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

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.

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

Zimbabwe's inflationary plague of doctorates

“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. 

READ MORE - Zimbabwe's inflationary plague of doctorates

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

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?

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

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.

READ MORE - Why digitilization of Harare passport office may not bring better service

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.

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

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

'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.

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

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.

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

If Mugabe is 'the most British of all British people,' what does that say about Zimbabweanhood?

 by Chido Makunike

  

All the effort expended into crafting a new constitution is at a certain level about trying to decide what values are important to us a nation in rapid transition in all sorts of ways.

For instance, which laws from the colonial era are still relevant in the new Zimbabwe we are trying to build, and which need to be discarded? Which social practices need to be protected, and which are considered so abhorrent to the society that they need to be expressly sanctioned in the constitution? How do we best balance majority sentiments, values and practices against the protection of the rights of citizens who may have minority, dissenting values?

READ MORE - If Mugabe is 'the most British of all British people,' what does that say about Zimbabweanhood?

The controversial MDC/ZANU-PF popularity poll result as a sign of a maturing Zimbabwean citizenry

 by Chido Makunike

The opinion poll by U.S. think tank Freedom House suggesting reduced support for the MDC and an increase in support for ZANU-PF has caused an understandable stir. It has particularly done so by going against what had become, in some circles. the accepted wisdom of an impeding electoral landslide by the MDC over ZANU-PF.

READ MORE - The controversial MDC/ZANU-PF popularity poll result as a sign of a maturing Zimbabwean citizenry

Is the aid-dependent neocolonialism in Malawi what would be in store for Zimbabwe under an MDC government?

by Chido Makunike

New Malawian president Joyce Banda has wasted no time in trying to undo as much of the legacy of her late predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, as possible. Her main thrust can be quite simply summarized as: bend over backwards to do all that is necessary to appease the Western 'donors.' A deep practical and psychological donor dependence on the West is nothing at all new in Africa. It is a major, tragic hallmark of relations between post-'independence' Africa and its former colonizers. But in recent years there had begun to be a stirring of  African interrogation of this debilitating disease. It is therefore startling that in 2012, there is an African president who appears to almost proudly put the dependence of her country on foreign 'donors' as the cornerstone of her plans for her country's future. Would a similar fate befall Zimbabwe under Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party if they came to power?

READ MORE - Is the aid-dependent neocolonialism in Malawi what would be in store for Zimbabwe under an MDC government?

Jacob Zuma embarrassed before his SADC peers by 'penis art'

The furore over the painting of South African Jacob Zuma with his penis hanging out of his trousers seems to be gradually dying down in South Africa. But there is likely to be lasting harm done to Jacob Zuma's stature, with subtle but likely long-lasting and debilitating implications on his standing in the SADC region, and in particular on his role as facilitator in Zimbabwe's long-running political impasse.

READ MORE - Jacob Zuma embarrassed before his SADC peers by 'penis art'

Okonjo-Iweala's candidacy and how Bingu wa Mutharika’s World Bank experience didn’t seem to be of much help to Malawi

The death of Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika at 78 of a heart attack seems to have been met with very little public sorrow. Yet he came into office in 2004 on a wave of popular support, tremendous goodwill and with his country folks’ very high expectations of what he would achieve for Malawi. One key reason for those high hopes was that he was formerly ‘a World Bank economist.’ What are we to make of the fact that such an impressively pedigreed ‘technocrat’ has left ‘the warm heart of Africa’ with such cold feelings towards him?

READ MORE - Okonjo-Iweala's candidacy and how Bingu wa Mutharika’s World Bank experience didn’t seem to be of much help to Malawi

Would an African Word Bank president make any difference to Africa?

World Bank president Robert Zoelick is stepping down in June, and there is a frenzy of speculation about whether he will be succeeded by the institution’s first non-American. Former World Bank vice president and current Nigerian finance minister Nogozi Okonjo-Iweala is being touted as ‘Africa’s candidate.’ Is there any reason for Africans to be excited about the talk of her candidature?

READ MORE - Would an African Word Bank president make any difference to Africa?

The missing links in Zimbabwe’s drive for a successful China-like State capitalism

by Chido Makunike

Today’s China is perhaps the most successful example of ‘State capitalism.’ There are those who caution that the model is not all it seems, and that it is not sustainable. Even if that were the case, there is no doubt that China has become a dynamic global economic power under a type of controlled free market economy largely run by the State. Why has China’s model of State capitalism worked, while those of countries like Zimbabwe flounder?

READ MORE - The missing links in Zimbabwe’s drive for a successful China-like State capitalism

The messy nexus of land, property rights and race in Southern Africa

by Chido Makunike

Eddie Cross is an MDC MP with strong, frequently publicly articulated views on many issues, including the hot one of land. He has sometimes been referred to as the MDC’s ‘policy advisor,’ so his views on this subject are interesting as a window into the ‘advice’ he gives to his party on this deeply contentious issue. He argues that traditional, communal ownership of land; without individual title deeds, works against ‘development’ and against freedom and democracy. How do his arguments tie into Zimbabwe’s past and present?

READ MORE - The messy nexus of land, property rights and race in Southern Africa

In parts of Harare, as elsewhere, a deep fear of the rising Chinese

The intricacies of currency are of little interest to most people. Hyperinflation changed much of this for Zimbabweans. Fear of the very idea of a local currency runs deep, and for now, many people are comforted by the country’s use of various foreign currencies, including the US dollar and South African Rand. With the growing economic role of China in Zimbabwe and the world in general, a surprisingly contentious debate about adding the Yuan to the currencies used has arisen. The article ‘To Yuan or Not to Yuan, That Is the Question’ represents a particularly irrational take on the subject.

READ MORE - In parts of Harare, as elsewhere, a deep fear of the rising Chinese

Is IMF/World Bank work experience good recommendation for leadership in Africa?

Chido Makunike

One of the most socially prestigious kinds of work experiences a person can have on his or her CV in Africa is a senior position at the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or similar institution. Almost no one knows what being ‘director’ or ‘senior vice president’ at these organizations involves, but the social cachet that goes with it for an African is tremendous. Inevitably, very often the next mountain these international bureaucrats believe their experience qualifies them for is to lead their country. But is this kind of career background particularly good recommendation and experience for problem-solving in Africa?

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Church man Makandiwa’s fascinating Mercedes Benz wedding gift: a critique

Religious entrepreneur Emmanuel Makandiwa made a lot of waves in Zimbabwe in 2011. In status-obsessed Zimbabwe, at year end the ‘prosperity gospel’ preacher and purported miracle worker added considerably to his mystique by giving a young couple the wedding gift of a Mercedes Benz car. What are some of the messages of this gesture that had so much of the country talking?

READ MORE - Church man Makandiwa’s fascinating Mercedes Benz wedding gift: a critique

Guy Scott as Zambia’s first white vice president says nothing about events in Zimbabwe or elsewhere

Chido Makunike


The appointment by new Zambian president Michael Sata of Guy Scott as his vice president has received a fair amount of attention. It is still a rare novelty for a white person to occupy high political office and wield real power in post-colonial Africa. Among others, the UK Guardian postulated that this represents ‘a significant milestone for the development of a post-colonial non-racial order in Africa.’ It may indeed be a sign that African prickliness over the racial indignities of the past is receding, but it may not be as big a deal as speculated, nor applicable to countries with very different social dynamics from Zambia’s.

READ MORE - Guy Scott as Zambia’s first white vice president says nothing about events in Zimbabwe or elsewhere

Using Nigeria’s oil curse lessons to avoid a diamond curse in Zimbabwe

Nigeria is in turmoil as the country’s citizens react in outrage at the government’s lifting of an oil subsidy that kept petroleum products priced low. Almost all articles about the crisis mention how many Nigerians consider that the subsidy is one of the few ways they benefit from their country’s vast oil wealth. Are there lessons from this for Zimbabwe as it quickly becomes a global diamond powerhouse?

READ MORE - Using Nigeria’s oil curse lessons to avoid a diamond curse in Zimbabwe