EDITORIAL COMMENT: SI64 was overdue, demands impartial enforcement

That Zimbabwe’s economy is very distressed is beyond debate. The first impulse is to expect Government to come up with a solution, as if by magic. Because we are a highly politicised and polarised society, instead of Zimbabweans putting their heads together to find a way out of the morass, politicians of dubious persuasions without a single credible alternative policy option have taken to the podium to make cheap demands for regime change, reportedly because Government has failed to wave the magic wand.

It is opportunism of the worst kind.

One key intervention by Government to rejuvenate the economy was Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 announced recently. The instrument removes a number of finished goods from the Open General Import Licence (OGIL), requiring bulk importers to seek clearance to bring in such commodities. This has been met with resistance, resulting in riots and burning of property in the border town of Beitbridge last week.

We are not certain at the moment whether the riots were sparked by bad communication or it was the timing of the Statutory Instrument. What is evident though is that there is a lot of pent up emotion as a result of the sluggish economy; people have no jobs and lately there have been challenges of accessing cash. Civil servants are not being paid on time. Only a tinder is required to start a conflagration.

Stripped of these practicalities and political mischief, we see the Statutory Instrument restricting the import of non-basic finished products as long overdue. It has a lot of positives for the economy and we are happy that Government has so far refused to back down on its implementation.

MDC’s MP for Bulawayo South Eddie Cross claims $3,5 billion was externalised in the six months from the July 31 elections in 2013. We have no reason to believe the trend has stopped. The Zimbabwe Statistics Agency reports that we have so far this year imported goods worth $2,07 billion against exports of $949 million. The situation was worse last year when Zimbabwe imported $6 billion worth of goods against exports of $2,7 billion. That’s a very precarious situation for the economy.

Besides a few raw materials, these are some of the items we spent $6 billion on and have been removed from the OGIL: locks, doors and window frames, furniture, blankets, camphor creams, bottled water, salad creams, peanut butter and mahewu.

At the core of SI64 is the need to staunch the reckless outflow of foreign currency in exchange for what can be produced or procured locally. We need to embrace fully the concept of import substitution and penalise through duty those who import luxuries.

Import substitution is what sustained the Rhodesian economy throughout the war years and yet we seem to equate democracy to the consumption of foreign products without producing our own. We prioritise the luxury of choice in an economy under sanctions.

Part of the mischief which fanned last week’s riotous behaviour in Beitbridge was the misrepresentation that Government had imposed a “ban” rather than a mere restriction on imports and that the “ban” applied uniformly across the board instead of bulk importers who then repackage the goods for local retail. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has not been robust in clarifying these distinctions. People can still import for own consumption without a licence.

People must appreciate that the more luxuries we import, the more foreign currency we lose. The more goods we import, the more damage we do to local industry. In such a situation, it is contradictory to talk about employment creation. It is everyone’s duty to retain all the foreign currency in the country by consuming local.

At the moment we export more foreign currency than we generate while expecting Government to perform magic. That will not happen without people embracing a spirit of sacrifice to build a truly Zimbabwean economy. The pursuit of instant self-gratification on imported goods can only strengthen neighbouring economies against our own.

We have no one, but ourselves to blame for the sluggish economy and shortage of US dollars. Sustained savings, import substitution and robust exports are what build strong economies. That’s what SI64 impels the nation to do.