Challenging our prejudices: Can anything good ever come from Zimbabwe`s government?

 Munhumutapa Building with red roof: Flickr

The natural temptation when one thinks of Zimbabwe is to side with the common narratives that have been advanced in detailing the country`s fall from grace. A terminal free-fall that has seen economic growth stagnate even at a time when regional peers have been surging full steam ahead. Not only that, unemployment has shot up, infrastructure growth has been stunted, there have been massive levels of brain drain, and the economy is a pale, unimpressive shadow of what it once was - the “Jewel of Africa.” On the political front, developments have not been inspired confidence at all, from both those in power as well as those aspiring to hold power.

One can almost justify the cynicism most watchers of the Southern African country have developed over the years. In turn, their opinions shape the attitudes and outlook of everyday people who depend on these “educated opinions”. Given the foregoing, can one trust the opinions of the many “thought-leaders”, analysts and influential voices shaping dialogue and the perceptive of everything that is Zimbabwe? How objective and true are the numerous critiques of the economy and the prospects of the country? Could it be that we have inadvertently fallen into the trap of allowing dogma to reign over logic and reason?

Policies such as Command Agriculture, Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 (SI64), Bond Notes, the Movable Property Security Assets Bill and other like policies that the government has promoted have almost received instant criticism and public loathing, because after all, government has messed up so much for so long that nothing good can ever come out of it right? “Analysts” have tended to be a tad objective when critiquing government policy, the public, less so. To the extent that we have lost our ability to objectively grasp the core thrust of a policy initiative, free from our personal prejudices of proponents of the same, we risk depriving the country of a broader and all-inclusive platform for development. 

Take SI64 for example, though initially drawing the ire of the public, it has turned out to be an inspired move of sorts, with some key manufacturers benefitting from the resultant import restrictions. Consequently, local capacity utilisation in industries has improved with the banning of non-essential trinkets available locally, albeit at a cost to the consumer, given the high costs associated with production in Zimbabwe. Capacity utilisation is expected to close the year between 50% and 60% from a capacity utilisation of 47.4% recorded in 2016, which was a significant improvement from the 34.3% reported in 2015.

While there is merit for debate on the method of execution as well as the underpinning motive of these policies, and many such others, one cannot ignore in most cases, the vital necessity of such policy interventions. Instead of constructive discourse on the substance of government`s policy interventions, as a society, we have been all the more inclined to roundly criticising these, and in most circumstances without an adequately informed opinion, on the premise that nothing good can ever come from suits at Kaguvi Building. And of course this plays right into the hands of the “enemy” – read government, in a typical adversarial “us versus them” scenario.

This is by no means a popular opinion to be laying out. But pause and think about this for a moment. It could very well be that our collective hate, continued disappointment in government has blinded us so much, we have has relegated ourselves to being arm-chair critics, always offering a contrarian view toward government policy. Again, while this may satisfy our collective need to vent, and see the night off at the pubs, it does not enable constructive and objective dialogue, which dialogue is a crucial first step toward progress. And in cases where we are not bothered to even look at the facts and in so doing, pass off scrutiny of government policy to “thought leaders”, the narratives from these quarters are often one-sided and very predictable.

Let us take a moment to pause, understand the heart of a matter and engage in well-thought out and crucial conversations to move the nation forward. Easy as it may be to turn to the comfort of familiar routines of constantly bashing the government and criticising its policies with reckless abandon, there has to be an alternative. Yielding to the “better angels of our nature” as it were, through foregoing our natural biases and dogmas concerning government.