He went on to admit that he is receiving RTGS$ 94.00 (US$10 today and tomorrow will be less than that guaranteed) from a pension scheme he started when he was 17 years and paid “well over a million US dollars”.
“If you cannot provide food and fuel to your people, we are, as far as many people are concerned a ‘failed State’. How else do you describe what is happening?” continued Eddie. Asking what should have been a rhetorical question but, of course, not to him.
“But the reality is that we are far from a failed State, our fiscal surplus in the first quarter was $500 million, we are accumulating hard currency in our banks, for the first time ever, the balance of payments is strong, so why the crisis? Let’s look at each problem one by one.
“Firstly, food: 20 years after the Government launched the ‘Fast Track Land Reform Program’ and three years after ‘Command Agriculture’ we are still importing the great majority of our food, food prices are high by regional standards and our poorest people (who are 70 per cent of the entire population) cannot afford to buy their essentials for daily life. Why? We have plenty of land, water to irrigate a million hectares of crops, we have the expertise and most of the equipment needed – what’s missing? Two words – real farmers.”
He went on to give other examples fuel shortage because of “State controls and State intervention”; the crippling power cuts because the “sector is an unholy mess”; etc.
Eddie Cross showed how some of the nation’s problems had considerably eased during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when MDC and Zanu PF shared power only to see the problems resurface again after Zanu PF retained to power in 2013. Proof that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic problems is bad governance.
Eddie Cross is bending over backwards not to admit Zimbabwe is a failed state, failed governance, because he cannot bear to admit the elephant in the room – the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and MDC’s role in helping keep the regime in power.
Zimbabwe is not the only country to suffer from having corrupt and incompetent leaders what has made our situation unbearable is that we are stuck with the same corrupt and incompetent leaders for 39 years and counting. Zanu PF has rigged elections denying the populous the opportunity to remove the regime from office. Secure in their post, Zanu PF has done as it pleased. The state controls and interventions which have destroyed the economy have made the ruling elite filthy rich. It is foolish to keep wittering to these Zanu PF thugs that they need to change these economic policies when they know the same policies are making them rich!
During the GNU the primary task for Eddie Cross and his MDC friends were to implement the democratic reforms and thus dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not one!
