Corruption has killed Zimbabwe's economy

Ongoing media exposures of the massive salaries drawn by parastatal bosses may have been welcomed by the public, but expectations that the government would act on corruption are fast fading – instead, the matter has fizzled out and become part of Zanu-PF's divisive battle on who will succeed President Robert Mugabe.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who leads one of the two factions in Zanu-PF that are battling to take over after Mugabe, this week suggested that the exposures that have become known as "salary-gate" could be the work of detractors bent on destroying the party from within.

Only the gullible will believe that what we are being shown in the State media is meant to clean the act. In reality, it only goes as far as confirming the fact that corruption killed Zimbabwe. And that at the centre of it all, sits Zanu PF, and its insatiable bigwigs who take and take without any shame and yet lie and lie with a straight face.

The corruption which has been confirmed today dates back to the early 90s when the economy slowly gave in to a huge government and unbridled expenditure.

It’s a fact that at independence in 1980, Zimbabwe spent a lot of money on health, education and various other sectors to bridge gaps created by an unfair and unjust system.

Spending on education rose from Z$227,6 million in 1979 to Z$628m in 1990 while health expenditure went up from Z$66,4m to Z$188,6m.

A huge public service sector, subsidies, the 10-year involvement in the Mozambican civil war from 1982 to 1992 and then subsequent drought years further debilitated the economy such that by the mid-90s prices had become unstable.

The budget operated on a deficit and taxes became high. This drove public debt higher. To recover lost economic growth, the government accepted the Enhanced Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) in 1991.

The programme that ended in 1995 meant that all subsidies had to go; public enterprises either be nationalised or privatised to enhance growth; streamline government by cutting down on expenditure.

Esap was supposed to be a short-term programme that would first snuff out some jobs in order to create more. But it did not work. The privatisation or nationalisation of public enterprises without better management led to further decline in productivity. Government did not reduce expenditure.

No jobs were created. And the deficit went further up. Instability chipped in. A few black businesspeople operating as advocates for black empowerment demanded their entitlements and government acknowledged them by giving contracts and concessional loans.

This further put pressure on government forcing it to borrow domestically thereby causing even more instability. Consumer prices skyrocketed.

Under Esap, government was also forced to fall into heavy debt and international donors refused to write off the debts because the Zimbabwean government had failed to honour its part of the deal.

After the failure of Esap, government cooked up the Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (Zimprest) in 1996. Zimprest was supposed to be implemented by government, business, labour and civil society through the National Economic Consultative Just like now when Zanu PF is trying to make people believe that it’s bent on cleaning up, the party used the targeted sanctions as a reason for the death of the economy. And we believed them.

What killed our economy and country is corruption. Sanctions were a diversionary tactic just like the stage-managed exposures are a diversionary tactic.