Aim At The Truth, Comrades

So, here we are, with yet another explanation to the economic woes bedeviling our country Zimbabwe. And as usual, it’s someone else or something else to blame for the economic quagmire that we find ourselves in. Yet another excuse for failure. And no solution whatsoever being proffered. And no sir, it’s not the ‘illegal sanctions.’ Time to change the music; there being no dancers anymore to the sanctions song.

There he was on Monday, 21^st July, Finance Minister (FM) Patrick Chinamasa telling the Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development that it was actually because of dollarization that we have these ‘economic challenges’ that we have (wonder why he prefers challenges and not decay!)

“The migration from hyperinflation to multi-currency did a lot of damage to our economy,” Chinamasa, whom some now prefer calling the No-Finance Minister, said.

This was a huge shocker to me and obviously many others. For Chinamasa should know better.  It is this same FM who in January of 2009, in an acting capacity, formally introduced the multi-currency regime to the economy. That coupled with the formation of the GNU between Zanu PF and the MDC a little bit later brought economic stability and huge relief to the country which prior to that had to deal with the worst hyperinflation ever seen and a 2008 which many would rather not be reminded about.

That stability, brought about by dollarization, even resulted in a tiff between the erstwhile GNU partners with both partners thinking they deserved the credit. The MDC claimed they had rescued the economy from total collapse and Chinamasa and his ZPF thought they were the ones who had in fact introduced dollarization and hence all credit was due to them.

Prior to dollarization, Chinamasa and his Zanu PF colleagues had superintended over an economy in free fall. An economy in which prices of basic commodities changed upwards on a daily if not hourly basis. Almost all shops had personnel solely responsible for putting new price tags on goods on shelves. Chinamasa knows only too well that he is not telling the exact truth.

In 2008, prior to dollarization, the July inflation rate was 231,150,888.87% souring to 471,000,000,000% in August, shooting through the roof to an estimated 3,840,000,000,000,000,000% in September and had sky-rocketed to 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000% by November. Those figures forced many pick-pockets into early retirement for there were no pockets to pick anymore. It had become practically impossible for one to move around or go shopping with their cash in their wallets or pockets but in plastic bags and satchels only to return with the goods bought in their pockets.

But just after dollarization and formation of the GNU, the inflation rate fell to single digit figures for the very first time in many years. It is also after dollarization, which Chinamasa surprisingly now blames for our ‘economic challenges,’ that the country began to have positive GDP growth rates.

What really boggles the mind is why, with all the evidence to suggest that normality to the economy was brought about by dollarization at his disposal; Chinamasa would still go ahead and make such a ridiculous statement.  If hips don’t lie, Cde Chinamasa, what more of figures?

Well, the good thing though out of that surprising detachment from the truth is that at least it looks like it’s the death knell of the sanctions mantra.

We have heard that it was the droughts to blame, and then they told us it was ‘illegal sanctions.’  Now it is dollarization that has become the latest excuse. What next will Zanu Pf be blaming for their poor stewardship of this great nation? And another big question is what’s really going on? Who is to blame? Where and when did we get it all wrong? When did the wheels come of? What caused all this free fall?

Some think it is after the implementation of the “successful’ land reform program that things began to go wrong.  Others say our intervention in the DRC war triggered the ‘challenges’ being faced today while others say the way our former freedom fighters were awarded their ZWD50,000 gratuities is to be blamed.

It must be noted that those huge and unbudgeted for payouts to the veterans of the freedom war weighed heavily on the economy resulting in the crash of the Zim-Dollar on the 14^th November of 1997. That ‘Black Friday,’ saw our ZWD sliding from 14 to 26 against the USD and a 40% crash of the ZSE. That was way before dollarization which only came into being some 12 or so years later.

It must also be noted that on Thursday, October 19^th of 2000 (some 8 years before dollarization) after some food riots had broken out and were spreading  in most major cities, www.independent.co.uk reported  that one Charles Ndlovu, a Zanu PF MP ‘said he would move  a motion in parliament demanding urgent steps to stabilize the crumbling economy.’

The mere breakout of food riots on its own points to a situation where and when things were already going bad and for a Zanu PF MP to say as much, like Webster Shamu did says a lot.

Takes a lot of courage for Chinamasa to say what he is said to have said about the cause of our economic challenges. But I don’t think such denial will not help anyone. We are at a time when honesty and integrity are needed to correctly identify the real problem first and then seek the correct remedial action.

Some HIV+ people I know, in their denial mode, shun ARVs prescribed by doctors preferring Sekuru Godobori’s juju because they think were bewitched. As a result they are always sick with their health continuing to deteriorate. Chinamasa must not behave like such persons.

  

Baba Jukwa Unmasking... The First. The Second. And Counting!

The year 2013 was an intriguing one. One which many, myself included, looked forward to. A year of great expectations. A year many hoped would bring to an end the many trials and tribulations that characterized their lives. A year supposed to bring joy and happiness to many a home. For it was year in which midway through it, Zimbabweans were going to vote into power a new government (or a not-so-new as it would be!) in a general election.

The election was going to bring to an end the marriage of convenience between the strange bedfellows Zanu (PF) and the MDC-T (and also the MDC-N.) It was a make or break election for both Zanu (PF) and the MDC-T (Zanu and MDC, respectively, hereafter.) One neither could afford to lose.

For Zanu, victory would enable them to fully implement their developmental projects and policies meant to empower the masses. They couldn’t do so during the GNU era due to the presence of the MDC in government. Life was gonna be good for all Zimbos after the election. Or so they said.

For the MDC, it was an election which would, finally, herald a new beginning for Zimbabwe under their tutelage.  For them, it was gonna definitely be a clean sweep; a resounding victory. It was a foregone conclusion that they were the government in waiting. Or so they thought.

That election was supposed to be and was eventually held in July of 2013. But way before that the campaigning had already begun and canvassing for support was well under way. The usual lies, the deceit and the empty promises associated with politicians were the order of the day at the many rallies across the width and breadth of the country. And as usual, the mainstream media, biased as ever, covered these rallies; the private media kind of balanced but with a pro-MDC slant and the state media nauseatingly pro-Zanu.

Wise and intelligent as many Zimbabweans are, they were not going to be easily swayed by media stories. They could read between the lines and could tell through the lies. They knew what each of the parties stood for. Suffice it to say the media was not gonna be much of an influence (mostly to the young and urban folk) in the run up to the election. But not until the arrival on the scene of a mole claiming to be a disgruntled Zanu member prepared to share the dirty from his party (my party, he called it.) And he called himself Baba Jukwa, describing himself as a concerned father and communicating through a Facebook page of the same name.

In no time after setting up his page, he already had tens of thousands of ‘likes’ which astronomically rose to around 400,000 by the time of the elections. The man became the talk of town, he was phenomenal. He tickled one’s fancy, dishing out daily dossiers about his party’s shenanigans. To the MDC he was just the tonic they so needed going into that crucial election. And to Zanu the man was a belligerent. A renegade. A thorn in the back side. The dossiers carried damaging information; assassination plots, election rigging plans, minutes of sensitive politburo meetings (at times in real time), etc. All in intricate detail. It was inevitable that they would hunt for him.

And soon the hunt had begun and eventually a $300,000 bounty was dangling above his heard.

Everyone became really interested and wanted to know who really this fearless character was. The bravado was just too much.Names began being thrown around. Lance, Nelson, Wilf, Mangoma, Chindori-Chininga (MHSRIP) and a few others.

But the posts, damaging to Zanu and seemingly propping the MDC, kept on coming. Unabated. And at times, somewhat boastfully. At times detailing how the search for him was going and how at one time he was actually coordinating that search from Mazoe Earth Station! And he had a message for the hunters: they had to stop wasting their time as they would never catch him. But why the confidence? Simple, because Baba Jukwa was ‘your mother, father, sister, wife, cousin, etc. Baba Jukwa is you, Baba Jukwa is everyone.’ So he said.

Then the elections came and Zanu had a ‘landslide victory.’ The MDC were shocked and so too were many ordinary Zimbos. Even supporters of the victors were shocked by the magnitude of their victory. Overwhelming. And Baba Jukwa became irrelevant. He went on a kind of sabbatical only to return reduced to now posting about lost and found passports and about chakuti chakuti looking for nhingirikiri. Life on Facebook returned to normal. The legendary BJ had lost steam. Everybody forgot about him. And so too did the people on his tail before the elections. Or so we thought.

Little did anyone know that behind the scenes, ‘unknown hackers’ were frantically working to unmask BJ. And, lo and behold, the day that a few thought would ever come indeed did come. It was to be a Saturday, 10^th July that newzimbabwe.com broke the news of the ‘unmasking.’

‘Baba Jukwa outed, email accounts hacked’ was the unbelievableheadline. What? BJ? Unmasked? Man! And the following day The Sunday Mail broke the story to most other Zimbabweans: ‘Hackers unmask Baba Jukwa…Two journalists implicated, risk extradition.’ The following weeks, subsequent to the exposure, chats supposedly between BJ and his ‘sahwira’ were serialized in The Herald.

Once again, and out of the blue, BJ had become a trending topic in Zimbabwe and beyond. Many had plenty of questions and reservations about the unmasking. The story had a lot of holes in it. And Jonathan didn’t help matters when asked about the role of the intelligence services in the unmasking.

‘Everything on the Internet is either known or can be known sooner or later. This is because the Internet is surfed by users whose access codes are based on passwords that can be decoded or websites that can be broken into in the same way that cars on the roads out there can be broken into or stolen with the consequence of breaching the privacy of their users or owners. As such, the least said about how the now busted Baba Jukwa was actually unmasked the better.’

Then on the 14^th May thezimbabwean.co ran a story headlined ‘Baba Jukwa plot exposed’ and another on the 22^nd May under the headline‘Senior minister confirms Baba Jukwa identity.’ Both stories were rubbishing the unknown hackers’ initial unmasking and strongly hinted on The Sunday Mail Editor, Edmund Kudzayi, as being the real Baba Jukwa.

And Thursday, the 19^th June was to usher in the second unmasking of BJ. This time not by ‘unknown hackers’ but by the police of the beloved republic; the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Edmund Kudzayi was arrested on allegations of being Baba Jukwa. The matter is now before the courts.

All that remains to be seen is whether the state will prove beyond reasonable doubt if the seemingly affable young fella is indeed the real Baba Jukwa. Or as the pre-elections BJ said ‘Baba Jukwa is you, me, everyone.’

Will Edmund Kudzayi lead to yet more unmaskings of people in the Baba Jukwa cartel?

Hameno!

Hopefully, justice will prevail.

God protect the innocent.

God protect and Bless Zimbabwe.