I find it incomprehensible that some of us are celebrating and boasting about the recent trip to China. The heap of papers that the President returned with, are not likely to convert into jobs for Zimbabweans in the short term, nor will they result in better liquidity for the banking sector. This should be our priority.
In my opinion, the role of the President is to protect the interests of Zimbabweans who pay his salary and maintain his luxurious lifestyle and protection. He mandate is to do whatever is necessary to create jobs for Zimbabweans and ensure that this economy grows and the country develops. On that score he has dismally failed us.
In the event that China proceeds to "loan" us the funds, it means that Zimbabweans will be paying their taxes over the next 20 years to China. That is the legacy that President Mugabe will leave us with. We will be feeding Chinese families while ours wallow in poverty, we will be creating jobs for them while our children must look for employment elsewhere, and we will provide business opportunities to their companies while our local companies are closing down. That is hardly something to celebrate!
In my opinion, infrastructure development is very important but not that urgent. What is urgent is for us to revive our local productive sector, cut imports and create jobs. My argument remains that infrastructure development is a result of economic growth and not the other way round. The economy does not grow simply because we have good roads. Of course we need decent roads but investment in roads must be as a result of a growing economy. Our focus must therefore be Zimbabwean jobs first and that can only be achieved by attracting foreign direct investment into our industrial sector.
I don't know how many times I must say this; the revival of our agriculture sector remains the only trigger to sustainable economic revival. The benefits to the economy of a vibrant agricultural sector are numerous; food security, employment creation, rehabilitation of agriculture related infrastructure, industrial revival and poverty alleviation. All it will take for us to achieve this is the removal of conflict on land properties, perform a thorough land audit and the issue of title deeds so that land can once more be a bankable asset. The resistance by ZANU (PF) to do the necessary is the fear of the exposure of the looting that went on and that the chefs may lose the multiple land assets which they stole.
Unfortunately we are not going to see an economic revolution as purported and hoped for by some until we correct and rationalise land ownership in Zimbabwe.