Professor Jonathan Moyo out of STERP

Prof Jonathan Moyo out of STERP
Egghead Professor Jonathan Moyo and former Zimbabwe information and Publicity Minister credited with formulation of the repressive media laws in the country is miffed by the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) crafted by finance Minister Tendai Biti.

That was to be expected after he came out firing on all cylinders against the assignment of Hon Biti to head the coalition government’s Finance ministry which he said was an inappropriate assignment in tandem with similar past appointments of Zanu PF failures like Enos Nkala and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.

Not surprising it is only.. only him of all people in Zimbabwe who believes Hon Biti has lost his radar in crafting STERP.

His history speaks volumes about how out of touch with reality and disconnected to the people he purports to lead he has been, is and will be in future.

Speaking to his favourite PR cleanup publication the NewZimbabwe.com publication where he is a valued source of news about on goings in Zimbabwe, Professor Moyo declared

“It is a shame, that in this globalised age of high-tech imagination Zimbabwe has a Minister of Finance whose language, and therefore thinking, is steeped in the primitive Stone Age metaphors of hunter-gatherers.

What the hell, does the minister mean that ‘we should gather what we eat or eat what we kill’? Is this an economic principle or is it just primitive mambo jumbo whose ‘kiya-kiya’ logic is to subvert the essence of good economics, namely savings?

Minister Biti needs to understand that an economy that eats what it gathers or kills is just a primitive economy that cannot grow. The only consolation from this is that we at least now know that Biti’s ‘kiya-kiya’ approach which he has also labelled as creative fundraising is a hunter-gatherer concept.”

Sifting through his mouthful of criticism of STERP reveals that Prof Moyo is irked that the minister of Finance has in the past used slang “kiya-kiya” to evade a question that sought clarification from him over where the coalition government had sourced foreign currency to pay Civil Servants stipends at a short notice period of two weeks and now has plunged the country into “cash budgeting.”

Professor Moyo is not by any stretch of imagination a reputed Economist nor is he renowned as the most incisive political scientist in the country a title he seems eager to be bestowed on him by virtue of his qualifications in that field of study.

It is his “I know everything” superiority complex that has more often than not landed him in trouble as he cannot resist temptation to make his presence felt by speaking whatever comes to his mind before giving serious consideration of the implications of what he is about to say.

“Kukiya-kiya” is a trendy slang used by the Zimbabwean youth to explain unplanned, uncoordinated and varied interventions employed to overcome hopelessly sticky situations facing an individual.

There can be no better evidence of a hopeless economic state of affairs than that obtaining in Zimbabwe at the time Hon Biti was appointed Finance Minister.

In an interview with Zimnet Radio just before the coalition government was consummated Professor Elphas Mukonoweshuro described the Zimbabwe situation in the following terms;

“Virtually everything that can go wrong in a country’s economic management has gone wrong in the country and there is no economy to talk about.”
When the coalition government then undertook to pay Public servants in foreign currency from the ashes of such an economy and within a fortnight manages the feat and the Finance Minister is taken to task to explain where the foreign currency was sourced from and answered ‘takiya-kiya’ he captured the national sentiment much to the chagrin of Professor Moyo.

Nobody other than the erudite Professor Moyo must coin phrases that are likely to become national slogans. That is the gripe Prof Moyo has with the ‘takiya-kiya’ phrase in scientific economic sense.

The way it was used by a respected political leader on whom the nation is focussed for economic salvation was too powerful for Prof Moyo’s liking.

He was jolted back to the heady days when as Information Minister he was the national slogan composer with themes like ‘Rambai makashinga’ (be steadfast), ‘Zimbabwe will never be a colony again’ and ‘The Go Warriors’ soccer song.

Then he was a household name and boy did he go over the top. He introduced retrogressive media laws, claimed false anthrax attacks at his offices, hosted numerous galas, wined and danced with Zimbabwe beauties at pageants in the most expensive hotels at taxpayer’s expense and banished or bombed media houses that sought to expose his extravagance.

He was living on borrowed luxury and it got into his head and he plotted Zanu PF succession Coups that backfired when he suffered the ignominy of being fired by President Mugabe reputed for protecting the most corrupt officials in Zanu PF leadership.

Oblivious of all his past misdemeanours he has the nerve to utter the drivel that it is primitive to live within the country’s means through cash budgets which retard national growth.

What did his extravagance with borrowings lead us to?

Basic finance management will teach Professor Moyo that governments like organisations that do not project cash flow may operate for limited periods but cash constraints will always emerge to their detriment.

He is definitely out of STERP and he knows it.

Meanwhile Professor Mutambara needs to move in STERP with the fast moving political environment he has gate crashed into as Deputy Prime Minister.

It was always going to be hard for him to sell ideas that were rejected by a constituency to a Nation.

There is no middle of the road route to economic turnaround of Zimbabwe. Either he drives it the Pan Africanist route or the Global route.

Sanctions will not be removed because he and coalition government colleagues are determined to make a flawed process work. No.

Sanctions will fall away if he and colleagues in the coalition shows committed intelligence or ignorance to uphold the rule of law, respect property rights, accept electoral outcomes, remove discredited officials from fronting the government and generally respect international conventions on human rights.

The coalition government is not one and the same thing as Premier Morgan Tsvangirai. There are too many square pegs in it to fit into the round holes that the sanctions have dug.

Uproot the square pegs and the sanctions will be a no issue.