The Zimbabwe government has, for the past three years, been banking on positive economic growth figures in trying to convince the nation that the country was developing.
Indeed, under normal circumstances, such numbers as 8.5 percent (2021), 3.4 percent (2022), and a projected 3.8 for this year are quite commendable.
At the present moment the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is estimated to stand at US$29 billion – a marginal improvement from the US$28.37 billion for the previous year, and US$21.51 billion in 2020.
In fact, this is where the entire ‘upper middle-income economy by 2030’ vision is premised.
This is an economic classification, defined by the World Bank as having a GNI (Gross National Income) between USS$4,046 and US$12,535 per capita.
In Zimbabwe, the GNI per capita currently sits at US$1,530 – making it a lower middle-income economy.
However, with such seemingly positive figures, clearly moving in the right trajectory – why are the people of Zimbabwe still suffering and languishing in poverty?
In fact, according to the UN, half the population lives in extreme poverty (earning less than US$1.90 a day), whilst an estimated three quarters of the workforce are living below the poverty datum line (now placed at ZW$1,150,000 a month).
This is further exacerbated by a freefalling exchange rate – with ZW$7,500 buying only US$1 (on the parallel market), as well as an equally shocking official ZW$4,860 to the greenback.
The rabid exchange rate is largely attributed to the Mnangagwa government’s printing of unsustainably high quantities of Zim dollars – which are allegedly being directly channelled onto the ‘black market’ by the RBZ to buy as much hard currency as possible.
The situation has become worse as Zimbabwe head towards the 23rd August 2023 harmonized elections – whereby the ZANU PF regime needs the money to finance its projects for campaigning purposes.
Be that as it may, why then is this supposed economic growth not translating into a better and higher standard of living for the ordinary citizenry?
The answer is shockingly simple and straightforward.
Looting, looting, looting!
It does not mean anything if a country makes billions upon billions of dollars from its resources – yet, most of that money never reaching the people on the ground.
This is the same as a father who earns thousands of US dollars a month – but opts to spend that cash on merry making, drinking, and his own pleasures – whilst completely disregarding his family.
At the end of the day, his children will still go to bed hungry, not attend school, have no decent clothing, and fail to access even the most basic of health care when necessary.
In other words, all those thousands of dollars subsequently mean absolutely nothing to the man’s family.
This is exactly what is happening in Zimbabwe.
The country boasts more than 60 types of minerals, with about 40 already being mined.
At least 4,000 gold mines dot the country – along with platinum, chrome, coal, diamonds, and more.
Zimbabwe also holds some of the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium deposits.
In fact, this year alone, the country expects its mining industry to reach the US$12 billion mark.
Nonetheless, each year, Zimbabwe is prejudiced over US$2 billion of this potential revenue through smuggling.
Similarly, US$3 billion is lost via illicit cross-border financial transactions, with half the value of our GDP to corrupt economic activities annually.
Who can quickly forget the stunning revelations in the Al Jazeera documentary, Gold Mafia?
Most of us are still haunted by statements made by Ambassador-at-Large Uebert Angel and his sidekick Rikki Doolan – freely and proudly narrated how they could easily facilitate money laundering at a grand scale?
In the process, they also implicated the head of state, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa – a claim repeated by another notorious gold smuggler, Ewan Macmillian.
Therefore, with such incredibly massive amounts of money and resources being pillaged from our economy – what is left for the ordinary citizenry?
What is there for real development – where modern world-class roads are constructed – instead of merely and embarrassingly patching up and resurfacing those from the colonial era?
Where will the money come from for the procurement of adequate essential mediations and radiotherapy machines – whilst also building state-of-the-art hospitals?
How can the government afford to construct modern educational institutions – in a country where many rural children still learn in the open, whilst using bricks as desks, without any books?
Of course, there will always be enough to purchase a US$54 million presidential jet, as well as spending US$340 million on overpriced helicopters.
The Mnangagwa government will use whatever is remaining from the looting – which actually finds its way into state coffers – for doling out billions of US dollars in so-called ‘housing loans’ to already privileged cabinet ministers, their deputies, and now magistrates and judges.
In Zimbabwe, only the powerful matter – while millions of ordinary citizens count for naught.
Only those in power, and those closely aligned to them, are entitled to a comfortable life of opulence – yet over half the population languishing in extreme poverty.
Civil servants and pensioners are abandoned to suffer – as their salaries and pensions can not even afford a few loaves of bread a month.
I go even further.
Even if the country eventually attains the envisioned ‘upper middle-income economy by 2030’ – what will be there for the ordinary citizenry to cheer about?
As noted, Zimbabwe already earns enough to develop the nation and significantly uplift the standards of living of the majority.
If we had an honest, caring government, we need not wait for some lofty ‘upper middle-income economy’ status – some seven years in the future – to enjoy a good life.
We already have everything we need today.
Nevertheless, our resources are going into the pockets of, and only benefiting, those in power – at the expense of millions of Zimbabweans.
What will, then, change for the ordinary citizenry even when our GNI per capita increases to US$4,046 – the threshold for becoming an ‘upper middle-income economy’?
The answer is a troubling, NOTHING!
As a matter of fact, countries as Rwanda, Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal and Uganda are ‘lower middle-income economies’ – yet, their citizens enjoy a far much higher standard of living than those in Zimbabwe (which is supposedly in the same economic classification).
They are not waiting for a dream of an ‘upper middle-income economy’ for them to live in dignity.
If the Mnangagwa administration can not be faithful with the little, how can they be trusted with plenty?
What a bigger economy only means is more money and resources for the powerful and ruling elite to plunder!
The people of Zimbabwe will remain stuck in their impoverishment – with our rural folks still dancing and ululating for handouts and free agricultural inputs – continuing as poverty-stricken subsistence farmers.
For the ordinary man, woman, and child on the street, all those figures of economic growth – of which the Mnangagwa regime loves throwing around – mean absolutely zero!
Is there any wonder we are ranked amongst the unhappiest people in the world?
Zimbabweans will continue wallowing in poverty even if the country becomes a ‘high income economy’.
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: http://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
