neoliberalism and zim politics

                                                 

President R.G Mugabe and M.Tsvangirai

 Politicians deliberately pursue economic policies that meet their political interest and not the needs of the people. They are not ignorant of the correct policies, but deliberately ignore them because the correct economic policies would result in an inclusive economy; something which they fear most.

We have seen since independence in 1980 that there is always strong resistance by Zanu PF to the emergence of an empowered middle class and a strong black national bourgeoisie that is apolitical. We have seen how this political culture has created an uncompetitive economy underpinned by patronage and corruption.

Political authoritarianism and neoliberalism are responsible for many of the problems facing Zimbabwe, but they must be understood as intrinsically interconnected phenomena whose relationship has altered over time.

  The 1990s saw a relative unity between political authoritarianism and neoliberalism within the Zimbabwean state, with an IFI-designed Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) implemented using violence and political repression to crush internal dissent, precipitating a catastrophic economic decline which caused mass unemployment and poverty. 

 This period coincided with the rise of a labour and civil society opposition movement.  However, largely due to the rise of this political threat, the late 1990s saw the authoritarian state split from neoliberalism as it returned to an anti-imperialist rhetoric, focussing its attentions on rural land reform and a violent campaign against the MDC and its civil society allies. 

The regime’s inability to service its debt repayments resulted in economic sanctions and the removal of development aid and IFI loans, culminating in a huge loss of confidence in the Zimbabwean economy and a mass retreat by global capital (Chan 2012).  Yet again both political authoritarianism and neoliberalism were at work in Zimbabwe, but now the disciplinary neoliberalism of the IFIs, western governments and global capital was in force against the regime’s transgressions. 

 A truly progressive or ‘emancipatory’ struggle to end the poverty and repression engendered by political authoritarianism and neoliberalism must therefore aim to oppose both of these malignant forces.

did Zanu Pf ever care for the people

ZanuPf delegates

                          

Zimbabwe has long been considered a country in crisis.  It stands at 173 out of 187 on the Human Development Index (UNDP 2011), and the social, economic and political rights of its population have been repeatedly disregarded.  Zimbabwe’s entrenched economic crisis saw inflation peak at 231 million per cent in 2008; poverty is endemic and approximately 3 million people, or a quarter of the population, have emigrated abroad (Matombo and Sachikonye 2010).

 Attributing the blame for this situation and understanding how such a crisis arose is a complex task worthy of considerable analysis in its own right, but for the sake of this dissertation two concepts will be utilised as representing a duo of malignant forces largely responsible for the problems facing ordinary Zimbabweans.

With all that having been said the issues that then is always debated is that has ZANU-PF, being the ruling party since indepence ever cared for the people.MAY I assure you that my government is determined to bring about meaningful change to the lives of the majority of the people in the country? But I must ask you to be patient and allow my government time to organise programmes that will effectively yield that change.”, has this assurance they made years ago been completed.

Mugabe’s words, then received with pomp and fanfare, gave much promise to a people that had suffered more than a century of ghastly social and economic inequalities.

So refreshing were the words that the war-weary Zimbabweans could not but just throw themselves into months of wild celebrations.

 Unemployment is hovering above 80% while many companies continue to close shops. The country is faced with a severe cash squeeze, over 80% of the people are living on below $2 a day which, according to the United Nations standards, are judged to be living in abject poverty.

Unemployment and politicians take

                                    

unemployed youth in zimbabwe

  The excellent and important New Zimbabwe.com platform has been turned into a place of exchanging insults and other obscenities that do not help in the process to imagining a better Zimbabwe. The other unintended consequence of this type of approach to the political discourse on Zimbabwe is that as a people, we miss engagement with the big picture of the context within which the Zimbabwe question features. It would seem even those who claim to present academic analysis remain locked in inflexible partisan orientation that make them fail to provide refreshing analysis of the core problems haunting our beautiful nation.
All these disputes are centered around who is getting in power and who is having the highest ranking of votes the decisions politicians are driving forward are all about consolidating their power more than the sustainability of those who place them in power in the first place.

The youth of the country constitute to about 60% of the electorate and they are having employment challenges.The Zimbabwean economy continues to grow at a painfully slow rate. Things have gotten better in the country but people continue to struggle for a decent living. Wages and salaries continue to be stagnant and despite the cries from the people salary raises continue to be a pipedream. The President has on many occasions called for all our foreign graduates to come home and contribute to the building of our economy and resuscitating our country’s fortunes.

 Locally we have thousands graduating from high schools and universities and already the country cannot support all these graduates and apart from all those foreign graduates the president is calling on, we have thousands more from his Presidential scholarship from all the major universities in South Africa coming back as well to scavenge for the little resources that are already exhausted. I wonder where the learned President of the Republic of Zimbabwe wants all those professionals earning a decent living overseas, want to put them when the local professionals here have nothing. Does he want them to contribute to the unemployment rate. There is need for him to create job opportunities for us here in Zimbabwe before calling on all those foreign graduates. As a graduate myself who is unemployed I believe the president should work on making me and the rest of the other graduates happy by giving us jobs.

factionalism is it the real issue that needs attention

                          

Since 1980 independence from Britain, he is accused of masterminding massacres of opposition supporters in western Zimbabwe and post-2000, of violence against the new opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change. 

Many in Africa laud him for taking land from more than 3,000 white farmers for resettlement, a move which bankrupted the economy. Defeated in elections in 2008, he went into a unity government but won handsomely in disputed polls last year. 

Recently the issue has to factionalism as the main driving force of dis unity in the political arena and influencing the economic outcome of the country as well.

 Zimbabwe, the public health system is the largest provider of health-care services, complemented by Mission hospitals and health care delivered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In recent years, economic decline and political instability have led to a reduction in health-care budgets, affecting provision at all levels. In the past five years, the country’s poorest have suffered the most, with a 40 per cent drop in health- care coverage (1).  Chronic malnutrition limits the life prospects of more than one third of the country’s children (2).  Zimbabweans continue to experience a heavy burden of disease dominated by preventable diseases such as HIV infection and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other vaccines.

 A lack of trained medical staff remains a significant problem. Many health professionals have left the country to find better salaries and working conditions elsewhere.

prepaid water meters

                                                    


Confusion surrounds the issue of prepaid water meters with authorities at Harare’s Town House issuing conflicting statements on the council’s exact position.

Harare Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni insists that there should be wide consultation before implementation of the proposed metering system, adding that council has not yet reached a decision.

Earlier in March, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) upped its fight against prepaid water meters by coming up with a position paper outlining its research findings on the controversial gadgets.

The organisation found that the prepaid system was at odds with Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and cultural context and would be problematic as the gadgets would lead to an affront on the right to water, particularly for poor people who would not always be able to purchase water before they access it.


Studies on introduction of prepaid meters in southern Africa indicate that they are often introduced as a panacea to problems of water management such as failure to administer free water, failure to recover costs or debts and failure to control water consumption and wastage.

They are often viewed as a magic bullet for such problems as they can be programmed to disperse a certain amount of free water each month and can be calibrated to deduct a certain percentage of payments made to recover debts, while they also offer an incentive for people to pay up and use water sparingly.

 In recent years, Africa’s economic growth rates have averaged around 5.2% per annum, making the continent one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Coupled with high population growth, urbanisation and changing lifestyles, the demand for natural resources especially water continues to increase rapidly on the continent with no signs that both growth and demand will slow down any time soon. This highlights an urgent need for water utilities to broaden and expand their infrastructure. At the same time, water as a sector is difficult to manage because conflicting industries are vying for the slice of this liquid pie.”

The issue of water problems is a continental issue bit the citizens of Zimbabwe lack trust in thier gorvenment to fully implememt a proper working prepaid water meter programm.

sanitary issues in zimbabwe vs corruption

children playing at a dumpsite in harare

borehole in bulawayo

  

Zimbabwe, with rich farmland and natural resources including gold and diamonds, should be a middle-income country. But its resources are controlled by a tiny elite, and President Robert Mugabe continues to battle with Western governments and foreign investors, deterring the trade and investment that the country badly needs.

Until the late 1980s, the government supplied safe drinking water to 85 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population. But decades of neglect and corruption have left the pipes dry, forcing many people to drink contaminated water. A cholera epidemic here in 2008 killed more than 4,000 people and sickened another 100,000.

Last year, a report by Human Rights Watch warned that Zimbabwe is at risk of another cholera outbreak because of the continuing shortages of clean water. Since then, little has been done to fix the water shortages, despite government pledges, residents say. “We only see the politicians when they’re campaigning,” said Mr. Gumboreshumba.

A bitter split in Zimbabwe’s ruling party is the latest distraction from the promises. Grace Mugabe, wife of the long-ruling Zimbabwean autocrat, has been relentlessly attacking the vice-president, Joice Mujuru, as a party congress approaches. For months, the country has been consumed by a power struggle over which faction will control the political succession when the 90-year-old President is gone.

politicians and gender based violence in zimbabwe

16 days of activism

                                        

  Arguments have arisen that the mis- representation or under representation of women in the media has lead to the trivialization of issues concerning women. Not long ago sanitary wear was made the joke of the day in parliament, questions then are posed to the politicians that if they fail to address such minor issues how are they tackling gender issues. the topic that is largely in debate is that of gender based violence.

While some activists who fight for women’s rights are calling for stiffer penalties on perpetrators of gender-based violence as a deterrent measure to ensure it is put to an end, activists standing for men’s rights argue domestic violence can only be nipped if there is dialogue between women’s groups and men’s groups to find lasting solutions to the scourge.

There is also a lot of concern that victims of gender-based violence sometimes have nowhere to run to as they find more vultures in institutions like churches where they are supposed to seek solace, but end up being abused by the men of cloth who are supposed to protect them.

Recent media reports were awash with stories of pastors who sexually assaulted their female congregates, sodomised boys or engaged in nefarious activities where, for example, one Kwekwe pastor was arrested after removing all his clothes during a court session and almost sexually abused a woman in front of the police.

Tendai Garwe, a communications officer with Women’s Trust said it was difficult to completely eradicate gender-based violence, but a lot could be done to nip it in the bud.

“What we can do as a nation is to first socialise our children to understand that they have to respect each other because if a child is a bully, they continue with such behaviour later in life. It is high time issues of rape and sex abuse are included in the school curriculum so that children know from a young age that if someone touches their private parts their rights would have been violated.