A lesson in shedding the shackles of apartheid / colonialism. It sounds eerily familiar.
“The new generation of leaders, trained and crafted in the bush camps and in distant training centres in different countries, many holding to Marxist ideas and only a fuzzy understanding of how a modern economy worked, had never managed anything bigger than a cash box in a bush camp. Now they found themselves in positions of authority and control in banks, Government Ministries, Companies and Parastatals.
They discovered they could print money, take over assets, exercise authority over others and enjoy a life style they could only have dreamed of when they were either living under settler domination before Independence or overseas in exile.
But the cost was too great for a small, vulnerable economic system. The budget deficit spiralled out of control, the monetary authorities’ simply printing money to fill the gap. They borrowed money from everyone and were shocked when they were required to repay the loans with interest.
They increased the civil service from 67,000 in 1980 to 250,000.
The regular army was increased from two battalions at half strength (3,000 men) to 45,000, a larger force than South Africa.
They stopped investing in maintenance and infrastructure – relying on the good system taken over from the settlers in 1980 and spent their money on immediate needs – schools, hospitals and universities. An uneasy relationship existed between the modern State and the companies that drove the economy and the new elite who saw themselves as Chefs, whose authority and control could not be challenged.
In the process the Constitution and the judicial system came to be regarded as a nuisance; its provisions and decisions ignored or brushed aside when they came into conflict with whatever they wanted to do. The rule of law was seen as a hangover from settler dominance and the new leaders in Government paid scant regard to its demands as they strove to extract what they wanted from the system and to exercise their control and authority.
By 2008 the struggle had become simply too much for the productive sector and the economy crashed. Income per capita fell to levels last seen in the Great Depression, life expectancies declined to levels prevalent in the 1800’s when life was short and nasty for most. The educated elite that were not caught up in the web of patronage and extortion that dominated what was left of the modern State simply left the country for greener pastures.
Now we have adopted a new Constitution – the first crafted by Zimbabweans. It is a modern Constitution which entrenches all the values and norms that have been so damaged by the conflicts in our society since 1980. But it is still just a document gathering dust on our shelves.”
South Africa Today – South Africa News
