Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) Programs Manager, John Maketo has described the President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration as a confused and directionless team haunted by policy inconsistencies.
Speaking at the ZIMCODD U Mie Agenda Forum in the capital today, Maketo told 263Chat that policy inconsistencies that has seen ministers and government officials singing from different hymns on the direction the country should take was the Mnangagwa administration’s biggest undoing.
“Our major problem is policy inconsistency on the part of the government where on one hand the government is trying to liberalise the economy at the same time we have command type of economy.
“HE talked about Zimbabwe is open for business but we still have command agriculture which stems from command economics based on heavy state control as seen today. We have a whole ministry of agriculture, which is supposed to run agricultural programs but command agriculture is run by the military, but he is saying open for business,” Maketo said.
Maketo added that the command economy has also manifested itself in the fuel sector where the market should have been left to decide on pricing and not the present situation.
“The same thing with fuel. The government comes to set price for the fuel and set price for the transport sector. Kombi operators have been ordered to lower their transport prices. This is command economy. It’s a mixed economics, hence policy contradiction,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, ZIMCODD Campaigns and Advocacy Officer Tendai Bobo said the government’s Vision 2030 which seeks to attain middle income economy in 11 years time is an ambitious target considering that there is no adequate buy in from citizens.
She condemned corruption and over spending on some government programs like command agriculture.
“The 2018 Command agriculture program had a $401 million budget but the budget was blown to over $1 billion.
“Before the new dispensation came, bond note and the USD were at the same par, but when it came the bond note value collapsed. The national debt ballooned to over $9 billion,” Bobo said.
