An economics professor at a local college made the statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked, there would be no one poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

After reading this small article I began to contemplate about my beautiful country wondering what exactly went wrong, where exactly we erred as a nation. We have been blessed by God with a rich and vast array of natural resources and an educated and hard working human resource base, what could go wrong?.

Only but shallow minds can separate politics from economics because these two are intricately interwoven, you cannot have a successful economy without a successful political system that is able to provide a stable environment.  I am convinced beyond any doubt that Zimbabwe’s economic problems are a result of our bad political system. A system that thrives on patronage, reducing the rewards of honest and hard work.

 

 In 1997 the Zimbabwean dollar depreciated by over 200% on the day commonly known as the black Friday due to a payment of ZW $50 000 to war veterans which the Central Bank simply printed. Why did the government have to pay money it didn’t have? The answer is simple to canvass the support of the war veterans as the liberation mantra is and was the core of the then ruling party. The cost of financing the war in the DRC had dire consequences on our economy, why did we engage in that costly war? To reward top government officials with diamond mines in the DRC. The land reform exercise is by no means different to rewarding to Zanu PF chefs and other overzealous war veterans as to canvass their support and reduce their disgruntlement with Mugabe and off course to woodwind the gullible masses that, finally the land question has been answered. I honestly believe with all my heart that Zanu PF wanted to reverse that chaotic land grab immediately after the elections of 2002 but they did not because they found out that they could even fool other fellow Africans with now the pan Africanism mantra.

Least I be misunderstood by my fellow compatriots, I do not doubt that the redistribution of land was necessary, it’s the manner in which it was done that violated some of  the essential principles necessary for a thriving market driven economy. The essential principles being the respect for private property, the determination of prices through market forces and eventually a stable political environment. To clearly show that  the disregard for property rights had and still has  nothing to do with reversing and correcting our historical past that advantaged persons of a particular race one has to look at how even our own indigenous entrepreneurs have had their businesses seized by the state and passed to sympathizers to the regime.

How can a nation prosper when the majority of the emerging class of business entrepreneurial geniuses lives out outside their country of birth not by choice but by design? Are we not ashamed as a people when Strive Masiyiwa who is Zimbabwean by every definition lives in our neighbouring South Africa, Mutumwa Mawere SA, Nicholas Vingirayi UK, William Nyemba, Gilbert Muponda of the famous ENG saga Canada, Muthuli Ncube UK, Moxxon SA, Julius Makoni UK, Francis Zimuto UK and James Makamba SA but only to mention a few. Who can have confidence to invest in a country that persecutes its own citizens, how can international investors have confidence to invest in Zimbabwe when its citizens based in the Diaspora don’t have confidence to invest in their motherland.

One would be extremely naive to think that both the domestic and international investors’ fears are imaginary, they are not. For Zimbabwe to progress these fears have to be allayed through a paradigm shift in the way those who have been fortunate to be in the corridors of powers, behave and conduct their business. There has to be a paradigm shift in the people `s mind sets we have to get hold of our destiny, rebuild a confidence in ourselves. If we were able to survive in Zimbabwe under those unbearable conditions, it means we are able to survive under whatever conditions.

To every dark cloud there is a silver lining, there are benefits and lessons that we have learned from the economic and political crisis. Firstly on the economic front we are no longer seating on our laurels waiting for the pay check we are able to hassle a living, now the onus lies in our hands to transform that hassling into proper business creativity. Secondly in the political front we have learned never again to trust politicians with power without necessary balance and checks, we need to get involved in things that affect the core of our every fiber of existence (politics). Socially we have learned to stick with one another in times of our troubles never again shall we be divided by imaginary differences in our economic classes. Spiritually we have learned to always pray for our country and those who rule over it.

LONG LIVE ZIMBABWE.