Nothing changes in Zanu-PF

To any right-thinking person, it would be foolish to expect President Emmerson Mnangagwa to fix Zimbabwe's broken economy in the few months he has been in the office.

That is totally impossible.

The 75-year-old politician inherited a bastardised economy, thanks to his 94-year-old predecessor Robert Mugabe's misrule, though he cannot be extricated from the complicity of Zimbabwe's demise as he was for long part of Mugabe's regime.

Mnangagwa faces a tough task - especially when many Zimbabweans perceive him and Mugabe as fruits from the same poisoned tree - of correcting his former principal's wrongs.

His leadership will be judged by his efficiency in cleaning Mugabe's 37-year-old mess.

But to achieve that, he must win back the long-lost trust and confidence of fed up, long-suffering Zimbabweans.

Zanu PF - Mugabe, Mnangagwa et al - are pathological, habitual liars.

The party has maintained a stranglehold on hapless Zimbabweans for 38 odd years making empty promises.

The party thrives on lies - it has made so many unfulfilled promises, especially toward elections.

Remember those ZimAsset promises made by the party in the run-up to the 2013 election.

They turned out to be high-sounding nothing.

Just as well, last weekend, former Finance minister Tendai Biti, reminded people in Murewa of those unfulfilled promises.

Though he is in opposition politics, and would naturally slam the ruling party, he is qualified to comment.

Through his People's Democratic Party, he said: "Infinite promises were made in a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the electorate into feeding Zanu PF's selfish power retention agenda."

"...these promises include the following: 2,2 million jobs in five years, an average of 440 00 jobs a year, economic growth rates of about nine percent per annum, 250 000, low cost houses, 310 new clinics and 300 new schools in five years, a new Parliament complex, 1 250 public buildings and houses refurbished, a shift from an extractive economy to value addition, dealing with corruption."

He said instead, the reality is that the economy is in turmoil and suffering serious stagnation, massive de-industrialisation, informalisation and a crippling cash liquidity crisis.

"As a result, negative growth rates have been recorded for the past four years, more than 8 000 companies have closed and over 100 000 individuals have lost their jobs," he went on.

This simply brings sad memories to many Zimbabweans, who are facing yet another election, but their lives remain unchanged. Zanu PF did not deliver.  They were empty promises.

But in this coming election, Mnangagwa and his administration must be true to the people.

He ought to deliver on every promise he has made.

The commitment to nab looters and corrupt officials, retirement of old civil servants, implement reforms and restructure non-performing State enterprises, among many promises he has made.

While achieving all that is quite a process that may require time, Mnangagwa must know that there were expectations by Zimbabweans, that required just making bold decisions, but he did not deliver.

One of them was addressing the cash crisis.

Against fierce resistance by Zimbabweans, who learnt the hard way during the 2007 bearer cheques fiasco, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya went on to introduce the bond notes - purported to be valued at par with the United States dollars.

That was before Mnangagwa took office. Over time, Zimbabweans were vindicated as the bond notes significantly lost value against the greenback.

When Mnangagwa came into the picture, the suffering masses expected him to scrap the bond notes to avoid further pain for the ordinary people.

This made them lose trust and confidence.  That alone, makes the people view Zanu PF as the same old lying power-hungry creature.