| The Kids and the Youths have Spoken |
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A Photo Essay by Cont Mhlanga
I want to share with you two photos that speak volumes of the failures of the current Presidium, Cabinet, the Minister of Finance and the Central Bank Governor and his team. In the first photo, kids have thrown Z$1 000.00 notes in a rubbish bin. Not only one note, but a bunch of one thousand dollar notes. Today in Zimbabwe you need sixty thousand dollars to buy a single sweet. If the Governor had not knocked off some zeros from his currency around this time last year you would need six million dollars to buy the same sweet and two billion dollars to buy two liters of cooking oil!
In the second picture the youths have decided to be creative with the notes since Zimbabwe has been turned into a country of shortages of almost everything except corruption. They have used the notes to design wall paper to decorate their bedroom.
Talent is sure everywhere in Zimbabwe except in governance! What else can you and I say about the country’s economy, currency and leadership. These youths and kids have spoken!
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr G.Gono goes down in the history books of this land as the only bank governor whose notes and signature is not worth to be in people’s bank accounts, houses or pockets, but in uncollected rubbish bins as you can see from the photos! Well with some notes, if it was food all Zimbabweans would have been poisoned to dearth as some notes that are in circulation expired as far back as July 2006 as legal tender. Talk of a lawless country!
If any one was in the shoes of those that are in the Presidium, Cabinet, Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the country, got such a statement from ordinary citizens and not the opposition, they would know that its time for serious inward soul searching regarding their efforts, policies and exit.
I would add on this statement and say that its high time the Presidium, Cabinet, Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank changed the way they look at the country’s crises and challenges. The way they look and define the nations challenges is based on falsehoods and for that reason intervention policies and programs will always have a false start.
Let me pull some jabs here! I am no Dr of anything more so economics. I never got more than 40% in any mathematics examination from Grade 3 till I left school and for this reason economics is not my cup of coffee. But when these Zimbabwean doctors and Professors of this and that speak of the 2008 farming season as ‘The Mother of All Farming Seasons’ that will feed the nation and turn around the economy fortunes of the country, I can only slum the newspaper in the rubbish bin nearest to me and scream ‘Its political theater again this season as always!’
How can normal people who live in Zimbabwe talk confidently of a mother of all farming seasons when there is no shop in Bulawayo or in any other city in the country that has any type of quality seeds on sale? The country is two weeks into the rainy season now. No seeds for any farmer no matter how small or how big! Even some unemployed school leavers hanging out at a community beer hall know what will become of Zimbabwe’s farming season next year and the food situation the way the agricultural circus is unfolding, except the Governor of the Reserve Bank, the Cabinet and the Presidium. For these educated elite, it will be mother of all farming seasons, even if there is no seeds in the country and farming factories and suppliers are closed for business. Which country do these leaders live in?
Could this be one of the many reasons why the Reserve Bank Governor has since pounced on all corporate and NGO’s FCA accounts since his last monetary statement? They now have to apply to him to spend their money and he has to give approval which most cases never comes! This is because his government is broke and his money no matter how much he can print, it can’t import seeds, fuel and energy as the photos tell that it is junk good for the rubbish bin or decoration materials for creative youths. So the solution is take money from those that have real money in their foreign currency accounts and derail further their company and organization’s operations so that they can incur further loses just after serious losses caused by the prize slash. Solving a problem by creating a bigger problem. If this is what being a Dr in Zimbabwe means, then Zimbabweans are better off with ought this title.
What ever statutory instrument you use to create polices that protect you to deep your hands and that of government into peoples bank accounts with ought the owner’s permission amounts to legalized theft! It is what our government and its parliament have perfected themselves in doing over the past seven years, creating laws to steal from its citizens and then creating other laws to silence and intimidate them.
Who says that banking is not but just a service to clients? What makes the Governor and his politicians think that his central bank and the banks in the country are immune to competition from other Central Banks and banks of the Sadc region and the world? Who says that Zimbabwe’s finance and banking industry cannot be affected by international modern banking trends that are tacking the world by storm? Do Zimbabwean banks exist in planet mars?
Who says that Zimbabwean citizens, companies and organizations should not move or bank their money where they can get best service in the Sadc region or else where in the world where they don’t have to write love letters to the Reserve Bank before they withdraw their money? It is their money and they have all the right to follow regional and international markets including those in the streets and houses of Zimbabwe as long as they offer the best product, prize and service! And Zimbabwean banks with their mother bank the Reserve Bank must be competitive enough, end of story or keep their rubbish rates and currency and their unrealistic prizes which are created from meat brai-party cabinets.
You can put your non market rates and commodity prizes and create all the laws you can dream of or put what ever polices you want and hire what ever number of journalist to amplify your falsehoods and craziness but you will never solve the nation’s challenges that way as nothing can beat quality product, service and affordable prize.
I was long convinced that Zimbabwe is run by Drunken Masters, very wise and knowledgeable people who are just power drunk. People who will find it right to make political and reckless decisions on anything even where its not called for. You can get drunk with all liquids and spirits at those private bars, but always remember that like God the market never gets drunk.
Cont Mhlanga |
