I have been following my favorite team, The Arsenal and it dawned on me, just like everything else you cannot win without the fundamentals.. The game against Manchester United showed that if you don't get the fundamentals of a balanced team right you concede two goals when you have just equalised and looking to take the lead. Today we have seen the fundamentals of a truly competitive squad being ignored and we have subs who come on and give a tepid performance. Now if these players understood that every game is a test, they would never have the word defeat on their mind. Everytime they put on the shirt they should be playing to impress.. too many coasters.
The same needs to be said of too many leaders on the African continent when it comes to the governance of their countries. I am no politician but what I have seen in my home of Zimbabwe is enough to make a young economist wonder what their intention is? Do people intentionally want to destroy the place of my youth? Are these leaders intentionally trying to show up each other and leave our children; their grandchildren destitute. My government have been experts at drafting sweet sounding policies only to forget the policy as soon as it is published.
The economy has essentially been stabilising over the last two years from the lows of hyperinflation. This is stabilisation process occurred not only because of government policy but because of private sector reorganising and producing. Now when stabilisation has been achieved, government is not making sense as to which way they will go forward to create growth... they promise funds for industrialists, agriculture, mining and don’t deliver. Even change promised is not available. I fear the opportunity at hand risks being lost if not taken up seriously.
I fear that many will look at my blog and think that I am just very negative, but I am not. I see potential, opportunity and all, I just hope that by highlighting these things you can see it too. The next Finance Minister (assuming Zim goes to elections this year) needs to make the next budget smart- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. The current wish list that we have does not assist government or the nation achieve growth. Stabilsiation of the Zim economy was easy, we have certain advantages that allowed stabilisation to be a breeze. Growth will be much more difficult.
Government Needs to make very harsh decisions that a National Unity Arrangement cannot deal with such as :
1. Rationalise the civil service
2. Remove non performing parastatals
3. Redirect national priorities to areas where we have competitive advantages
4. Develop competitive advantages in new areas.
For such changes to occur the correct mind set needs to be adopted of national service and excellence. The current leadership in this arrangement is focussed on undermining their competitors in a process meant to market themselves to the electorate. In simple terms- put mud on the opponent to look cleaner. This just makes the electorate apathetic to the entire body politic.
1. Rationalise the Civil Service- This is the very key if not the most important role. The civil service is currently a place for people to go where one cannot find other work, or one is able to get kickbacks or travel allowance to survive. The civil service has lost a lot of skills in the last ten years and those that remain are not motivated. As such for any policy to be effective these guys need to be efficient, effective and knowledgeable. In the current set up, they are not. In a well paying civil service even I would want to be one as there is no other satisfaction in serving your community and attaining a better future for all. By rationalising the service one could probably find out Zim could have substantial resources freed for projects and still afford to pay the civil servants well.
2. Remove non performing parastatals- Now I talked about it before, so I wont go into too much detail, but we need to remove the parastatals from draining the fiscus. Those that are not able to be self sustaining must close and be opened to private sector. A non performing telephone operator is better off closed than a drain on my tax dollars. My saving in tax dollars allows me to use more expensive cell phones- that is my thinking.
3. Redirect national priorities to areas where we have competitive advantages- In a country reorganising, we cannot continue to run the economy in the same inefficient way we did in the 1970s. We cannot subsidise inefficient corporations who continue overcharge the economy because the country protects them from competition. I am not advocating the destruction of industry as happened in Zambia, but we need business getting protection to give fair prices to the public or they lose their protection. Protection should only be given for limited time only so as to encourage development of industry but not the dependence on inefficient industry.
4. Develop competitive advantages in new areas- Government must always be on the lookout for new areas to develop competencies in. One area I can think of on the top of my head is in software development. We have many wiz kids developing amazing programs, but they are not able to monetize their talent because we go to large international companies for the service. Many Zimbos are now working around the world instead of in Zim as we have not expanded our capacities to absorb them.
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