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Predatory kleptocracy: a rejoinder
Andrew Manyevere
July 07, 2007

Below is Eddie Cross article rightfully tittled Predatory Kleptocracy, simply put: A thievish,plunderous,pillaging and marauding government characterized by greed and corruption. Without a doubt, a tribute so fitting to the Zanu-Pf government of President Robert Matibili Mugabe.

Eddie Cross as an economist has ably assembled facts and figures, as given below to highlight a quandary in which Zanu-pf government finds itself in today. I need not repeat that statistics, but will dress this argument further with an in depth political analysis of scenarios that come out of this ugly performance by Zanu-Pf in twenty-sevn years.

My heart is captured by the summary of Zanu-Pf lack of vision and foresight, economically, to put a plan and walk it through at any time while they run government. The last two weeks have seen the products of this kleptocracy ugly manifested when, hope by Mugabe and his surrogates, is being invested more in taking, economically from business, what is there, in the hope to sustain supply and demand, instead of creating more to balance and grow the economy.

In its performance yesterday Zanu-Pf took farms from producers reducing grain production instead of introducing more players to aggressively compete in agricultural cropping, multiplying grain to remove hunger and poverty in the country. Today we have hunger as never before experienced when land lies derelict, due to harsh and undigested thought that harboured predatory systems supported by kleptocracy.

For twenty-seven years, the economy of the country, like the life of a young chubby baby has survived many virus inversion and now, due to lack of medicene, gives in to die. In decency of any democratic thinking, instead of bowing out graciously, either as a person or party; Mugabe remains adamant that he can still play another term as a politician and leader of Zanu-Pf. Obviously he does not get the message of the harm caused, partly because among Zanu-Pf membership the desire is to nurse him and safeguard their wealth creation done kleptocratically.

What holds all these criminals from self surrender is the fear to face cry of justice that keeps calling on the lives lost, injustices done through countless cases of rape, killing to inherit deceptively or simply inheritance by plunder; and the displacement of thousand by force from their homes. To ask less than trial at the Hague will be gross injustice not to be forgiven by those who lost much out of this misgoverning by Mugabe.

The acid test of all this is what happens today in Zimbabwe. Despite many years of mistakes, Zimbabwe officials do not have it in their mental front that no amount of force or deception can create a balance in economic rules of supply and demand. That Mugabe has commanded Gono to print more money, creating inflation, one would guess, should have been enough to put a full stop to Zanu-Pf political behaviour of cheating; were it not for the love of power for its sake by Mugabe.

While jobs have been lost before, to just have many people out of employment because Zanu-Pf hopes to impress deceptively the world and more so SADC that they can bolster the economy, should be met with every act of Resistance or physically people are going to die from poverty and depression. You cannot simply continue to take without giving back. Zanu-Pf has taken so much, from people's lives, people's health, people's land, peoples houses, people's TVs, cameras and computers, people's wifes, people's jobs, under pretext of Blair and Bush want to re-colonize Zimbabwe.

Who can stand this humiliation, who can stand this degradation and indignity? No matter what any leader and politician can say in support of Mugabe and his surrogates, it must be known that people are unhappy, people are angry, annoyed, and have no faith in Zanu-pf even if it were to have five face-lifts today to gain back trust.

With mediatory talks on going Mugabe had better taken hid to the voice, the silent voice of conscience from those loving and concerned and seek to go to minimize the impact of aggression and numbers of those suing him and team for acts of crime against humanity once out of power. Were the courts of Zimbabwe entertaining to these charges being placed before judges Mugabe would be seeing these cases came while he still rules the country.

There is big black market going in Zimbabwe as I print this paper. People can n longer follow;;ow economic marching orders from someone who has failed. There is much more robbing, from the people, by the soldiers who are authorized to seize merchandise suspected to be withdrawn from the market in protest of controlling inflation by the barrel of the gun than through planning and prioritizing.

When history will be concluded on the issue of Zimbabwe, like those of many before it, African leadership and governments have more to answer if they too would not fall under the heading of Predatory Kleptocracy.

Predatory kleptocracy
Eddie Cross
July 04, 2007

During the past 27 years of Zanu PF government in Zimbabwe under Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the State has slipped from being a reasonably stable, open democracy with a good civil service and real potential for growth and development, to an autocratic, corrupt predatory regime that pays scant regard to the law or the interests of its people. The numbers are astounding. GDP has fallen by over half, exports by two-thirds, food production by 80 per cent, industrial output by 50 per cent. In the social sphere, life expectancy has declined to the lowest in the world, falling by a year for every year Mugabe has been in power, all social indicators are negative and the real incomes of formal sector workers has declined by 90 per cent.

In the sphere of macro economic management - by no means rocket science today, the regime has run a budget deficit of over 60 per cent of GDP, raised taxes equal to another 50 per cent of GDP, stolen at least a third of real economic output with most of the resulting wealth being spread amongst an elite of perhaps 2000 individuals and the security establishment.

As a result, in the midst of a steep decline in economic activity, a massive expansion in absolute poverty and the collapse of all State managed services, we have the spectre of a small political and military elite who drive expensive cars, go on shopping trips to Dubai and are building mansions that would grace the cities of the richest countries in the world.

It is obscene. While this is going on, we have seen our democracy subverted and our human rights taken from us in a similar fashion to the nightmare regimes of the Soviet Union or Germany circa 1930 - 1945. It is no exaggeration to say we have seen thousands of political killings (Gukurahundi), hundreds of thousands tortured, beaten and raped and millions displaced, both internally and externally.

We know we are not alone in this sort of situation - there are several such regimes in Africa and even a few elsewhere. The scary thing is that the Zanu regime would be getting away with all of this if it were not for a small, brave and dedicated cadre of activists who have worked tirelessly to record what is going on, publicise the outcome and fight for matters to be corrected.

It was this group who wrote the report "Breaking the Silence" that first revealed the horrors of Gukurahundi. It was the UN that disclosed the extent and seriousness of the Murambatsvina exercise, it was a lone cameraman working for the State controlled media who photographed the rioting and subsequent beatings of MDC leaders in March this year and was beaten to death for his courage.

Even the much maligned IMF has played a small role by continuing to prepare and put out on its website, detailed technical reports that have spelt out the truth about the economy in the face of State propaganda. The great failure has been in Africa itself. There is no point in Britain or the United States coming out with a harsh critique of Mugabe and his regime, this is simply brushed aside by Mugabe and his cronies as another example of "neo-colonialism". Other African leaders and the regime here deliberately misinterpret even the targeted sanctions aimed at the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity as economic sanctions directed at the people of Zimbabwe rather than the actual targets themselves.

Gradually the crimes of Mr. Mugabe and his entourage has dawned on African leaders. When they attend events such as the World Economic Forum in Cape Town recently they are confronted by the need to resemble some sort of a profitable and secure place for investment flows from the rest of the world. It is very difficult to do so while you have errant and truant regimes like that which exists in Zimbabwe still being treated as a "respected" member of the African Club of Nations.

Just take the current madness. Mugabe announces that the run away inflation in Zimbabwe is part of an international "regime change" agenda. He declares that Britain and the USA are behind the inflation (do not laugh - in many quarters he is taken seriously when he makes such ridiculous claims). He then sends out his armed thugs in small groups to force industrialists and retailers to roll back their prices. No rational basis - just reduce your prices by "X" or we will do "Y". So for the past 4 days we have seen hundreds of businesses raided, managers and owners beaten in some cases, nearly 200 taken into Police custody and billions of dollars written off stocks of products already paid for.

I am struggling right now to work out what we have lost in our small business. Customers fighting to get into the supermarket have smashed the glass front of the store and we have long queues - people anxious to buy what is available at the low prices and before stocks run out. I have frozen all buying and by the end of today we will start to close down - 42 staff out of work. Many others are doing the same thing. Wholesalers have marked down their stocks and are now billing suppliers for rebates.

I am contemplating what to do at our level but cannot see anyone being willing or able to give me a cheque for many hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for the measures forced on us. When finally the whole futile exercise collapses in a heap and we go back to normal trading, we will not have the cash to pay for new stocks. Of course there may not be any manufacturers still operating at that point.

Just to give one example of nutty economics, Mugabe style. An empty bag for 10 kilograms of maize meal costs Z$79 000, the maize at subsidized prices from the GMB costs Z$26 000 and the new controlled price is Z$85 000 - about half of total costs before any profit accrues to the miller. Fuel is the same - the landed cost is about US85 cents per litre and this is equal to Z$170 000. The controlled price is Z$60 000. By the end of today the only place you will be able to buy fuel will be behind closed doors in some back ally after dark - at Z$250 000 a litre or more.

On Saturday the two teams from the MDC and Zanu PF resume talks in Pretoria. They are discussing the conditions for the March 2008 elections. I do not think we will get there. Perhaps that is the real game being played behind the scenes by the predatory, kleptocratic regime that some call our government.

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