Tendai Biti -- "Let's tell them (top Zanu officials) that they can leave and not lose their farms or get arrested".
That was Tendai Biti, The MDC's Secretary-General, and also Zimbabwe's Min of Finance. I've been saying, for God-knows how many years now, that the only way to improve Zimbabwe's political climate, is to allow Zanu's top leadership to retire (quietly) to their farms, and give them blanket immunity from any future prosecution.
Those who claim morals as their guiding principle need to carefully consider what options we Zimbabweans have on the table. With 85% unemployment, a collapsed health-care sector and industry in shambles, we can ill-afford to continue having the present Zanu leadership in place. The Govt of (dis)unity stopped the rot, but it is ill-equipped to move things onto a higher level. Plus we might have elections next year, and the nightmare of another 5 years of an underperformng Govt of Nat Unity looms large.
If the 50 or so top Zanu officials in the security establishment, and in the govt were allowed to go, there would immediately be a better climate for the economy to operate in. Let's cut our losses right now, to give a chance to the millions of Zimbabwean children who go to bed hungry each night, and to the millions of workers unable to find work.
Life, in general, gives you two stark choices: bad or worse. The choice that I've highlighted above would be the least painful for Zimbabwe's masses. It's high time we gave it a try.
James Chikonamombe
1 comment :
I think we all have to appreciate the nature of what it means to be in a ‘coalition government’ in the first place. It's not easy, look at the UK and Kenya, constanting negotiating everything whilst preparing for the next elections. I think you have to look at the Zim situation from a holistic perspective. If the banking sector had access to overseas credit for example, we would probably be having a different conversation right now. Speaking as someone in biz in Zim, I see that we have challenges that are out with the realm of politics and this fact MUST be acknowledged otherwise we run the risk of over politicising everything when there is simply no need to at the best of times. We all have to understand and appreciate the fundamentals of business and the economics as a whole. You have to appreciate that most of what happened in the last 10 years hasn’t been covered in most economic textbooks. Zimbabwe has now become a case study for others.
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