Zimbabwe lacks foreign direct investment whilst leaders are obsessed with power

For how long are we going to remain in this jungle of toxic politics which have a negative impact on our economy? Honestly Zanu PF has a mountain to climb on the issue of our ailing economy when leaders are busy enjoying foreign trips when failing to repair the economy.

Zimbabwean leaders are obsessed with power struggles whilst the economy is dying. One would wonder what these leaders are up to instead of focusing on the livelihood of the poor; they are putting much energy in succession battles.

There are times when we need to put our minds and thoughts together to find ever-lasting solutions to the Zimbabwean crisis. Day in day out, leaders are busy fighting for political space.

I was just discussing with a prominent politician over the weekend and I made it clear to him that if leaders were to put much focus and energy towards re-building of the economy, this country could be somewhere.

For example Jonathan Moyo spends most of his time making twitter rants when most University students are dying of hunger country wide.

This is where we stand in this country. We have a real problem in this country and there is need for progressive leaders to come together and resolve our crisis.

If you look at our local and foreign investments they are very low. The little we have in our local coffers has been chewed and consumed by the foreign trips which are useless.

For example the Uruguay trip, it was not necessary for Mugabe to go he could have sent one of his deputies or minister in charge for healthy.

My question will then is how we deal with such issues when we have a dead industry. We don't have meaningful investments which can resuscitate this economy.

Dangotte came to Zimbabwe, but because of some critical matters he decided to lie low till our politics have normalized.

Dangotte invested in 21 countries excluding Zimbabwe, mainly because we have a political question which remain unanswered.

Dangotte earlier on indicated some conditions which the Zimbabwean Government failed to meet.

This country has high level of corruption, of which most elected officials in the Government have been fingered in most corrupt deals but nothing has happened to them.

The main reason why investors will never set their foot in this country, it is because we have a mafia Government which is running the economy in a Mafia way.

Most investors cited corruption as a major concern for avoiding Zimbabwe, lack of competence, human rights issues and Governance matters.

If you look at our economy, it is very dry and there are no major economic activities are taking place.

What are we going to do to correct the political and economic question? Recently there are some investors who came and they declined to invest because of the political challenges facing the country.

How then do we sustain the wage bill without proper investments in the country? Zambia recorded the highest investment in the region of about 2.5 billion, whilst Zimbabwe is focusing on fighting for presidency.

The demotion of Mugabe from the WHO top job was an embarrassing event for our country given the context that everyone was watching and this has repercussions for our ailing economy.

The outside world is not interested with us; we have nothing to offer to the international community, except insults.

Our politics is not polarized and we have nothing to offer. We have leaders who are obsessed with power.

Investors are not willing to come and they will never set their foot in our country until the political question has been resolved.

Zanu PF infighting has fractured our ailing economy, instead of finding ways to rebuild the battered image they are busy giving factional names.

How then do we develop our nation with such characters? The international community is closely monitoring our situation and it will be difficult to get a bail out from these foreign financial institutions because we still owe international creditors a lot of money.

Our foreign debt as at 2016 February stands at 7.6 billion, there was some rumors that Zimbabwe borrowed some substantial amount from the Government of South Africa, although it was not clear how much was borrowed but some financial analysts believe the bill could be around 10 billion.

As a development analyst I'm very disturbed that Zanu PF will splash 8 million on congress when our local hospitals have no drugs, medical doctors are getting insufficient salaries and the level of poverty has reached unprecedented crisis.

How can leaders who call themselves educated splashing 8 million on cars and ice-cream when more than 90 percent are failing to survive on decent meals.

Local and Foreign policy is very important and critical in national development. Our domestic policies do not look good and this is why no investor will ever set his foot in this country.

Mugabe gave Mzembi this critical ministry probably because of Mzembi's political inclination towards the outside world.

How can investors come when the Head of State Is busy sleeping in crucial meetings? Zimbabwe need to correct their stance on property rights, empowerment laws, investment laws, human rights issues, Governance issues, election matters and other institutional reforms.

Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo writes in his personal capacity as the Head of Southern Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (SIPAR TRUST) which is responsible for Policy analysis and Research. He is also an academic and Researcher. He can be contacted at southerninstitutepar@gmail.com