The events surrounding the much-emphasized issue of cash barons, the equivalents of saboteurs are squarely positioned to divert attention from the owners of the economic chaos as mere victims of internal saboteurs. Which frames very well with the oversold sanctions myth?
The arrests and subsequent dramatic unveiling of the cash barons and their purported boxes of cash in the front the government owned daily, the Herald is a well-calculated, sinister plan designed to mentally cripple us as recipient of such toxic information.
The 'toxic' articles are meant to divert us from the real issues which must be interrogated, issues of a highly informalised economy which is massively anti-financial inclusion, a typical situation reflective of a collapsed economy. Like most informal businesspersons they do not want scrutiny therefore they carry most transactions outside the bank.
Imagine if the USA, with all its military strength was to pursue all its currency littered around the world, it would inevitably arrest millions of global citizens including nations. Let alone if South Africa were to hunt down its Rands most Zimbabweans would have been nabbed for concealing them under their pillows.
This clearly locates the irrelevance of the so called cash barons in mothering the painful cash shortages, as I have emphasized before that there is no causal relationship between cash barons and the cash shortage, the cash barons are just results of a heavily mismanaged and highly informalised economy.
The cash barons are a striking coincidence resultant and symptomatic of the economic collapse. To make it a national priority to pursue the so called cash barons as one of the strategies meant to arrest the deteriorating situation is the equivalents of burning huge forests in order to pursue a problem rat.
To what extent do the propaganda and the dramatic arrests; including more arrests to come contribute to the violation of the Zimbabwe brand? The treatment offered to local entrepreneurs, with the latest case of Hon Butau in mind is a national brand marketing disaster, which further taints our image as an unsecured and overregulated economy.
This unavoidably leaves domestic and foreign investors of all origins including the dear Chinese frightened as to their safety. The implications will be worse if Hon Butau is subsequently specified.
Zimbabwe provides a critical specimen of nations that have endured a harsh legacy because of the deficiency in the sanctity of security in the economic arena. The neo-populist laws of indeginisation, land reform (legal and illegal seizures of farms), to name a few, have all combined to compromise the Zimbabwe brand.
The location of all policies within a campaign strategy has heavily influenced the postcolonial state's framing of policies. As a heavily recycled and out of touch leadership with no solutions to offer, the government including through its RBZ has located their 2008 survival manifesto in presenting themselves as victims of local and external saboteurs.
This effectively frames well in their propaganda matrix, which also presents the government as a victim of a strategic response from Britain, EU, USA and Australia meant as punishment for engaging on the Fast Track Land Reform programme.
Dr Gono did effectively provided the recipe for the strategy when he threatened to name the barons if he appears before the relevant parliamentary portfolio committee. This locates the role of Gono as the conveyer belt of the propaganda who clearly was aware or played a central part in the formulation of this strategy.
Did Gono unveil this statement designed to launch the propaganda crusade without the approval of his principals? There was tacit approval of Gono's witch hunting strategy to the extent that it lacked the sense it was predicated to inform.
How can Gono have the ironic propensity to appear at journalists and purport to hold strategic information about economic crimes instead of sharing the information with law enforcement agencies, who in a democratic value driven society are supposed to investigate and verify in order to prosecute any violators.
Gono was clearly attempting to trigger citizenry sympathy and empathy, of him and his principals who have arguably failed to arrest the economic decadence, as victims of the so-called cash barons whilst also tacitly playing the double role of perpetrators.
Gono and his RBZ are well known drivers of inflation through his dubious quasi-fiscal programmes that have never delivered value to the ordinary citizens who have been made to endure painful economic suffrage.
The government destroyed the formal economy in a vigorous campaign from the time its legitimacy came under scrutiny from the people. Of late the operation dzikisai mutengo/ lower prices was clearly a strategy informed by the fact that the lack of control of the economy by government emanated from an unholy alliance between the businesses sector and the Western detractors.
Who we were told were supposed to be made to loose out through the price shock therapy, which frames well with the double role victim and perpetrator.
And like a perpetrator the government managed to flush all transactions from the formal market and the current cash shortages were predictable as a consequence of the operation. It is also interesting that the introduction of the new bearer cheques of denominations $1million, $5million and $10million are simply efforts to postpone the cash crisis to a later date even before the March elections instead of implementing strategies designed to re-formalize the economy.
As Gono and his principals oscillate between victims and perpetrators they have failed to provide the critical success elements required in redeeming us from this evil. It has thus added an urgent matter before us as citizens of this troubled nation to collectively unite ourselves as a catalyst of the Zimbabwe we want. We should introspect ourselves as to how long should the future be compromised by a leadership devoid of an upright moral value system?
Hillary Kundishora is a Scholar of Strategic management. He can be contacted on hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk or zimchaiyo.blogpot.com
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