Does a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe cost a few weeks’ pension?

Trends, not snapshots, are the important indicators

David Pilling states that “Zimbabwe is at breaking point” (August 15) — but also that “Zimbabwe, paradoxically, is still one of Africa’s brightest prospects”.

The real paradox is how many omissions and contradictions are required to make this argument stick.

Mr Pilling states that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government “has brought in tough measures, backed by the IMF”, but then claims that international re-engagement “looks a more distant prospect than ever”; he claims that economic mismanagement is why “food is in such short supply” but omits to say that 2019 is the first year since standard weather-related record-keeping began in which two major cyclones have hit (not only Zimbabwe but neighbours Mozambique and Malawi) in the same season, killing hundreds of people, displacing millions more and destroying 2m acres of crops across the region.

This new administration is the only way to ensure that Zimbabwe lives up to its potential as one of Africa’s “brightest prospects”. After years of economic turmoil under Robert Mugabe, root-and-branch reform across the spectrum of the state is required: land, fiscal, monetary, justice and transparency, and civil and political freedom. Today, respectively, all are under way: the nation is currently transitioning towards its own fiat currency; a primary budget surplus has been achieved for the first time in years under the technocratic finance minister; high profile ministers and officials are being tried for embezzlement; and unacceptable anti-democratic Mugabe-era legislation which curtailed freedom of expression and assembly are in varying stages of repeal and replacement.

A snapshot of a country reveals only so much; it is the trends — omitted in Mr Pilling’s article — that are important.

Sibusiso B Moyo

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,

Zimbabwe

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