Opinion / Columnist
China was Mugabe's last chance to get ZimAsset funding he got nothing and now he MUST GO!
01 Sep 2014 at 20:45hrs | Views
"Enda udzoke!" in Shona, "Hamba epunduke!" in Ndebele or "Go but you will be back!" the nation told Mugabe before he set off to China! Many of us viewed it just as a time wasting gimmick and it has turned out to be just that – a waste of time.
Mugabe has been kicking Zimbabwe's serious economic meltdown like a tin can down the road ever since the rigged July 2013 elections. His five-year $27 billion flagship economic recovery plan, ZimAsset, has not taken off for lack of funds as exemplified by the mockingly empty ZimAsset begging bowl a year into the implementation phase! Not even his old friends the Chinese have contributed one a dollar with which to rattle the bowl after a year of frantic begging. The trip to China was to afford Mugabe a chance to have some serious begging and grovelling; he took with him some kneeling pads (or else his knees would have been marked like a goat's knees).
Mugabe's 24 August 2014 trip to China had the this-is-the-final-throw-of-the-dice, the now-or-never, feel; he desperately needed to collect some start-up money in his ZimAsset bowl. As far as the nation was concerned; Mugabe had wasted a whole year kicking the can down the road without delivering on the economic recovery he had promised during the election. The economy has been in decline and the nation was growing inpatient hence "enda udzoke"!
Mugabe has been to China and now he is back; sadly for him he came back with not a dollar in his ZimAsset begging bowl!
"We went to China firstly, to cement the relationship that we built during our liberation struggle and on that basis to seek cooperation from the people of China, their support as we move ahead especially with our new socio-economic programme, which we call Zim-Asset," President Mugabe told the nation.
"President Xi Jinping said China will continue to stand by us and continue to be as friendly to us as it was before –that the support we have asked for in various areas – area by area China will provide to the best of its ability."
China has pledged $2 billion for the Gwayi Power Project as distinct from dropping it into the ZimAsset bowl for the Zimbabwe government to spend as it pleased, point number one. The regime is so cash strapped it would have wanted cash to pay for immediate needs like civil servant salaries.
The second point, and most important of all, the trip has done nothing to address the key fundamental problems of corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the economic meltdown. So there is not going to be a flood of more ZimAsset funding or the much needed new investments.
In short Mugabe's trip to China has not changed absolutely nothing; the country's economic meltdown will continue with its nose dive as if the trip never happened.
"They condemned the sanctions, meaningless, illegal sanctions that have been imposed by the Europeans and Americans and say this is not the policy of China," Mugabe continued in his report back after the trip. The Chinese must have cringed when Mugabe talked about the sanctions because they would not have missed that he was having a dig at them.
When the West imposed the sanctions Mugabe announce his "look east" policy and made a big song and dance about it. So is he now admitting that his "look east" policy was ill advised as the Zimbabwe economy has gone on to collapse regardless. In other words trading with the Chinese was in fact a poor substitute to trading with the hated "imperialist West". Well that was one sure way of making his Chinese host feel wanted and appreciated and that cemented "the relationship that we built during our liberation struggle" guaranteed!
The truth is Zimbabwe's economy was doomed to fail because no economy on earth can survive the criminal waste of human and material resources that the Zimbabwe economy has been subjected to these last 34 years. The Chinese have been generous to Zimbabwe (they have milked the nation in return of course) but their generosity does not go so far as bankrolling Mugabe's $27 billion. They are smart enough to know he would back asking for more because corrupt and wasteful regimes like Mugabe's need friends with limitless supply of cash.
The Chinese knows the Mugabe regime is one of the most corrupt and wasteful regimes on earth and there was no way they were going to bankroll Mugabe's $27 billion ZimAsset. No way! Any hope that China will give Zimbabwe even more financial assistance beyond the $2 billion for Gwayi Power Project is a myth!
Mugabe has failed to rig economic recovery and the token funding from the Chinese is not going to stop the economic meltdown in anyway.
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats believe the only realistic solution here is for President Mugabe to step down so the democratic reforms that should have been implemented during the GNU can finally be implemented and free, fair and credible elections held. Only a legitimate government with the electoral mandate will have the power and authority to address the core economic problems behind the economic meltdown. Such a government will also have the confidence and support of the donors and investors required to get recovery funding and the direct investment.
The country's economic meltdown is causing serious economic hardships on our people; this cannot go on much longer. Zimbabwe is sitting on ticking social and health time-bombs resulting from economic meltdown; we call up President Mugabe to step down now before the bombs go off and overwhelm us all with the resulted consequences.
Since his return from China empty handed, President Mugabe must now accept that his ZimAsset programme is died and so too is all hope for him hang on to power. He must step down or he will be kicked out of office!
- zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Mugabe has been kicking Zimbabwe's serious economic meltdown like a tin can down the road ever since the rigged July 2013 elections. His five-year $27 billion flagship economic recovery plan, ZimAsset, has not taken off for lack of funds as exemplified by the mockingly empty ZimAsset begging bowl a year into the implementation phase! Not even his old friends the Chinese have contributed one a dollar with which to rattle the bowl after a year of frantic begging. The trip to China was to afford Mugabe a chance to have some serious begging and grovelling; he took with him some kneeling pads (or else his knees would have been marked like a goat's knees).
Mugabe's 24 August 2014 trip to China had the this-is-the-final-throw-of-the-dice, the now-or-never, feel; he desperately needed to collect some start-up money in his ZimAsset bowl. As far as the nation was concerned; Mugabe had wasted a whole year kicking the can down the road without delivering on the economic recovery he had promised during the election. The economy has been in decline and the nation was growing inpatient hence "enda udzoke"!
Mugabe has been to China and now he is back; sadly for him he came back with not a dollar in his ZimAsset begging bowl!
"We went to China firstly, to cement the relationship that we built during our liberation struggle and on that basis to seek cooperation from the people of China, their support as we move ahead especially with our new socio-economic programme, which we call Zim-Asset," President Mugabe told the nation.
"President Xi Jinping said China will continue to stand by us and continue to be as friendly to us as it was before –that the support we have asked for in various areas – area by area China will provide to the best of its ability."
China has pledged $2 billion for the Gwayi Power Project as distinct from dropping it into the ZimAsset bowl for the Zimbabwe government to spend as it pleased, point number one. The regime is so cash strapped it would have wanted cash to pay for immediate needs like civil servant salaries.
The second point, and most important of all, the trip has done nothing to address the key fundamental problems of corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the economic meltdown. So there is not going to be a flood of more ZimAsset funding or the much needed new investments.
In short Mugabe's trip to China has not changed absolutely nothing; the country's economic meltdown will continue with its nose dive as if the trip never happened.
"They condemned the sanctions, meaningless, illegal sanctions that have been imposed by the Europeans and Americans and say this is not the policy of China," Mugabe continued in his report back after the trip. The Chinese must have cringed when Mugabe talked about the sanctions because they would not have missed that he was having a dig at them.
When the West imposed the sanctions Mugabe announce his "look east" policy and made a big song and dance about it. So is he now admitting that his "look east" policy was ill advised as the Zimbabwe economy has gone on to collapse regardless. In other words trading with the Chinese was in fact a poor substitute to trading with the hated "imperialist West". Well that was one sure way of making his Chinese host feel wanted and appreciated and that cemented "the relationship that we built during our liberation struggle" guaranteed!
The truth is Zimbabwe's economy was doomed to fail because no economy on earth can survive the criminal waste of human and material resources that the Zimbabwe economy has been subjected to these last 34 years. The Chinese have been generous to Zimbabwe (they have milked the nation in return of course) but their generosity does not go so far as bankrolling Mugabe's $27 billion. They are smart enough to know he would back asking for more because corrupt and wasteful regimes like Mugabe's need friends with limitless supply of cash.
The Chinese knows the Mugabe regime is one of the most corrupt and wasteful regimes on earth and there was no way they were going to bankroll Mugabe's $27 billion ZimAsset. No way! Any hope that China will give Zimbabwe even more financial assistance beyond the $2 billion for Gwayi Power Project is a myth!
Mugabe has failed to rig economic recovery and the token funding from the Chinese is not going to stop the economic meltdown in anyway.
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats believe the only realistic solution here is for President Mugabe to step down so the democratic reforms that should have been implemented during the GNU can finally be implemented and free, fair and credible elections held. Only a legitimate government with the electoral mandate will have the power and authority to address the core economic problems behind the economic meltdown. Such a government will also have the confidence and support of the donors and investors required to get recovery funding and the direct investment.
The country's economic meltdown is causing serious economic hardships on our people; this cannot go on much longer. Zimbabwe is sitting on ticking social and health time-bombs resulting from economic meltdown; we call up President Mugabe to step down now before the bombs go off and overwhelm us all with the resulted consequences.
Since his return from China empty handed, President Mugabe must now accept that his ZimAsset programme is died and so too is all hope for him hang on to power. He must step down or he will be kicked out of office!
- zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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