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Rangu Nyamurundira
Cowbirds are those birds that follow cattle to feed off insects unsettled from the grazed grass.
They are infamous for laying their eggs in the nests of other birds and then watching from a distance while the toiling host nurtures their chicks.
Cowbirds have an even darker side, they destroy the unwilling host’s eggs if the host pushes out their eggs.
Imagine Zimbabwe’s economy as a nest crafted from indigenous fiber, in which an empowered society of indigenous Zimbabweans must be nurtured.
Then imagine foreign economic interests as cowbirds seeking a host to nurture their capital and rear dividend that will no sooner leave the host nest empty.
Zimbabwe is burdened by a cowbird economy.
No surprise then that Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa recently told a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority gathering, at their Taxpayers Appreciation Awards ceremony, that he has been having sleepless nights, and that his sleep would return only upon a performing economy.
Minister Chinamasa affirmed an important truth about the Zimbabwean economy, that “we are on our own”.
He went further to advise that we must now seriously look at domestic mobilisation as paramount to our economic development, moreso considering what he called a “structural shift that is taking place in Zimbabwe’s economy over the past 20 years”.
The structural shift, most evident in land reform and indigenisation, has been weaving an indigenous economy within which to nest an empowered society of indigenous Zimbabweans.
The cowbird reaction of foreign capital interests has been to devise means of pushing out indigenous aspirations so an indigenous economy remains a host economy for non-indigenous hatchlings.
Yet, our biggest challenge is that there remains complicit attitudes and conduct by some administrators of our restructuring economy, those whose inferiority complex preserves a nostalgic belief in foreign economic intervention, making indigenous innovation and enterprise vulnerable to being muscled out.
The vision of “An Empowered Society and a Growing Economy” speaks to the correlation between purposefully and boldly establishing an empowered society as the new economic fabric and ensuring sustained economic performance, growth and stability.
Comrades, the international monetary institutions are not coming, these garandichauya maidens we delude ourselves into thinking will birth us a performing and growing indigenous economy.
The World Bank has apparently assured Patson Dzamara that no bailout is coming our way, until arrears are settled.
Comrades, no foreign capital will be invested towards clearing our debt.
We are on our own.
Only an empowered society of indigenous Zimbabweans integrating their innovation, enterprise and resilience will see increased productivity and economic growth through judiciously exploiting our natural and human resources.
Without that, sleep will remain elusive because we entertain a cowbird economy.
The Zimra gathering to which our good minister spoke must take note of just one true story, that of a 36-year-old Zimbabwean, who last year decided to bring his cross-border trucking business back home after eight years in Zambia where he had enjoyed incentives for bringing our neighbor some foreign currency.
He sought to bring the entire fleet home, with its promise of jobs and foreign currency.
He was met at the border by Zimra demanding its arm and a leg, unwilling to consider a solution that would guarantee it greater tax collection, in the medium to long term.
As a result, four trucks were left behind in Zambia.
There lie the symptoms of sleepless nights in a cowbird economy.
The Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers recently hosted an awards ceremony at the Chinhoyi University of Technology to recognise 18 students, from five tertiary institutions, whose engineering innovations and solutions can be commercialised and integrated into our economy.
Yet, there were no line ministries there to acknowledge and integrate such innovative solutions into their relevant economic sectors.
What is “ease of doing business” if it does not speak to enabling a new empowered society that must become the foundation upon which to grow our indigenous economy?
Is the ministry responsible for health care aware that the Zimbabwe Champions and Heroes of the Economic Empowerment Revolution’s star and nominee for Week 33 is a 33-year-old Dr Simba Makuni whose BMC Hospital has attracted an Indian hospital to invest here?
He has brought state-of-the-art critical care equipment that will plug our economy’s bleeding from exporting medical fees to India.
Is the ministry responsible for industry aware of the Week 36 and 39 nominees?
There is the 31-year-old BSC (Hon) Chemistry degree holder Rudo Mazhandu who produces 2000 bars of soap a day in backyard Budiriro and Spencer Mukuku recycling plastic waste into hosepipes and generating as much as US$15 000 in revenue per month.
Are these youth, using their own resources and innovation, not in the forefront of championing SI 64 despite the cowbird economy in which they operate?
Spencer Mukuku had to leave CBZ Bank because it could not tailor make services to enable his growth. Likewise, Stanbic Bank lost Dr Makuni’s now growing business as a client.
These youth were wise enough to know in good time that “we are on our own” and did not find playing soccer in First Street, dressed in their graduation gowns, to be an option.
Today they create jobs and lay their claim within a restructuring economy.
Here lies the cause of Honourable Patrick Chinamasa’s insomnia.
Sleep will continue to be elusive because the structural shifts within our economy have not readily embraced and integrated indigenous innovation, enterprise and resilience and our “empowered society” to make the economy perform and grow, not vulnerable to foreign capital interests with cowbird instincts.
Rangu Nyamurundira is a lawyer and advocate for Zimbabwe’s indigenisation and economic empowerment programme.
Online Reporter