Categories: Stories

Are we too poor or too stupid- revisited.

I am a very religious person and I love Jesus, but what Stan says is quite true. Did we not notice that after a decade of decline and total collapse of the economy, when the MDC and ZANU-PF formed an inclusive government in 2009 our economy started booming despite the squabbling in the unity government and the fact that the policies of the three parties that formed that government were poles apart?

Did we not notice that our economy boomed without any foreign investment? Did we not notice that our economy thrived without any aid or loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund? Did we not notice that we were doing all the things for ourselves and Zimbabweans were happier than they had ever been for more than a decade?

Did we not notice that critics of the land reform programme were now accepting that it was a major success and not a disaster as had been preached for nearly a decade?

Did we not notice that, despite the squabbles within the inclusive government, there was no violence for at least four years, and that the country went for at least five years without any elections for the first time in nearly 15 years?

Was it not obvious that peace had paid off? Was it not obvious that elections were disruptive and partly responsible for the economic decline in the years 2000 to 2008 because the country was in perpetual election mode?

But less than a month after losing the 2013 elections, the MDC was already calling for fresh elections claiming that the July polls were rigged.  Though not happy with the results, most people were happy that the elections were over. All they wished for was to go on with their lives as they had over the last four years. ZANU-PF failed to maintain the momentum. The MDC failed to capitalise on this and instead the party started disintegrating following calls for Tsvangirai to step down to give way to a new leader but Tsvangirai refused to budge.

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This post was last modified on February 16, 2020 7:45 am

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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