Mnangagwa should bite the bullet, steer the ship

THAT top Zanu-PF officials have demanded answers from party leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa over the worsening economic situation in the country is a step in the right direction.

However, the criticism by the former Cabinet ministers, now relegated to the party office, should be measured, given they themselves presided over the country's economic demise under ex-President Robert Mugabe's successive regimes.

In ushering in his new dispensation Mnangagwa parked party stalwarts in the Shake-Shake Building placating them with ministerial perks. But with nothing to do all day, some are seeking relevance by making pronouncements on government policy and demanding that it answers to the party.

Fact is party administration secretary Obert Mpofu, Mugabe's "Ever-Obedient Son", actually resuscitated price controls under the Godwills Masimirembwa's National Incomes and Pricing Commission. No doubt that more destroyed our economy. He presided over our vast diamonds fields. Does the country have anything to show for it? Not that he and many others like him no longer have the moral to urge the government to restore the economy.

Indeed, Zimbabweans want some answers on the decline of the economy, but they would not accept being used for the benefit of Zanu-PF factions. The citizens require this government to deliver results, even if working with others to building a New Zimbabwe.

It is unfortunate that these calls have been made at a critical moment when Mnangagwa has called for the arrest of economic saboteurs. Is it a coincidence that these calls came soon after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe suspended some of its top employees for their suspected involvement in graft?

Indications are that some top government and ruling party officials could also have been involved in corrupt tendencies in the past. The President should ensure those involved in any nefarious activity retarding economic growth face justice regardless of their station in society.

We hope the calls to right the economy – which every right- minded Zimbabwean would want happen yesterday and not tomorrow – are not self-serving. Citizens will not support any effort to divert attention from the fight against corruption.

One wonders whether Mpofu and many ex-Cabinet ministers now holed at the party headquarters would be singing the same song if they had retained their government positions. Zanu-PF must get real. We also hope that this is not a factional sideshow, given Zanu-PF is always riddled with factions.

Can Zanu-PF for once focus on the economy, please! We urge Mnangagwa to ensure that he's not distracted, but works to grow the economy.

Clearly, citizens weren't really talking about the economy as much back then, but their situation is different now, having gone through economic crises twice in a decade. That's unprecedented! In both cases, the deepening economic crises were characterised by inflated prices of goods as well as shortages of fuel, cooking oil and other basic goods triggered by an acute shortage of foreign currency in a country with abundant natural and infinity resources.

It is still not lost to Zimbabweans that Zanu-PF officials will be engaged in a fierce fight over each other's credibility and suitability for high office after having been consigned to do party business.

Instead of Zanu-PF officials demanding answers from the President they, indeed, need to work with him to ensure the problems are eliminated urgently.

It does not pay for Mnangagwa to protect his acolytes, while the economy continues to burn. Let there be an example of how corrupt individuals are dealt with.

We are surprised that no serious person has either been arrested or jailed for corruption this far. The world over it is known that the corrupt always find their way to connect with the powerful, and in our case it is proving exactly that.

But for the majority poor Zimbabweans, our economic recovery is not a spectator sport. Mnangagwa must be a fierce advocate for the generality of Zimbabweans, especially women, the youth and the old (everybody) by fighting income inequalities, corruption and economic saboteurs.