Opinion / Columnist
76% Zim living on less than $200 a month - this is not sustainable we need regime change!
19 Feb 2015 at 00:37hrs | Views
"Following recent revelations by economists that average incomes in Zimbabwe are now at their lowest levels in 60 years, it has now emerged that more than 76 percent of the country's adult population has to make do with less than $200 a month," reported the Daily News.
"This, economists said yesterday means that poverty levels have reached "numbing levels", amid indications that the situation will worsen in 2015 and beyond, as President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF government continue to demonstrate their inability to fix Zimbabwe."
Mugabe has remained in power for 35 years because he was able to outwit and bamboozle his political opponent both inside his own party, Zanu PF and outside with easy. But the decades of mismanagement and corruption under his watch have taken their toll on the nation's economy and now it is in total meltdown.
Mugabe has since the July 2013 rigged election found he cannot rig economic recovery. And it is the economy that is going, one way or the other, force him to finally give up political power.
It is the "Economy stupid!" to borrow from former US President Bill Clinton, that is going to force regime change – the phrase Mugabe has dreaded and vowed will never ever happen in Zimbabwe in his life time.
Mugabe was sure that his ZimAsset economic recovery plan would delivery economic recovery, he was cock sure. But after a year since the July 2013 rigged elections of grovelling and begging he still had nothing to show for it; the empty ZimAsset begging bowl was beginning to mock him, it was doing his head in.
So just to get some funding in the begging bowl Mugabe offered the Chinese and Russians deals they could not refuse. The details of the Chinese $4 billion power generation projects deals are not known but Chinese has also kept its major player position in the looting and plunder of Marange diamonds.
The Marange diamonds have been valued at $ 800 billion. Partnership Africa Canada said Mugabe got a staggering $ 2 billion for his share of the loot in 2012 alone. The GNU collected $ 400 million in taxes from Marange in 2013 when more than twice was expected. The tax remittances have since dropped to zero.
The Russian deal included them getting in on the action in Marange. They also signed a $4.8 billion platinum mining deal and it has since emerged that they too will be paying not a dollar in taxes for the first five years, at least, of operation.
What is happening in Marange is looting plain and simple and now the same is going to happen with the platinum mining in this Russian deal. This is state sanctioned looting and criminal waste!
If Mugabe thought the Chinese and Russian deals would open the floodgate to more investors, he has been disappointed. Not even the Chinese and Russians have offered another dollar. What Mugabe wanted most was for the $27 billion ZimAsset to be paid as budgetary support. He has failed to get a single dollar for that; the Chinese told him to his face they would not offer even a dollar because he "is a bad debtor"!
With budgetary support Mugabe knows that his ZimAsset plan is dead in the water. Mugabe has nothing else to stop Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and hence all the company closures and mounting unemployment figures. The few remaining companies will close and soon even the vendors will not be able to eke a living because vendors sell mostly to those in formal employment and not fellow vendors.
What Mugabe will have to accept is that he has nothing to offer to stop the total economic collapse and therefore he should step down now. The economic situation has reached the point when social unrest could happen with devastating consequences of which one thing will be certain, he will be swept aside Muammar Gaddafi style or worse!
Like it or not Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is economically, socially and politically unsustainable! We will have change the only question is whether it is going to be orderly evolutionary change, and time is fast running out for this; or else a revolutionary violent change. But change is as certain now as the sun rising tomorrow!
zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
"This, economists said yesterday means that poverty levels have reached "numbing levels", amid indications that the situation will worsen in 2015 and beyond, as President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF government continue to demonstrate their inability to fix Zimbabwe."
Mugabe has remained in power for 35 years because he was able to outwit and bamboozle his political opponent both inside his own party, Zanu PF and outside with easy. But the decades of mismanagement and corruption under his watch have taken their toll on the nation's economy and now it is in total meltdown.
Mugabe has since the July 2013 rigged election found he cannot rig economic recovery. And it is the economy that is going, one way or the other, force him to finally give up political power.
It is the "Economy stupid!" to borrow from former US President Bill Clinton, that is going to force regime change – the phrase Mugabe has dreaded and vowed will never ever happen in Zimbabwe in his life time.
Mugabe was sure that his ZimAsset economic recovery plan would delivery economic recovery, he was cock sure. But after a year since the July 2013 rigged elections of grovelling and begging he still had nothing to show for it; the empty ZimAsset begging bowl was beginning to mock him, it was doing his head in.
So just to get some funding in the begging bowl Mugabe offered the Chinese and Russians deals they could not refuse. The details of the Chinese $4 billion power generation projects deals are not known but Chinese has also kept its major player position in the looting and plunder of Marange diamonds.
The Russian deal included them getting in on the action in Marange. They also signed a $4.8 billion platinum mining deal and it has since emerged that they too will be paying not a dollar in taxes for the first five years, at least, of operation.
What is happening in Marange is looting plain and simple and now the same is going to happen with the platinum mining in this Russian deal. This is state sanctioned looting and criminal waste!
If Mugabe thought the Chinese and Russian deals would open the floodgate to more investors, he has been disappointed. Not even the Chinese and Russians have offered another dollar. What Mugabe wanted most was for the $27 billion ZimAsset to be paid as budgetary support. He has failed to get a single dollar for that; the Chinese told him to his face they would not offer even a dollar because he "is a bad debtor"!
With budgetary support Mugabe knows that his ZimAsset plan is dead in the water. Mugabe has nothing else to stop Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and hence all the company closures and mounting unemployment figures. The few remaining companies will close and soon even the vendors will not be able to eke a living because vendors sell mostly to those in formal employment and not fellow vendors.
What Mugabe will have to accept is that he has nothing to offer to stop the total economic collapse and therefore he should step down now. The economic situation has reached the point when social unrest could happen with devastating consequences of which one thing will be certain, he will be swept aside Muammar Gaddafi style or worse!
Like it or not Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is economically, socially and politically unsustainable! We will have change the only question is whether it is going to be orderly evolutionary change, and time is fast running out for this; or else a revolutionary violent change. But change is as certain now as the sun rising tomorrow!
zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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