Mnangagwa barking up the wrong tree

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's first five-year term in office ends in a little less than two months, but his message against so-called "economic saboteurs" remains the same and one wonders if he really means what he says or it's just political banter.

Mnangagwa needs to be warned that today's electorate is more enlightened and won't take everything said by a politician, especially, at a campaign rally, hook, line and sinker.

Zimbabweans have walked along this path many times before and can tell the difference between politicking and sound policy pronouncement.

After taking over power via a coup in November 2017, the Zanu-PF leader has made it a point to denounce economic saboteurs at all public gatherings and threaten "stern action" instead of proffering solutions to the country's economic crisis.

But it would appear his statements are all froth and no beer, as we are yet to see the culprits jailed or their business licences cancelled.

As early as January 2018, his party set up an ad-hoc committee to deal with alleged wanton price increases for basic commodities as he warned "unscrupulous businesspeople" that government would "deal with them severely".

He even appointed his iron-fisted deputy Constantino Chiwenga to head the committee, but five years down the line, prices of most basic commodities have kept galloping, pushing the general population against the wall, while Mnangagwa promises to "deal with them severely."

Again, a few weeks ago, Cabinet came up with an inter-ministerial probe team to deal with the scourge, but it turned out the elephant in the room is not the business sector, but poor government policies.

On Saturday, the Zanu-PF leader was at it again, telling his party supporters at a campaign rally in Bulilima, Matebeleland South province, that "just when we announced that we were going for a general election, our enemies decided to cause problems among our people, and prices started going up at companies such as Innscor."

He added: "I have been told today that some Indians in Harare are stocking (up) basic goods in Harare. They buy a lot of sugar from Chiredzi, all the basic goods like flour and so on, and stock in their warehouses to raise prices." Really!

A government commission last month pointed the figure at the administration itself, but that's rather an inconvenient thing to say at a rally with the poll just eight weeks away.

We wouldn't be far off the mark to conclude that we will have more of this as the election campaign hots up, with his threats to unleash "stern measures" turning out to be a red herring.

If the President believes such uncouth business activity is happening right under his nose to derail the economy, then he must throw these unpatriotic business operators in jail and cancel their trading licenses.

If, indeed, these so-called economic saboteurs have the capacity to hold the economy at ransom as the nation is being made to believe, and government knows them, why has it taken Mnangagwa nearly six years to put one or two of them behind bars?

He who alleges has the burden of proof.