Malvern Mkudu
35 years of independence have elicited different reactions from Zimbabweans of all walks of life. ZANU PF is running with the ‘sofarsogood’ hash tag to underscore its successes since 1980 while critics have slammed this as hallucinations.
The ruling party has managed to effect transformation within the economic and political spheres of the country.
Under the ruling party key state institutions are now being led by Black Zimbabweans. These include tertiary institutions and the judiciary.
More Black Zimbabweans are now participating in areas of the economy that were previously reserved for Whites. Small scale mining and tobacco commercial farming are new areas that Black Zimbabweans have been given an opportunity to participate.
The economy and key institutions are firmly in the hands of a few elite Blacks but this does not necessarily translate to empowerment of the majority. In fact the economic and social welfare of ordinary Zimbabweans has deteriorated over the years.
Most Zimbabweans are working in the informal sector where they are earning a pittance. The informal sector mainly accommodates vendors and other peddlers of cheap foreign goods. Not much manufacturing is happening in the informal sector. President Mugabe even alluded to this fact.
ZANU PF prides itself with its empowerment policies that it argues have uplifted thousands of Zimbabweans’ lives. The ruling party claims 300 000 landless Blacks have been resettled on previously owned White farms despite the government’s resistance to make public land audits to ascertain these claims.
Independent research studies say that ZANU PF’s land reform has resulted in 245 000 new farmers replacing the previous 6000 White farmers who owned most of the land. These impressive figures however have not translated into economic success or the alleviation of poverty in the majority of Black Zimbabweans.
The indigenisation policy has drawn mixed feelings and has been blamed for dwindling Foreign Direct Investment and massive capital flight in the country.
These policies often hailed for empowering the majority blacks , have infact impoverished more Blacks since 1980. Thousands of farm laborers who were gainfully employed by white commercial farmers have been displaced and condemned to poverty.
The indigenisation policy which requires foreigners to cede 51% of company ownership to local Blacks has resulted in foreign investors shunning the country. Many manufacturing companies have closed down and relocated.
More Zimbabweans are unemployed and now live under the poverty datum line.official figures place unemployment at 11% but these figures are placed on unreliable data and other economists the figure is above 80%. The middle class has dissipated and the gap between rich and poor has increased.
While the economy has changed hands from a few former White colonial masters to a few politically connected Black elites, the majority of Blacks have been dis-empowered through widespread poverty and corruption.
ZANU PF has therefore presided over further impoverishment of the majority of people of our society although its success in ensuring that certain areas of the economy are no longer a preserve for White people only.
