When the business sector supports a dictatorship

"There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. The innovator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old system and only lukewarm defenders by those who would gain by the new system" Niccolo Machiavelli November 1469 - October 1527).

Last week it was reported that the ZANU (PF) fundraiser dinner was oversubscribed by businesses and state enterprises where a platinum table fetched as much as $100,000. Now to put that into context, that is equivalent to ten years salary for an employee who earns $500 per month, or an annual salary for 10 employees. In addition, apparently gold was going for $50,000, silver for $30,000 and bronze for 10,000.

Now one can imagine what this means. All this money will be used for flights, accommodation, food and entertainment at the congress. It is a sheer waste of money in an economy that is at its knees and from companies that are struggling to survive under ZANU (PF) economic policies.

We have a very backward and weak business sector that is full of patronage and continues to mimic the culture of ZANU (PF). Predatory regimes survive through the support of a predatory coalition.  A predatory coalition is made up of cronies, parasites and boot lickers who prop up and support a dictatorship in the hope of personal benefit at the expense of national interest.

The challenge we face in Zimbabwe is the uprooting of patronage and corruption. We have seen in the past how business people can be marginalised and destroyed because they support the opposition. As a result of fear, we now have men dressed up in suits and driving expensive cars on pot holed roads who have to pretend all is well and must at the call by ZANU (PF) demonstrate their loyalty to a dictator lest they be purged. They have to do it to keep their jobs and become immoral through supporting the very system which is oppressing them.

Because our society has become selfish their choice is clear, they would rather protect their jobs and perks than sacrifice for the greater good.

This of course is also happening with the new churches that are now conduits for supporting the dictatorship. Those who go and pray there are going solely for their personal material well-being and aggrandisement. However, their donations are soon found in the purses of the system that has created the very conditions which are making them desperate and poor. The churches dare not upset this religious gravy train, for if they condemn the immoral and evil acts of the dictator, they shall soon be out of business.

So we now have an inherently evil system that feeds on the fear of citizens and survives not because it is doing any good, but because it has managed to nurture the culture of greed, selfishness, non-accountability and entitlement which has now permeated the whole society.

I always imagine where we would be as a country had this been the spirit during the armed struggle.  Imagine where we would be if we had all chosen to rather continue to support Ian Smith than fight colonialism because he provided the false comforts.
It fact the dictator continues to do all he can to provide the false comforts to his minions. Motor vehicles are given, contracts awarded and favours done to our business leaders that they too have become part of the problem. How wretched they are!

That is the sorry state of men in Zimbabwe who can really do nothing for us to change Zimbabwe and create the Zimbabwe we imagine. We therefore must never look up to them nor expect anything from them. They are weak compromised pretenders.
No doubt when change comes and we create economic freedom and free enterprise, they will be the first in the queue as beneficiaries and yet today they remain lukewarm to the very thought of change itself. The change we seek will not come from there and the sooner we appreciate that fact the better.

I want to end with another quote which I use often to remind is where we are. It was David Bloom who once said that "The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, which makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside".
Mugabe has been successful by removing the idea in most of our people and our business leaders that there is an outside much better and more fruitful than his rule. The sad reality is that this monumental lie has become the truth for many but only a few amongst us refuse to believe it.

God help us!

Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com