Political commentators lament speedy crumbling of Zim economy

The Zimbabwe Political commentators Livingstone Masamba and Rejoice Ngwenya have lamented the continued deterioration of Zimbabwe's economy while the citizens watch helpless when the political leaders run the nation down the drain.

In a joint article posted on Face Book the two commentators said while brothers and sisters down south are keeping themselves busy by fighting statues and sculptures of the long dead Cecil John Rhodes and trying to become heroes and conquerors of Cecil John Rhode figurines hoping to outdo their ancestors who fought the real Rhodes by their move, back home people are busy creating our own history by watching helplessly the economic situation of our beloved country deteriorating and making 'ourselves' villains of destroying the once beautiful country.

"We are watching in amusement while the economic situation is worsening as if we are watching a mango tree growing oranges. At least they are doing something which they believe is good for their country," they said.

"Indicators are high and no longer surreptitious that the Government of Zimbabwe has reached a dead end economically and financially. The Chief Government revenue collector, ZIMRA has failed to meet its revenue collection targets successively."

Masamba and Ngwenya said the cash inflows into the Consolidated Revenue Fund have continued to shrink with no any possibility of an improvement in the foreseeable future.

They said many companies from which the government depended on in collecting revenue through VAT, corporate tax and PAYE have continued to close or downsize.

"Used car importation which has been another area in which the government collected revenue from also recorded a significant decrease due to the decreasing disposable incomes of Zimbabweans resulting in scaling down on spending on goods and service that are considered "luxurious" they said.

The commentators said there is a definitely need a miracle from the combined effort of all the "prophets" in the country who are now probably half of the country's population in number to save the country's situation before the worst comes to the worst.

"The most horrible facing us includes the government failing to meet its obligations pertaining to paying the Civil Servants their salaries. If the government's authorities do not stop blowing like a paper kite in all directions where the wind blows looking for "mega deals", we are in for big trouble as a country in the not so far future," reads their article "One should stop going in and out of the country like a plastic yoyo collecting tones of papers and calling them "mega deals and MOUs" so that he sits back and face the reality that we are doomed. The solution to our problems should be home grown as we have been taught."

They said the Herald has on many occasions woken up with the following screaming and tantalizing headlines like on; 26 AUGUST 2014: Zim-Chinas Sign mega deals, 16 SEPTEMBER 2014: Zim-Rushia Ink massive deals, 25 MARCH 2015: Zim-Algeria negotiates mega deals and the recently reported, Zim-South Africa mega deals.

"It is sad to note that some gullible Zimbabweans have swallowed line, hook and sinker this mega propaganda of "mega deals" by the Zimbabwe authorities being peddled through the ZANU PF controlled junk newspaper calling itself Herald just like they have swallowed the other lies of indigenization and ZIMASSET," reads their article. "There has only been talk of these mega deals in the Herald and on ZTV with no any meaningful and tangible benefits to the ordinary man in Dotito or kwaSadzahuchi."

They said at the moment, the government has been able to meet only the net salaries of the Civil Servants.

"The government pay agency Salaries Services Bureau collects monthly payments on behalf of third parties including banks that would have advanced loans to Civil Servants by deducting the agreed monthly repayments from the salaries of Civil Servants," they said. "It is sad to note that the agency has not been able to remit or forward the withheld deductions to the intended beneficiaries due to the unavailability of funds."

They said this state of affairs has contributed to the further crippling of the already fragile businesses that depended on these monthly remittances from the government as their sole source of continued operations.

"In the event of government employees failing to receive their salaries out rightly, the consequences are dire downstream as many businesses depended on the Civil Servants as their customers or clients," reads their article. "This will signal the collapse and an end to anything remaining of the Zimbabwean economy as the government has become the biggest employer at the moment."

The commentators said it is high time that the authorities stop pretending as if everything is normal.

"They need to stop this behavior of burying their heads in the sand like ostriches and engage for the betterment of the entire populace if they are really for the people who they say voted them into power. When the country faced a serious crisis after the June 27 farce of an election, engagement which resulted in the formation of GNU saved the country," reads their article.

"The country had started to record significant growth and positive changes to the economy due to the involvement and participation of other players like MDC T and Morgan Tsvangirai who brought a different feel and experience to the administration of the country."