It seems Zimbabwe’s economic woes are set get worse than better, world acclimated economist has predicted.
Despite the coronavirus induced recession, the country’s economic mismanagement and corruption is pulling it down, analysts have noted.
The local currency is on a freefall, trading dismally against the major convertible currencies.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Harare recently, ZANU PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa confessed that there was rampant corruption in the country.
He however, attributed the ill to sanctions saying they have incapacitated both the government and the private sector.
“There is a relationship between sanctions and corruption, whereupon due to incapacitation of Government or the private sector to provide competitive salaries in the region, workers end up engaging in acts of corruption to supplement what they get which is, however, unfortunate.
“The illegal sanctions have affected our economy and continuously affect the value of our currency and consequently our returns.
“Again, due to sanctions our institutions mandated to fight corruption have been incapacitated to investigate swiftly both local and external cases,” said Chinamasa.
He added that the illegal sanctions that manifested themselves as financial, trade, cultural, academic, sport embargoes, diplomatic isolation, travel bans, freezing of financial accounts of the national leadership have cost the country more than US$42 billion since 2001.
But, it has been noted that corruption is the main source of Zimbabwe’s economic woes, with a of money like 15 billion disappearing from coffers without trace.
Apparently, world renowned economist Prof Steve Hanke predicts dim economic future for the country, owing to misgovernance.
He says to make matters worse Zimbabwe, the international funders have lost confidence in the country’s leadership because of the unchecked corruption.
“Given the corruption and mismanagement by Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF mafia, the EU has made it clear that a renewal of budget support for Zimbabwe is impossible.
“Zim’s Inflation stands at 689%/yr by my rate, while the RTGS trade at their lowest value in two months. RTGS are toast,” says Hanke.
EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen said ongoing mismanagement and corruption mean it is “out of the question” that the European Union will resume aid directly to the government of Zimbabwe anytime soon, according to the bloc’s ambassador to the country.
The government of President Mnangagwa has “indicated that they would be interested in reverting back to budget support the EU Ambassador Timo Olkkonen told Devex in an interview last week.
“I can’t prejudge, of course, what happens with the [EU’s upcoming development assistance] programming exercise — but I would say, from my personal perspective, I think it would be impossible,” he said.
The EU stopped sending money directly to government coffers in the southern African nation in 2002, citing violations of human rights and democratic principles under then-President Robert Mugabe.
Three years ago, when Mnangagwa seized power from his former mentor in a coup and declared the country “open for business,” Brussels offered the prospect of greater assistance in exchange for free and fair elections, but this did not happen, as elections that followed flawed.
