Command Agriculture promises to be an unparalleled success
Nick Mangwana View from Diaspora—
THE by-elections in Zimbabwe have come and gone. All, but one of the 30 odd elections have been won by Zanu-PF. A lot of chest puffin, political grandiosity with the accompanying ego-stroking superlatives have been thrown round. Surely, why not? It has been hard earned. Since we only have Mwenezi East coming (unless we have another untimely death) why don’t we stop for a moment, and use this election hiatus to tell each other some hard to swallow home truths? The first one being; Let us think about the economy.
Those that define things say that, government failure refers to when the government intervenes to fix a problem, but end up creating more problems. These problems in turn distorts the market and damages social functions. Are we there yet?
While some of Government’s interventions in the economy have not borne fruit yet, there are exceptions like Command Agriculture, which so far has borne fruit and promises to be an unparalleled success. There is also STEM which is noble and one hopes will bear fruits as well. Of course, the Land Reform programme is part of this success story regardless of the very painful birth pangs. Everyone agrees this was a meritorious effort.
Someone would completely disagree by arguing that if this assessment of successes and failures was correct then how come Zanu-PF continues to win elections?
Let us not be so superficial in a situation where the people are going through challenges. That does not help the party and does not help the country. They say the biggest lie one can ever tell, is the one they tell themselves and believe it. If we think this doesn’t apply here, then it’s fine. But let’s just give it a thought.
Success of a political party is not just about winning elections. The measure of the success of a political party or system is the well-being of the whole society and the quality of life of the citizenry. It means that it is not all about electoral arithmetic. That is the very easy part. The economy is the difficult part.
When we to look closely at our economy, we have to concede that, there is a need for a deeper economic shift otherwise we blight the prospects of current and future generations.
This scenario where people in employment say to those without jobs that they don’t really have to get formal work, but to open small businesses is not only hypocritical, it also condescending. Why is it that, most vocal advocates for the informalisation of the economy are those in formal jobs?
If a job is not important and selling trinkets is great, why don’t you quit yours and make your living out of trinkets?
It is time that we notice that a lot of the people that we call self-employed are transitory emigrants. They go to neighbouring countries, do what they have to do and come back and sell their wares.
This is their life. But they leave money outside.
Giving people the means of production such as the land was empowering. The positives are there for all to see. But what programmes do we have for the maximisation of wealth to the rural farmer? We all know that once they harvest, trucks will be trekking down the countryside buying their grain for a pittance. We have seen grain being exchanged for a bar of soap, a packet of sugar and the like. And of course for some quick cash at an impoverishing discount. With the expected bumper harvest, it is not the peasant that may make money. It may be the middleman. The grain broker who is holding some hard to come by cash. The liquidity challenges are making this a sad reality. Let’s think about this because when the harvest is done the common person may have nothing to show for their labour.
If only these enterprising, but unscrupulous middlemen would form the middle class. But they won’t. They are just seasonal dealers. The middle class is in the Diaspora. We are uncomfortable with it because Middle Class is a universal, indomitable agent for social transformation. And we don’t want the pressure to transform.
Granted probably, the middle class might not vote that much, but surely they are the drivers of the economy. If we don’t make a serious effort to involve them, we will drift in banality forever.
Our economic system will need to be balanced. Remember a distorted economy is one that does not work according to proven (text book) economic models. The problems we have in the RTGs is a good example. But that is not all.
We have an economy where the bulk of the population is some kind of entrepreneur. There is a role for small businesses; there is a role for conglomerates and a role for medium enterprises. Entrepreneurship is a talent. Forcing it out on someone is like trying to make a wool suit out of cotton lint. It doesn’t work.
Our economy is currently based on selling primary goods. We farm tobacco; we sell it as it is. We mine our minerals; we sell them as they are. We harvest our wood; we sell the timber and never the furniture.
You say, but we have a Cluster for Value-Addition and Beneficiation in the Zim-Asset blueprint!
Well, come October, Zim-Asset will be four years old. Just a year to go. What have we achieved in that noble endeavour? Commercial mining started in Zimbabwe around 1888 soon after the Royal Charter was given to the British South African Company.
Next year will be exactly 130 years later. We are still selling primary commodities. We know we are shortchanging ourselves both in terms of the revenue generated, but also in terms of employment creation. But what then do we do about it? We write glossy documents, and when all has been said and done, we sell primary goods at a loss or for a pittance. Let us think about this.
The problem is just not Government. The problem is industry, the problem is the community, the problem is individuals. Where are the new ideas? Where is the mechanism to capture these ideas into something that can be useful for our country, for our society and for our economy? Economic dynamism does not just come from Government.
The Government has institutions that should facilitate the modernisation of our economy. But there should also be institutional complementarity from the private sector. And there should also be the same from individuals. Not these deliberate sabotaging of every move by the Government. Not all these sad faces we see when rain comes because some know they will no longer be able to blame the land reform for drought.
The whole economy needs modernisation. Japan was bombed to ashes, but that’s what gave them the impetus to modernise. We were unfairly sanctioned and we ended up in the middle ages. You see the difference? Industrialisation and modernisation of our economy doesn’t go against our ideological orientation. We just have to be pragmatic. At least let us think about it.
We have a stable country. Let credit go to where it belongs. Let us add to that, that serve the interests of our people. There is a time when we have to balance our economic and our political realities. When these compete for supremacy then the economic realities should supersede the political ones.
This is because one major role for political power is to bring social realities and economic realities into fruition. We behave as if there is a disjunction between those political and economic realities. But when one looks closely, actually there is none.
If we deliver good economic prosperity just like we are delivering with Command Agriculture, then 2018 Manifesto writes itself. That’s the beauty of letting political enterprise follow economic enterprise. We focus our efforts on long term needs of the people then our own political needs will be met.
But some are consumed with the pursuit of factions and power that the economy is treated as a distraction. No, it should be the only game in town.
As President Mugabe is on record saying, let’s turn swords into ploughshares.