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Mugabe regime's madness indefensible
By
Mary
Revesai
IN HIS weekly
column in the Zimbabwe Independent issue of July 13-19, journalist
Joram Nyathi takes Zimbabwean "prophets of doom" including
the media, the business sector , opposition parties and civil society,
to task for rushing to condemn the on-going mayhem unleashed by the
Mugabe regime under the so-called Operation Slash Prices.
Nyathi complains: "The response to government's crackdown on business for hiking prices on basic foodstuffs last week was notoriously familiar: Hang Mugabe. The results were equally predictable: empty shelves and a burgeoning black market. Nobody was bothered that galloping prices were themselves stoking inflation faster than government spending and the printing of money by the Reserve Bank."
The respected journalist is concerned that no one in the media bothered to ask why business was "suddenly" in "this frenzied bout to increase prices as if acting in concert."
Nyathi talks as if the frenzied raising of prices only began in the past few weeks when in fact Zimbabweans have lived with the phenomenon for several years. As a result, millions of them who live below the poverty datum line can no longer afford to put food on the table, send their children to school and pay medical bills.
It is not clear to what extent the business sector went out of its way to "act in concert" this time around but it is generally true that when prices have gone up in tandem with galloping inflation, the prices of commodities have generally gone up by about the same margin. This is why Zimbabweans could no longer use their "buying power" to withhold their custom from any culprits guilty of overcharging. The business sector had been driven into one corner the same way pauperized Zimbabweans have been forced to flee to other countries without consciously acting in concert.
Through all this, the Mugabe regime remained unmoved. If the truth must be told, Mugabe sprang into the on-going madness because of predictions that escalating inflation would finally cause his downfall before the end of the year. It is no secret that after inflation hit the 4500 percent mark, the Central Statistical Office has not given further updates and has in fact announced that it is to revise its method of calculating the rate of inflation.
However, the blackout on inflation data does not mean things have improved or stabilised and the business sector could very well have been reacting to realities it was encountering on the ground.
In view of the fact that the on-going state-sanctioned pillaging has left supermarket shelves empty and many businesses unlikely to recover, I submit that the Mugabe regime deserves all the brickbats it is getting for this latest ill-considered and desperate populist perversity.
The people elect a government into office so that it leads and directs the country. It is supposed to lead the way in safeguarding and promoting stability through the observance of the rule of law and a humane and civilized culture of governance. This is the only way it can improve the quality of life for the whole population.
Alas, all these tenets of democratic governance are alien to the Harare regime. It is the mastermind of lawlessness in the country and is the main culprit in breaking national laws and conventions. Its delinquency and bullying tactics did not begin with the "price war." There have been so many other scorched earth policies and approaches in the past that stakeholders who remain alert enough to see through Zanu PF’s self-serving antics are to be applauded rather than disparaged.
Whenever the ruling party has embarked on a destructive action for the ostensible purpose of easing the plight of the ordinary people, it has always turned out to be a foolhardy subterfuge to save Mugabe's political skin and extend his despotic rule. Consider the long-standing onslaught against the media, civil society, the judiciary, lawyers, non-governmental organizations, teachers, students, and the opposition the list is endless.
It is instructive to recall how the regime sanctioned the anarchy sparked by the farm invasions. The still unresolved humanitarian crisis and mass suffering triggered by the sadistic destruction of abodes and informal trade infrastructure under Operation Murambatsvina does not portray a sensitive government that learns anything from past mistakes.
Nyathi complains: "For opposition parties, the price escalations were celebration time" because they demonstrated Zanu PF's failure to run the country and manage the economy. I am not aware of any opposition group celebrating the escalating cost of living. Instead I remember how leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were battered by the police in October last year when they tried to organize protest marches to highlight the deteriorating economic and social situation in the country that Mugabe is now belatedly trying to tackle by decree.
The opposition party, the business sector, civil society, the media all have their faults but the fact remains that it is the government of the day that has the responsibility and the means to implement national policies in an orderly manner.
Against this background it is difficult to understand the context in which Nyathi claims: "Nowhere was this soullessness more evident than in a labour based party failing to balance the interests of business with those of workers."
How, exactly was the opposition supposed to achieve this feat when it does not control the formulation and implementation of national policies? Such a scenario is even more difficult to imagine when it is an indisputable fact that the ruling party never listens and never takes advice from anybody.
It is true, as Nyathi says, that "a starving nation staring at well-stocked shops will likely be tempted to loot before any political considerations."
The nation has been starving for the last seven years since the Mugabe regime embarked on the systematic decimation of the agricultural sector through the violent and indiscriminate land seizures. In all that time, the proud and hard working ordinary people of Zimbabwe have never resorted to looting and neither has the opposition ever called for such action. The suffering masses have in fact watched helplessly as the ruling elite has plundered national resources through endless scandals and rackets that have all been swept under the carpet.
The on-going madness under the price war was engineered by Zanu PF. The Mugabe regime alone deserves condemnation for its irrationality. Everything in the country is being destroyed because of Mugabe's siege mentality and aberrations of foes lurking every where to effect regime change.
A government that preys on the desperation of its own people by embarking on a deceitful campaign to win their hearts and minds in the build-up to an election deserves to be censured by all right thinking people. More-so when it is the one that has in the first place created the dire economic conditions spawning world record inflation through corruption, pillaging and fiscal indiscipline for the benefit of those within the Zanu PF patronage network.
The July 16 issue of the state-controlled Herald quotes Mugabe as re-affirming the government's "commitment to fostering close and fruitful co-operation with well meaning partners from the private sector." This is vintage Mugabe. He never looks before he leaps and always adopts a topsy-turvy approach regardless of who has to pay the price.
A related story in the same issue informs readers that the government is still working on a pricing formula to be released to wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers!
The question to ask then is: why did the regime not do all this groundwork before plunging into the rash and arbitrary slashing of prices that has sparked economic anarchy nationwide? It is obvious that Mugabe has grown senile along with his regime and it can no longer be depended upon to meet even minimum standards of how a government should behave.
Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare. Her column will appear here every Tuesday
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