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Individual eating habits not out of Harare's range
Dianna Games, Business Day (SA)
July 16, 2007

A Zimbabwean newspaper columnist suggested last week that it was only a matter of time before the government dictated how many meals a day its citizens could have - in the interests of their well-being, of course. With all the decrees being pumped into the system currently, she is probably not far off the mark. Zimbabweans have become used to ending up on the wrong side of the law overnight as legislation keeps up with the twists and turns of the government's increasingly random economic policy. What is almost more sinister is the micromanagement of people's lives that is behind the government's activities; it serves only to increase the climate of fear - as it is intended to.

It does not take much to become a criminal in Zimbabwe - simply buying too much of one product can put you on the wrong side of hastily promulgated laws. Raids on homes to monitor eating habits cannot be far away. Even staff running a canteen at the magistrate's courts in Harare were arrested last week for charging too much for meals. The latest crackdown gives the government's many paid informants a more obvious, but no less intrusive, role. Instead of sitting in public places and monitoring people's conversations, they have been redeployed by the Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and Stabilisation to monitor tills and patrol shopping aisles.

The government now says it has a new economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Economic Development Strategy, which is to replace the 2006 National Economic Development Priority Programme. The latter included private sector representatives in regular dialogue; its successor is unlikely to. These plans fail because they are based on political expedience, not sound economic principles. The government continues, meanwhile, with its twin mantras in defence of its actions. The first is that economic woes are the work of imperialist forces that are undermining the economy to bring down the government.

However, it is clear the government itself has carried out the most economically damaging actions over the past decade. This includes massive off-budget payments to "war veterans" in the late 1990s, which sparked serious currency decline; the costly intervention in the Congo war; and the so-called urban renewal campaign Operation Murambatsvina two years ago, which smashed the informal sector and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The second mantra is that the problems are caused by international sanctions. The truth is that sanctions affect only the ruling party. International capital is staying away because of the government's poor record of human rights violations, rigged elections, bad governance, political repression and constant nationalisation threats.

Even while the president is fingering companies for rampant inflation, his own government is printing money and pouring it mostly into broken-down parastatals. Rigging an election also costs money. Just last week nearly 200 chiefs, the frontline in Zanu (PF)'s rural support base, received new cars at taxpayers' expense. The president has never been shy to create more ministries, not to mention a senate, even when the pantry is bare. The latest campaign, Operation Slash Prices, has echoes of Murambatsvina. As it did in 2005, the government argues that it is acting in the people's interests. But the previous campaign did more damage to ordinary people in a few weeks than the years of economic decline that preceded it. The price war is likely to have the same effect.

So what is behind this? Some argue it is an election ploy to win over the urban poor, mostly opposition supporters. If it is, the campaign has peaked too soon - this cannot be sustained for seven months to the poll. Others say the government has been spooked by the escalation of inflation and decided to tackle it the way it tackles everything - with a good dose of brute force. And yet others say it is a standard Robert Mugabe ploy - give everyone enough rope to hang themselves and then stamp down to remind them who is boss.

There is even a version that says the government believes its propaganda - that business is trying to destroy it. So what can the Southern African Development Community do? Its limp-wristed approach to Zimbabwe so far gives it limited leverage. Anyway, the government has nothing to gain from negotiation, which implies political concessions, something it is unlikely to agree to. It would rather go for broke. The mediation effort is also too exclusive to produce a decent result. It includes only warring political parties, excluding many key players in Zimbabwe's current malaise - the private sector, trade unions and civil society.

Meanwhile, his ministers will probably keep coming to Pretoria, giving the impression of co-operation while allowing Zanu (PF) some breathing space to put in place the machinery for the next rigged election. When the dust settles we may find it is business as usual in Zimbabwe, and predictions of the endgame put back in storage for the next onslaught against a cowed population.

*Games is director of Africa @ Work, an African consulting company.

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