competition for the 2013 African Cup of Nations. As a result there were brief fears of a soccer insurrection in parts of the country last week. This came just a few days after a lengthy corruption investigation of officials of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and many prominent players. Several big sports-linked personalities have been banned from football for life for throwing games in foreign lands for money. What is the fundamental problem?

The strange collaboration between religious fundamentalism and Zimbabwe's media

Oct 22, 2012

Chido Makunike

Alongside Zimbabwe's great economic and political challenges, another big social phenomenon of the last decade or so has been the astonishing rise of an aggressive form of religious fundamentalism. Still to be well-studied and explained, it is perhaps not surprising that when a society is under deep stress, fundamentalist thinking and answers including the religious have huge appeal. There are now signs that the gradual 'normalization' of Zimbabwean society from its 'crisis decade' has also began to create the conditions for more people to question many of the more outlandish claims and practices of the religious fundamentalist wave. But if that fundamentalist wave has finally peaked and is now waning, it is in spite of rather than because of the role of the media in this strange period in Zimbabwe's development.

Alarming disconnect between Zimbabwe banking sector and its customers

Chido Makunike

Zimbabwean banks and their customers might as well be on different planets about their ideas about what is minimally acceptable service. While banks have previously been firmly in the driver's seat in this regard, recent and growing political and public pressure on them is shifting the power dynamics somewhat, with the customers' concerns at least getting more of a public airing than before. However, the banks remain largely tone-deaf to the reasons for so much public disgruntlement with their levels of service.

Irish Aid-funded UN volunteer programme sends 'development worker' on one year holiday to Zimbabwe

Oct 17, 2012

The Irish Times carried an opinion piece in 2011 by one of its then most prominent columnists with the heading, 'Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS'. It was a screed against the giving of aid by western countries to Africa, but it was much more than that as well. To cut a very long story short, and to give an indication of the reaction, that article is no longer on that paper's website, nor does the writer still pen articles for it. So 'aid' is as controversial in the 'donor' countries as it increasingly is in Africa and elsewhere, mainly over its effectiveness versus its cost. Why then is Irish Aid sending a young Irishwoman with no particular 'development' skills on an effective one-year holiday in Zimbabwe?

What the Affirmative Action Group fails to understand about banks

The Affirmative Action Group is a 'pressure group' for 'economic empowerment.' As such, a big part of their reason for existence is just to be provocative, to make various parts of what can be considered 'the establishment' (government, banks, industry, etc) squirm. At this rabble-rousing role the AAG is very effective. As the claimed representatives of a section of aspiring entrepreneurs, they more broadly seek to make the general operating environment more favorable for up-and-coming businesspeople. That necessarily means a big part of the AAG's focus is on access to finance. Their expressed thoughts on this matter suggest that they may have completely unrealistic expectations about this issue.

Why digitilization of Harare passport office may not bring better service

For decades now, the process of obtaining or renewing a passport has been a soul-destroying struggle and example of so much of what is wrong with the way Zimbabwe's public services interact with their public. Long queues just to obtain the passport application forms were the earliest sign of the deeply dysfunctional process, and also of the attitude of the institution about its 'customers.' Now the application forms can be filled in online, in theory potentially making the whole process much more efficient and much less traumatic. Here is why that hoped for result may not be achieved in the short term.

Why some find Julius Malema's views on Zimbabwe so provocative

South African political rabble rouser Julius Malema was in Zimbabwe over the weekend. During and immediately after his brief visit he ruffled a lot of feathers in his host city as well as at home. It is clear that he finds Zimbabwe's 'revolution' inspiring for his own battles, but what he means as praise for Zimbabwe sometimes comes out sounding as mockery. Still, his views are partly provocative because they offer a a view of the events in Zimbabwe that is diametrically opposed to the dominant South African and western narrative of the country as a 'failed state' that South Africa should carefully avoid emulating.

Iran's Zimbabwe experience

Oct 2, 2012

Iran is besieged by economic sanctions by the western world because they are not happy about its desire and plans to be nuclear-armed, just like the sanctioning countries. There are strong parallels between what Iran is experiencing now and what Zimbabwe went through in the several years up to the beginning of gradual economic normalization in 2009.

Are Zimbabwe's 'liquidity challenges' real or a mental construct?

'Liquidity crunch' is probably the most fashionable expression in Zimbabwe at the moment. Certainly it is probably true that one hears many people talk about how hard it easy to get hold of (earn) money in the now U.S.dollar-denominated economy. But is the 'liquidity crunch' the problem, or is merely a symptom of deeper, larger problems?

What South Africa's 'Zumaville' could learn from Zimbawe's growth points

Sep 30, 2012

There's a raging controversy in South Africa about the perceived favoritism in bringing 'development' to the president's rural home, Nkandla. Almost the entire debate is about whether or not the planned 'development' is being done there because it is the president's home. There is almost no discussion in the South African media about whether the project really is likely to meaningfully and sustainably result in an improvement in the lives of the people of the area. Zimbabwe's experience with rural 'growth points' suggests that the proposed 'Zumaville' scheme is not the way to 'develop' an area.

Simple but effective ways the MDC could spruce up its battered image

Sep 25, 2012

Public revelations of the astonishing sexual escapades of Zimbabwe coalition government prime minister and Movement for Democratic Change leader party leader Morgan Tsvangirai have for now totally derailed his party's ability to focus on its message in preparation for an election expected in the next several months. Even before the details of his messy sex life hit the public, the MDC had begun to experience perhaps its most serious crisis of public confidence. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for the MDC to take stock and change some of its ways to prevent a further haemorraging of its public support. Here is a random list of some simple things they could look at doing to try to stem the tide of their relative decline.

Does Zimbabwe really need a new railway regulatory authority?

The National Railways of Zimbabwe are a government owned company and a monopoly. The company and its services are now a sad mere shadow of what they onc were. For many years there has been much talk of ‘re-capitalizing’ the railways but it has never happened. In any case the industry that once powered the railway company is floundering. There has been no suggestion that there is an interest or a possibility of private players competing with the NZR in the direct provision of railway services. So why on earth does a government minister say that a regulatory body is being considered?

Zim white farmers' Pyrrhic South African court victory

A few score white Zimbabwean farmers who had land expropriated from them by the government have won a protracted, convoluted court battle to have a government property sold to pay towards compensating them. One big problem: their victory is in a South African court. That foreign court's freedom from the influence of the Zimbabwean government's clutches is one reason such a judgement could be delivered in their favour, and be possibly actionable. But it is also why the ruling is of very little use to the majority of white farmers' search for compensation, or to their overall plight.

Zimbabwean banks' self-inflicted image woes

Sep 24, 2012

Chido Makunike

This is a tough time for Zimbabwe's banking sector, with attacks on them from seemingly every quarter. It is also a tough time for all Zimbabwean economic players, with deep structural changes in recent years that all are battling to catch up with. But many of the problems which alienate the banks from the public have been building up for a long time, and many of them emanate from their aloof treatment of their customers.

The president's wife is not the 'mother of the nation'

Sep 19, 2012

'Mai' means 'mother' in Shona. 'Amai' is the more expansive, respectful form which covers a lot of broader uses, such as indicating not just literal motherhood, but a woman's overall status as a respected matriarch of her general community. While it is quite appropriate to refer to the president or prime minister wife as 'Amai whatever-her-name-is,' it is dangerous and not appropriate in a modern democracy to try to suggest that 'Amai X' is also somehow the symbolic 'mother of the nation.' It is not difficult to understand why this may be appealing to politicians, but it is nevertheless nonsense.

What the past few weeks have revealed about Morgan Tsvangirai

The past few weeks have been a hectic, torrid time for Movement for Democratic Change leader and Zimbabwe coalition government Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. What is amazing is how most of the damage to his image has been so wantonly reckless and self-inflicted. Even if he gets over this image hump, what the public has learned about him in recent weeks is not particularly confidence-inspiring for a leader whose brand is largely based on the promise of conduct different from that of the politicians who have been in control for the past three decades.

A change is not gonna come

Sep 18, 2012

Chido Makunike

Many Zimbabweans hope that there will soon be a fundamental change in how the country's politics are conducted. Whatever change to a more 'free and democratic' dispensation takes place will likely be small and incremental, rather than revolutionary. Here's why.

Ministers Shamu and Makandiwa; when religion and politics both encourage citizen subservience

Sep 13, 2012

Chido Makunike

Webster Shamu, government minister of information and Emmanuel Makandiwa, a minister of religion, have independently made statements that reveal some of the attitudes that are an impediment in Zimbabwe to the idea of leadership that is subservient and answerable to the people. To attain a position of leadership in any situation is so often taken and accepted as a right to lord it over ordinary people. It is going to be a hard and long process to change the attitudes that account for this state of affairs, but there are hopeful signs that this change is taking place at an accelerated pace.