Mnangagwa needs to clean up government

WHILE South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has called for international sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted, it will have to come with strings attached.

If Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is serious about winning international goodwill he will need to take decisive steps against those who ordered the violent repression of protests, and move to open up Zimbabwe’s economy to competition.

Mnangagwa, who took over from Robert Mugabe in late 2017, initially made all the right noises but more than one year in the hot seat later and not much has changed in Zimbabwe. Some might say that things have gone from bad to worse.

Inflation stands at over 200% and the government-issued bond notes, derisively called “bollars”, are as good as useless while Zimbabweans have had to deal with all sorts of shortages.

A 150% increase in the price of fuel, which now makes it the highest in the world, was the last straw which prompted protests, marred by looting and the violent crackdown by Zimbabwe’s security apparatus in which an estimated 12 people were killed and thousands injured.

All this happened while Mnangagwa was out of the country on a two-week jaunt, which would have included a trip to the World Economic Forum where he was hoping to engage with potential investors to attract much-needed capital to Zimbabwe.

But instead of mingling with the world’s top brass at the fancy Klosters ski resort, Mnangagwa is back in Zimbabwe, not because he genuinely cares for the well-being of his citizens, but because he fears that elements in the Zimbabwe Defence Forces might have exploited his absence and the protests to stage a military coup.

Zimbabwe’s problems won’t be solved by more lines of credit – that will simply be placing a plaster on a festering sore. Mnangagwa has done nothing to sate the appetite of Zimbabwe’s notoriously rapacious elite who instead of growing the economy have looted, and divvied up the spoils amongst themselves, from the best farms taken under land expropriation to the diamond mines.

Before South Africa turns on the taps, we need to ensure that there are no leaky pipes along the network. That will be the best way to help Zimbabwe.