Time to build and buy Zimbabwe

Buy Zimbabwe commends Zimbabweans for turning up in their numbers and for voting peacefully in the just ended harmonised elections.

While we await details on the new Cabinet, expectations seem pretty obvious. Many are anxious to see the end of a cycle of poverty, a galloping import bill which has resulted in the collapse of industries, massive unemployment and a tight liquidity situation which has denied farmers and aspiring entrepreneurs of the much needed capital.

The overwhelming desire is for the new Government to prioritise wealth and employment creation to ensure that the many idle economic opportunities that are abundant in our country are unlocked for the benefit of all.

Now that elections are over there seems to be a shift from preoccupation with politics, which characterised the inclusive Government, to economics.

Companies that had shelved plans awaiting election results are now frantically polishing up their plans and rushing to implement their budgets. Others who had hidden behind the curtain of elections to cover up for their own shortcomings have now suddenly realised that elections are gone and yet they still require to retool and regain lost market share. The wait-and-see attitude has now been replaced by a need to focus on the fundamentals required for success.

Of course, some have also become merchants of doom seeking to use false and alarmist information to incite people to make Zimbabwe ungovernable so that they can benefit from the ensuing chaos. First was news that petrol prices had gone up. This was quickly found to be false with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority forced to make a statement to that effect.

Then came a strong rumour that went viral that the new Government was reintroducing the Zimbabwe dollar, which saw most depositors rushing to withdraw their savings from banks. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono had to move in fast to stem the tide by assuring the nation that there were no immediate plans to bring back the Zimbabwe dollar.

There was also panic on the stock exchange, which declined on Monday by 11 percent and 1,7 percent the day after. Next on the rumour mill was the imminent amendment of the Constitution by the new Zanu-PF majority. Once again, the party's spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, had to come through to allay fears, insisting that there were no such plans.

Authorities of various institutions have been smart to timeously dispel the swelling rumours, as they posed a real threat of diverting attention from key economic concerns of the average Zimbabwean.

Buy Zimbabwe hopes that the swiftness of these responses is an indicator that our national institutions have begun to pay particular attention to potential disruptive market activities and have realised the need for ushering an era of policy certainty.

All along industry has cited the lack of policy predictability as the single biggest challenge that they face in our country. We need to guard against such destructive speculation to avoid falling into the same pit as other countries around the world.

At their peak around 1997 the Asian Tigers, particularly Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, woke up to sudden movement of capital from their countries, following a similar wave of rumours that was driven by powerful speculators.

In a matter of days once thriving economies were on their knees as heavily financed projects collapsed, jobs were lost and foreign investors packed their bags and moneys were diverted elsewhere.

Malaysia learnt then that growth that is not anchored on a strong domestic sector and is driven largely by sentiment is not sustainable.

Zimbabwe and Africa must draw lessons from this experience and move swiftly not only to protect its capital markets from such vulnerabilities but always bear in mind that the local person must be given priority in all economic decisions.

The economic agenda that our new Government must tackle also remains unchanged.

Like President Mugabe said as he cast his vote, the priority must be to deepen the growth of the mining sector to ensure that it pulls up the manufacturing sector, which is presently on its knees.

Farmers must have access to affordable loans to ensure that all agricultural land is productively utilised.

To do so requires taking bold steps like our neighbours Mozambique who have had to ban second-hand tyre imports from South Africa following the realisation that not only were these imports causing carnage on their roads but they were doing little to promote employment in that country.

Each year close to a 1 000 deaths are said to occur on Mozambican roads with most of them attributed to defective second-hand tyre imports from South Africa.

Like Zimbabwe, Mozambique has had to utilise money that could have been productively spent in supporting key sectors of the economy in attending to completely avoidable accidents.

In our case, we have allowed companies such as Dunlop in Bulawayo to collapse while allowing second-hand tyre importers to have a free reign.

In the process, we have not only lost what we could have kept but have also seen an exponential rise in traffic accidents particularly during public holidays.

In the same way authorities have moved to swiftly counter unproductive rumours on the market, they must be equally decisive in implementing measures that not only save lives but also result in our tyre manufacturers getting back into production.

As we await the announcement of the new Cabinet, we are encouraged by the country's focus on economics. Naturally, we are concerned about the swelling rumours that may divert attention away from the real issues on the ground.

We look forward to a period in which information is used to create policy certainty.

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Feedback: email vandudzai@buyzimbabwe.org.zw, Cell: 00263773751878