Zimbabwe will be a different country by March- Eddie Cross

While his colleagues preach every day that Zimbabwe cannot be transformed under President Emmerson Mnangagwa former Movement for Democratic Change policy advisor Eddie Cross says Zimbabwe will be a different country by March.

Writing on his personal blog, Cross says: “I now hear people saying that the resumption of shortages and fuel queues and the sudden emergence of a parallel market for hard currencies means that we are going back into the conditions we experienced in 2005 to 2008.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, our economic fundamentals are sound, exports and the GDP growing rapidly and once the new team in the Ministry of Finance started to tackle the macro economic problems of the country, they were immediately rewarded by a sharp reduction in the fiscal deficit and we will be in surplus by Christmas.

“At this pace we will be in a different country by March 2019. Let’s keep our current problems in perspective – if we do, they will not look so entrenched or formidable.”

Mnangagwa has been under a lot of pressure since the 30 July elections with his victory being challenged, followed by an outbreak of cholera, then prices spiraling as the bind note fell against the United States dollar.

But Mnangagwa seems to be slowly getting on top of the situation. He has resolved the fuel shortages. Basic commodities are back on the shelves though some prices are still high. He has approved the implementation of projects estimated at $5.3 billion.

While skeptics may write these projects off as mere propaganda Cross says: “I personally have a list of private sector projects that, if implemented, will involve the investment of US$30 billion and will generate many billions in new exports and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.”

Below is the full write-up:

Seeing things in perspective has never been more important in Zimbabwe. If we fail to do so, our view of the current problems we are encountering will be distorted and we may all make decisions we later regret. When people went out and paid 6 or 7 to 1 for USD and then bought groceries at astronomic prices, they both regret that now as open market prices and conversion rates have fallen back to 2.5 or 3 to 1.

In 2009 our pessimism was well founded, the economy had collapsed by 90 per cent, all financial institutions were bankrupt, the retail industry was in dire straits having been ruined by price controls and inflation. There seemed to be no way out of the mess we were in and then the MDC won the 2008 election and in February 2009 the GNU was born.

What then happened confounded all our critics and the pessimists who had written us off. What they failed to see was the wider perspective: Zimbabweans are very resilient, we have a huge hidden economy, we have learned how to handle a delinquent government and international isolation. So when we were offered fairly decent policies and conditions we exceeded expectations in every way.

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