People must take back national agenda in 2016: Biti

PDP President Tendai Biti on Thursday urged Zimbabweans to create a new narrative in 2016 in order to avert an implosion that has been caused by Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.

Biti said this at a Sapes Policy Dialogue Forum in Harare where he shared the platform with renowned author and lawyer Petina Gappah and top academic Dr. Ibbo Mandaza. The debate titled: 'Review of 2015, Prospects of 2016, the Regional and Global Perspectives on Zimbabwe's Transition.'

Biti opened the discussion arguing that the year 2015 had seen the deepening of Zimbabwe's complex crisis which is charecterised by zero output, deindustrialisation, a shrinking revenue base, lack of competitiveness, huge current account deficits and negative gross capital accumulation. The result of this has been the worsening of the economic crisis into a fully fledged depression charecterised by high levels of poverty and lack of aggregate demand.

"The year 2015 has been an absolutely and thoroughly wasted year in virtually every corner of the society.  It has been an extremely challenging year with statistics and figures showing that we have been taken back to three decades ago," said Biti.

At the political level Biti submitted that Zimbabwe continued to spiral down the abyss as national politics was now charecterised by worsening levels of lethargic leadership which is shamelessly corrupt, hate driven and bellicose.

 "Zimbabwe is not far from the Rwanda genocide where one million people were killed as people used the language cockroach, which permeated the entire nation.  In present day Zimbabwe, this name calling and labeling has reached genocidal levels and is done deliberately, with people like Jonathan Moyo on Twitter being the messenger and disciple of this hatred," said Biti.

Getting back to the economy, which he flagged out as one of the fundamental spheres of our national crisis, Biti bemoaned the lack of will and craft competence within the corridors of state power in addressing the national crisis. He submitted that the Lima Agreement, which Zimbabwe entered into with its main creditors, the IMF, World Bank and AfDB, was meaningless as long as relevant reforms we not implemented.

Critical reforms must be implemented at the economic structural level and the political level and these include fiscal discipline, auditing of the public debt, and the civil service reform by flushing out ghost workers, rationalising government spending as well as democratizing the political playing field.

 "We are in an economic recession.  The minister of finance, Patrick Chinamasa is in denial.  Next year without doubt the GDP growth rate will be minus 3.8% despite Chinamasa claiming that it will grow by 2%.  At least 91% of the people are unemployed and are in the informal sector.  From September this year, 40 000 people lost their jobs following the Supreme Court ruling and companies are closing.  There is currency volatility.  The people have no money at all," Biti said.

Biti went on to explain that Zimbabwe was now effectively in a depression, which will take as much as 15 years before it comes to an end if drastic measures are taken. Among these measures are public sector investment, currency reform, reduction of interest rates, curbing corruption, establishing a lean government, plugging revenue leakages and reviving the social contract to increase citizen participation and ownership of the processes.

Turning to projections for 2016, Biti posited that the outlook period will see the current economic crisis "deepening". Thus in 2016 economic growth rates will remain below minus 3.5% because of the country's structural challenges of power (electricity), the El Nino induced drought, the collapsing international commodity prices, absence of meaningful foreign direct investment because of political instability and continued company closures.

 This economic implosion will not be made better by the political instability in government and the ruling party which will certainly escalate in 2016 as the race to succeed ailing President Mugabe hots up.

However, Biti implored that the people of Zimbabwe must be take the agenda of arresting the national crisis into their hands and come together to resist manmade poverty, suffering, hunger and squalor.

 "It is key is that the people should take back their agenda and seize to be innocent bystanders.  Zanu PF cannot have its cake and eat it.  Zanu PF must be pushed to implement reforms such as the public sector reform where there are 200 000 ghost workers on the payroll, electoral reforms, repealing of the Indigenisation Act, enactment the Diamond Act and put an end to the land by giving some security of tenure to the landholders" said Biti.

In his conclusion Biti implored that given the complex nature of zimbabwe's socio-economic and political crisis Zimbabweans need to work towards national convergence in 2016 and push for the National Transitional Authority (NTA).

In making the case for the NTA, Biti pointed out that the prevailing situation on the ground was creating ‘an implosion' which would push the country into widespread chaos and anarchy. In order to avert this and steer economic revival that would put an end to more than three decades of impoverishment and violence there was need for the NTA.

He said the NTA will among other things manage the transition period and will implement an emergency economic recovery plan, harmonise the country's laws to the Constitution, restoration of the social contract, ensure that there is peace in the country and that there are conditions for holding free and fair elections.