THE ERROR WITH ZIMBABWEAN POLITICS

I have noted with great concern how people have been misguided on the fundamental causes of the judicial and economic rot in Zimbabwe. Most people attribute the causes to a party, some to an individual or individuals and some to foreign countries. But i believe what created the Zimbabwe we have today was not Robert Mugabe, it wasn't Emerson Mnangagwa nor was it Morgan Tsvangirai. What led us here my brothers and sisters is not an individual but a creature called "One Party System".

My argument is not on who created the system but my argument is on the fact that we have embraced it. Most people paint ZANU PF as the cause of the Zimbabwean problems and view M.D.C as the Joshua to take us to the promised land. Such a mindset is the main reason why Zimbabwean politics will continue to fail us. Such a mindset also shows the general acceptance of a one party system by people of Zimbabwe.

This is the system that turned fighters of democracy to dictators, this is the system that led to the careless looting of our precious resources and this is the system that led to the collapse of rule of law and the economy of Zimbabwe.

We endorsed majority vote and majority membership in Parliament of one party. We voted for one party only, with the assumption that its the sign of development. However, when one party had majority ruling, Ministers, Government Officials, Mayors, Provincial Administrators even Sports organizations leaders were now chosen on political grounds. Because one party had the leeway to set laws due to majority membership in Parliament, we started creating and empowering a monstrous system which oppressed its own people. Laws were now being passed and endorsed by bootlickers and hero worshipers who aimed to consolidate their power and impress the President. One party had the majority vote and its members were obligated to support each other to protect their interests.

This is the culture that we have bred in our society and this is the culture that has led us here. As long as in our mindsets we believe that its #MDC that has the economic revival keys and not ZANU PF or vice versa then we are still doomed. 

In #ZANUPF there are a lot of incompetent candidates and the same applies to #MDC or any other party for that matter. But as long as we continue to associate competence with a political party, we are still shooting ourselves in the foot and we will never progress. We have to transform our mindsets on how we brand our politics. We have to change from choosing leaders on partisan lines to competence lines. 

Vote for an #MP or #President or #Councillor that represents the best interests of the people, not because the belong to a certain political party. We want our parliament to be filled with visionary leaders from all political spheres. Leaders who are elected on merit not because they belong to a certain political party but because they carry a vision for the people. 

Once we have a diverse group of political leaders who are not guaranteed of a seat in #Parliament because they belong to one huge political party, that's when we will start having accountable leaders. Leaders who understand that if they don't deliver, the electorate will not vote for them next time. This is the brand of politics we want in #Zimbabwe and this is what will take Zimbabwe further. 

A lot of people are still voting for corrupt individuals just because they belong to the same political party. They are well aware that the current MP never delivered but they will still vote for them because they belong to the same political party. This brand of politics is what's killing #Zimbabwe. 

A lot of people will continue to vote for incompetent people because they hate the other party while neglecting the other deserving and competent candidates. This type of electorate mindset has birthed and nurtured a special breed of politicians who are more of "best orators and slogan chanters" than "policy driven politicians", yet we take pride in being a literate population. Are we just literate or we are intellectually #shallow and #literate?. 

Think Deep about what these candidates represent and what they are offering. Do a background research on what posts they have held before and what they have delivered.

Are they truly visionary leaders or they are hiding behind a party name ?

Are they policy driven or slogan driven ? 

It doesn't matter which President we have, but as long as we have a competent one surrounded by competent people. Having a Parliament with majority ZANU PF MPs or MDC MPs is disastrous for our country. Let's have Independent candidates voted in, let's have MDC people voted in, let's have ZANU PF people voted in, APA, ZIPP etc so that we have a balanced Parliament where proper legislation is approved not because of loyalty to one party but because it serves the best interests of the people. Lets run away from this one party system because it will continue to ruin our country. Let's embrace divergent views and promote an intellectually based debating culture with sound ideas and facts not hate speech driven by political party divides. Let's promote Parliaments made up of responsible and accountable leaders with strong visions that can take Zimbabwe further.

Why i continue to stress on the importance of voting in competent MPs is the fact that they are the law makers and this is where our ministers are chosen from. On the other hand Councillors ensure effective service delivery in local councils. If we have majority rule from one party, policies will be biased towards serving the interests of that party not the people. It doesn't matter if its MDC or ZANU PF with majority rule, but biaseness and abuse of power is inevitable in such a case.

It's not ED or Chamisa who can transform this country, but us as Zimbabweans, especially the young Zimbabweans. Associating development with a #face or #party is what led us here. A country is run by an #administration of competent people not a political party or individual. The sooner we realize that, the better.

This is my message to you.

Let us be the game changers.

Let's reform and create a better future that we will all be proud of.

THE ZIMBABWEAN MINDSET PROBLEM

The truth is, Zimbabwe needs no politician, no prophet but it needs a radical transformation in our mindset. Simply put we are a divided nation and its known that:

“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. - Mathew 12:25; Mark 3:25.

In Zimbabwe, we have started following leaders more than the ideas behind them. These leaders have blinded us from the truth and made us lose our ability to love one another and use reasoning. Instead, we have been used as tools to fight power battles between power elites. The trend is common both in the church and political institutions. We are made to believe lies and justify them ourselves because we either hate the incumbent or we are just too loyal.

We follow churches and political organizations because of the individuals leading them more than the ideas and systems. The leader’s opinions become the law that governs how we behave and think, because we believe that our leaders are the alpha and omega. Anything that comes from the leader you follow is the truth, and anything that comes from the leader you oppose is false.

We haven’t understood why leaders pre and post-independence have turned out to behave in a similar manner. The simple reason is that changing an individual without changing the systems and ideas is a waste of time. By allowing their self-centered opinions to govern us as law, there has been more division and hate among Zimbabweans than ever before.

Since we have adopted their personal opinions as the law, surrendered our reasoning capacity and followed individuals than ideas, the power to demand accountability from our leaders has been lost. Our leaders now get away with anything because we view them as mini gods. They have used us to settle personal scores and/or to remain or get into power whilst neglecting the interests of the country.

Leaders use the history and weaknesses of the other leader to wedge conflict within the population and use unrest and division to further their own agenda. We have made a mistake of thinking that their battles are the same with ours, yet we are just a tool. But where is Zimbabwe (us) and her interests? The truth is they have noticed we are so gullible that we don’t even bother to scrutinize them.

Some leaders have gone to foreign governments to seek economic restrictions on their country so that as the economy worsens, and people starve, people will protest and vote the incumbent out thereby allowing them to taste power. At the same time the incumbent has used these restrictions as an excuse to justify failure, corruption and looting of Zimbabwe’s limited resources. In such a dilemma, the people of Zimbabwe are the ones suffering and their economy collapsing. But her (Zimbabwe) people will believe that the one who is calling for change cares about them, not knowing that the trouble they are in was also contributed to by the one who claims to have the solutions.

When people lose lives protesting for their leader, they will later be called stupid because they protested in a way that exposed their leader to legal punishments. The violent protests of his party members led to the loss of non-protesting innocent lives hence the leader tries to distance himself and his party from that disturbance, instead he declares the protests were spontaneous and focus should be made on who made the shootings. On the other hand, the other leader will also try to distance his members from the mistake which resulted in the loss of innocent lives by blaming the opposition leader for violently protesting. The game keeps on being played until people lose interest.

The truth is, both leaders don’t really have the country at heart. They are only interested in the perks that comes by being at the apex of government. At the end of the day, it’s the ordinary Zimbabwean people who defend these leaders that collectively suffer. If only they knew that their collective efforts (corruption and sanctions) will have a lasting impact on our economy which will take years to reverse.

Churches split more in Zimbabwe than any other country. At a continental scale, they split more in Africa than any other continent. The gospel they preach and the doctrine that governs them is the same but what causes the divisions ? People follow individuals more than the ideas. The individuals they follow are power hungry hence they will try to cause divisions. People get so lost that they forget the ideas that drives the church which are humility, servant leadership, transparency and most importantly love and tolerance towards one another.

You see leaders in huge churches fighting over the constitution and positions. Its understandable because to them, a church is a business and a job first which surprisingly the Bible rebuts (1 Timothy 6, Hosea 4 etc.), before it is a place of comfort, healing and character building. They would rather preach about tithe, seeding and thanksgiving than love, tolerance, purity and empathy.

In all developed and catch-up economies in Africa and beyond, when the nation needs to unite they will do so wholeheartedly. That proud feeling of what defines who they are and where they come from is what is common among all successful countries. People can disagree on all sorts of stuff but still come to an agreement on things that don’t ruin their country.

I have seen how Rwandans have developed their country despite their leader being called dictator. I have seen how the British people value their history and monarchy despite its ugly past and mistakes. I have met a lot of Chinese people in different countries, and saw how they eat, drink and sleep Chinese. They would rather eat at a Chinese restaurant in the UK than go to McDonald’s. Americans can blast Trump from all angles, but they will never ever sabotage their economy to get back at him.

All these countries have acknowledged that despite the shortfalls in their leaders, differences in ideologies, religions, sexual orientation and ethnicity, their country’s image and development matters more than those differences. They have found a way to work together with those differences to build a better Rwanda, Britain, China etc.

Rarely do you see them inviting external influence in their struggles and challenges. They always make things work because they are united when it comes to the development for their country. In all these countries, corruption and human rights abuses might be there but they always find a way to solve their issues among themselves because no matter what people do or get away with, one thing that people agree to is that, when it comes to issues that destroy our country they won’t compromise. You can get away with anything but not on issues that kill the development of a nation.

In Zimbabwe we have failed to do that. Our leaders are willing to do anything just to push their own agendas. Calling on sanctions and even shooting people just get into or stay in power.

It’s sad !

I pray for one day, that despite all our differences we will all unite for one cause, which is to build a better Zimbabwe. One cause which will allow Zimbabweans to work together despite our differences, in order to build a better Zimbabwe.

When that mindset is in place, we will be able to criticize and focus on things that matter despite who and what you follow and believe in. We will be able to hold all our leaders accountable, from all political institutions because we will be putting Zimbabwe first before parties and individuals.

Individuals (politicians, prophets and religious leaders) will come and go but their ideas and systems we will always be there. Let’s start focusing on Zimbabwe first and evaluate and support the ideas, values and systems that propel Zimbabwe forward before individuals and political parties.

Until that happens, Zimbabwe will never be prosperous.

Remember:

A house divided against itself cannot stand. - Abraham Lincoln

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside can do us no harm — African Proverb

WHY IT HAS TAKEN LONG FOR BOND NOTES TO BE REMOVED

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Prof Mthuli Ncube has received a huge backlash from the opposition and the general public for not enforcing swift measures to remove Bond Notes. Questions have arisen as to why the Minister is not scrapping off such an “evil currency.” The preferred solution by the opposition has been to join the Rand Union and dollarize the economy. Well, considering the “face value” impact that dollarization had in 2009, it seems plausible to make such a move. It’s a valid and strong proposition. I then became curious to know why the Finance Minister is “arrogant” to maintain the status quo with regards to Bond Notes. Is it because he wants to allow the economy to gradually re-dollarize? or he aims to achieve certain macroeconomic targets that might be oblivious to the general population.

His theme “austerity for prosperity” has resulted in him being typically labelled clueless and captured. Conceivably he is clueless, but somehow, I still feel the weight of his CV needs us to avoid judging him too early. The man is not perfect, he has had his failures in his career, but would he also be totally wrong about the Zimbabwean economy, Maybe. Despite all that, I recognized something interesting on the Bond Notes saga and why they aren’t being scrapped off yet. I will put forward my reasonable argument by objectively analyzing the complex dilemma between the informal sector, government revenue maximization, trade deficit and foreign debt repayment plan. I will refer to this economic dilemma as the national fiscus complex quadrant.

Informal Sector: Zimstat report states that 94.5% of the 6.3 million people defined as employed are working in the informal economy. The most significant number (4.16m) is made up of smallholder farmers in communal agriculture, followed by those in trade and commerce. Some are said to occupy informal jobs in manufacturing, mining, education and transport (Economist Intelligent Unit, 2018). Taken at face value, these figures put formal-sector paid employment at only 350,000 people. Adopting a narrower definition of informality increases the number to 970,000 and lowers the informal percentage from 94.5% to 86%. Whichever estimate is used, however, the size of the informal sector is exceedingly greater than perceived (EIU, 2018). Such an economic structure results in many economic activity being carried out outside the formal regulatory and monitoring economic system, in the process having a huge impact on government tax revenue.

External Debt: When Prof Mthuli Ncube was sworn in, at the heart of its economic problems was a $17bn domestic and foreign debt, a $1.8bn trade deficit. The deficit has worsened dollar shortages and lack of confidence in the governing party by citizens still traumatized by hyperinflation. This came as the country’s debt is now well over $13 billion, a violation of provisions of the Debt Management Act stipulating that government debt should not exceed 70% of GDP, with the debt now estimated at 79%. These are the fundamental challenges that the Minister is faced with, and he must discover ways to maneuver around that, without the help of any multilateral organization or foreign government.

Trade Deficit: Zimbabwe suffers one of the lowest capacity utilization rates of less than 50% in the SADC region. Industrial capacity utilization only peaked at 57,2% in 2011 and started sliding to 44,2% in 2012 and 39,6% in 2013 and even after Hon. Biti left, it continued to slide to 36,3 % in 2014 and 34,3% in 2015. This trend resulted in local products being in short supply and expensive, which ultimately exerted an upward pressure on cheaper imports.

Zimbabwe’s trade deficit has considerably been on the negative side, with its all-time high being recorded a year after dollarization in 2010. In a bid to reduce the trade deficit, the government subsequently introduced the bond notes in 2016. The policy move was aimed at reducing illicit flows of money, reduce imports whilst promoting exports and also encourage necessary local spending with anticipated economic ripple effects of spurring productive capacity and export growth in local firms. It was a great idea on paper, but many issues where not factored in, chief among them being the “perception risk” of government public policies by Zimbabweans in general.

Government Tax Revenue: Government revenue steeply increased in 2009 after the dollarization of the economy before stabilizing since 2010. However, the government has struggled to support its bloated civil service, pursue debt repayment and invest in infrastructure and social services such as education and health. Hon. Biti did extremely well in ensuring that the government revenue meets its expenditure. During his tenure, Zimbabwe recorded its lowest budget deficits.

However, the shortfall was in the failure to generate enough revenue for other key areas i highlighted above. Most of the revenue received went towards supporting the government bloated wage bill. The situation was made worse after 2013 when the budget deficit ballooned under Hon. Patrick Chinamasa. So the challenge facing Mthuli Ncube is to simultaneously ensure the government collects enough revenue to support the civil service, pay back loans and invest in other key government sectors such as health and education.

Therefore, the following questions need to be answered:

How can Mthuli Ncube ensure the government collects enough revenue to support the civil service, pay back loans and invest in other key government sectors with such a highly "nontaxable" informal sector ?How can the Bond Notes contribute towards maximizing tax revenue ?

The hate towards Bond Notes is justifiable and is primarily driven by lack of public trust in the ability of the government to objectively control money supply especially after the hyper-inflationary period of 2008. Furthermore, most informally employed Zimbabweans depend on cross-border trading hence the introduction of a “currency” which is not accepted as a legal tender outside Zimbabwe was going to adversely affect their businesses. Also, the pressing need for foreign currency by local businesses as well to purchase equipment, raw materials etc, inevitably led to the development of the forex illegal market. The rates in the black market differs from the 1:1 government narrative since black market rates are primarily dependent on the local demand for forex or on the supply side dynamics. Having appreciated these challenges, the government then made strides in expanding and promoting electronic money supply as an alternative and compliment to Bond Notes.

So, what will happen if Prof Mthuli Ncube dollarizes ?

The adoption of cash as the preferred payment method in the informal sector implying a decline in the usage of electronic money;Reduction in tax-based government revenue as cash payments to VAT unregistered informal businesses increase;A huge set back in debt repayment program preventing new lines of credit being opened;An increase in imports (widening trade deficit) since it will be easier to convert USD to ZAR;Decline in the purchase of local products (severely affecting recovery trajectory for local firms);Lastly, increase in illicit flows as more money will be easily pumped outside by foreign businesses.

Such a dilemma explains why Tendai Biti (Minister of Finance 2009-2013), told debt cancellation campaigners at a conference in 2009,

"Zimbabwe does not have the capacity to pay the debt and we will not pay this debt”

In 2017 Biti also said,

“repaying loans to the World Bank is criminally irresponsible and treasonous.”

Since 2009, Hon. Biti has argued that Zimbabwe’s economic indicators reflect that of a low-income country and therefore Zimbabwe should qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). He has hammered on that point since countries that fall under the classification of HIPC benefit from exceptional arrears clearance support from the IFIs. In many countries however, huge external debts have been largely associated with low economic growth hence clearing, the debts will represent an encouraging start.

What I then realized is that, Hon. Biti didn’t provide a logical plan on ways to maximize government revenue when faced with a highly informal economy which is driven by cash payments. It was therefore sensible for Hon. Biti to push for HIPC classification whilst using the little government revenue available for what he termed “national development” initiatives whilst neglecting the external debt and the expanding trade deficit. Hon. Biti is more of a populist so there was no way that he was going to pursue austerity.

Therefore, it seems Prof Mthuli Ncube is adopting the sustainable yet tough route that Biti was scared to take, which involves prioritizing debt repayment first in the short-term through high electronic money transaction tax of 2%. The size and volume of transactions carried out through electronic money transactions is huge enough to all Prof Ncube to be confident about the country’s ability to repay its debt to IFIs by November 2019. In his 2018 Monetary Policy Statement, Mangudya said more than 96% of the 1 billion transactions processed in the entire country in 2017 were through electronic and mobile banking systems.

Ultimately, Prof Mthuli Ncube “reluctance” of urgently removing Bond Notes is underpinned by the following factors:

Bond Notes create continuous demand for foreign currency and usage of electronic money;Electronic money is used by both informal & formal sectors enabling easier transactional taxing;The volume of transactions is immense hence more revenue can be obtained;The challenges in obtaining foreign currency will limit illicit flows whilst suppressing imports and stimulating local products demand;Allowing duty to be paid in forex will also imply that the government has the enough forex it needs for its various key expenditure;Lastly, 2% electronic money transactional taxing will promote faster accumulation of revenue needed for external debt clearance by end of 2019.

From such an objective perspective, it seems plausible for Prof Mthuli Ncube to typically take such an unpopular objective stance. In his own words, the Minister said that,

“The economy has been informalised, so measures that were effective before in broadening the tax base are no longer effective. We need to come up with new measures for that and this is one such measure. That is the norm. I know it is a shock to people, but we do need austerity now. We need to fix our country together.”

In such a unique case, why would he seek to dollarize the economy? The critical goal of stabilizing the economy won’t be achieved if the government doesn’t get enough revenue. Taxing electronic money transfers whilst complimented using the Bond Note is the solitary way the economy can stabilize.

Conclusively I would say that, the Bond Notes were introduced to resolve certain issues I have highlighted in this text but to a broader extent, have stifled business growth in Zimbabwe. Several key issues were neglected and overlooked in their practical implementation. Regardless of their net effect, Bond notes might be serving Prof Mthuli interests better than they did to Patrick Chinamasa.

His most daunting challenge is undoubtedly the local opposition that has advanced a narrative of labeling Prof Ncube as a tool for to robbing innocent citizens. Politically, worsening “public trust” and “perception risk” of the government remain the solitary ways that the opposition can use to affect the policy objectives of the current government. Besides, it is well known that opposition parties in young democracies thrive from the failures of the ruling government. So why would you objectively evaluate the policies and not trash them altogether.

In as much as the Finance Minister would genuinely want the economy to re-dollarize as soon as possible, he knows precisely that it’s rather too premature as this will affect the short-term stabilization goals as stated in the Transitional Stabilization Program (TSP) policy document.

If you have any comments please feel free to comment below. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

HOW THE ZIMBABWEAN EDUCATION FAILED US

After passing my 'A' level studies, my parents expected me to get a "university degree", make them proud and then wait for employment either from the government or any company. Four excruciating years later, I got that degree and made my parents happy. Exactly like most families, merely graduating is still considered as the foundation for unending success and a financial breakthrough for the entire family. Parents are willing to work extra hard and borrow as much as they can to meet the heavy cost implications attached to such an endeavor. This is the same script that most parents and youthful minds are referring to from. Youthful minds merely want to graduate at all costs, make their parents proud and then expect to be employed. No one bothers to ask "then what if jobs aren't present?". Most in fact do, though, they will respond by saying, "then a Masters or Phd" and at that stage, they believe a job will be automatic, but will it be? If it's not, what measures are you taking to make sure you enhance your chances of getting one or creating one? Just in case there are a few jobs out there, will your degree empower you to be able to overcome the challenge of being an unemployed graduate? As a recent graduate myself, I have realized the grave mistake I made in choosing my career path and how it will make me extremely vulnerable especially in Zimbabwe if I don't step up my game.

  

People often assume that once the economy stabilizes, jobs will start falling from the sky not knowing that stabilizing or economic growth is not a one-day event, it's a process that takes years, if not decades. During that process, certain "degrees" are relevant but some are not, there are winners and losers. Uncommon to most people, there are specific professions that are synonymous with specific stages of economic development. Traditionally, a country goes through structural changes as it economically develops. Rostow highlights that a country will naturally pass through 5 stages of economic development, with agriculture typically dominating the early developmental stages and manufacturing & services dominating later stages of development. Coming back to Zimbabwe, agriculture through exports of tobacco and unprocessed minerals represent the significant drivers of the economy. One would, therefore, expect it to be characterized by less productive cheap labor just like most developing countries. In Zimbabwe, however, the human capital is well educated, having one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. The distinct kind of human capital is perceived to be suitable for industrialization but sadly, that is undoubtedly not the typical case.

But why is it like that?

Rostow argues that an economy usually transforms from a less developed agriculture-based economy through industrialization to progressively become a developed economy. This primarily happens in two ways which are the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and innovative entrepreneurship. Zimbabwe seems to be failing spectacularly at both frontiers. The failure is a direct result of political mishap and the intellectual quality of human capital available. In this article, I will focus on the "quality" of human capital and why it has equally failed Zimbabwe. Since the problem started manifesting a couple of decades ago, it has remained the same, despite changes in the Zimbabwean political landscape. This is why I will hold the political factor constant as it is likely to remain the same if not addressed.

So where are we mistaken?

As the manufacturing side of the economy started dying, the government shifted its policy trajectory to service-based industries like education, tourism, retail industries among others. This is why the multi-campus system has become common trend as it reveals the increasing need to sell as much as education as possible whilst also developing towns with dead industries e.g. Zvishavane. Not only that, most institutions moved to survival mode as the limited numbers of students they enrolled started defaulting on tuition fees. To cut losses and remain profitable, more courses were introduced or enrollment requirements were lowered, mainly in commerce and humanities fields such as accounting, psychology with the aim to accommodate more "clients." Institutions now focused on quantities of enrollments, not the relevance of a program or quality of graduates. Universities became like fast-food outlets which over supply affordable junk food without considering the long-term health effects. No one cares, as long as innocent people eagerly consume whilst they make money. Over the years, such an approach has created a huge surplus of "educated" graduates with irrelevant knowledge to the stage of economic development of our country. Worse still, the most significant portion of such students was poorly educated as universities were only concerned with numbers. Ultimately, you are left with a huge chunk of incompetent human capital with irrelevant skills.

In addition, the education curriculum for Zimbabwe hasn't changed considerably since the 1980's. It has been centered towards rewarding the most brilliant students who can regurgitate the most facts, figures, and equations. I recall my distinguished Econometrics lecturer would prepare us to derive beta ( β) or theta (θ) . We would invest hours trying to manually present and interpret econometric data, a skill that is now done electronically by Strata and E-Views statistical softwares. Frequently, we found ourselves questioning why so much concerted effort was being put in teaching us how to manually calculate econometric data and zero effort towards how to collect, input, correctly interpret data and properly apply it to realistic scenarios with the assistance of statistical software packages. Manual skills were surely relevant in the 1950's when modern computers didn't exist, but not in the 21st century. That ultimate realization hasn't filtered through the intellectual minds of university executives. One starts wondering why our country lacks both innovative students and entrepreneurs who are also critical thinkers and problem solvers. Independent brilliant 'victor' minds who will be able to properly adjust and thrive in a worsening economy through entrepreneurial innovation and problem-solving.

So what has been done?

Well, on how to progressively improve the academic curriculum and education standards, nothing has been done. The only great thing that once happened was the shift in the focus of attention from Commercials and Social Sciences to STEM-related fields. A brilliant move spearheaded by the then Minister of Higher & Tertiary Education Prof Jonathan Moyo who realized this distinct gap and launched an extensive campaign to tacitly encourage gifted students to study STEM-related programs. It was a good move, with many positive long-term benefits. An initiative I genuinely believe should have been introduced a long time ago. I was glad someone had realized that a lot of students were graduating with degrees that not only made them vulnerable to the current economic downturn but also made them irrelevant to any future or current industrialization efforts to drive growth. Sooner or later, this is where Zimbabwe is naturally headed if the current political mess is resolved and only those with such relevant skills will reap the most today and tomorrow.

China's economy has managed to grow exponentially, not because of aimless training of its human capital, but by focusing on specific vocational skills training and STEM fields which ensure the country has the appropriate human capital with skills relevant to drive development not stall it. China attracts FDI not only because of its affordable labor but also because of the attractive quality and economic relevance of the human capital to manufacturing industries.

Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed this point when he said:

There's a confusion about China. The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I'm not sure what part of China they go to but the truth is China stopped being the low labor cost country many years ago. The reason is because of the skill, and the quantity of skill in one location and the type of skill it is.

And China has an abundance of skilled labor unseen elsewhere, says Cook:

The products we do require really advanced tooling, and the precision that you have to have, the tooling and working with the materials that we do are state of the art. And the tooling skill is very deep here. In the US you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I'm not sure we could fill the room. In China you could fill multiple football fields.

Cook credits China's vast supply of highly skilled vocational talent:

The vocational expertise is very very deep here, and I give the education system a lot of credit for continuing to push on that even when others were de-emphasizing vocational. Now I think many countries in the world have woke up and said this is a key thing, and we've got to correct that. China called that right from the beginning.

Watch here:

In Zimbabwe, however, vocational skills and STEM-related academic fields have been de-emphasized due to several possible reasons. The reasons might range from low enrollment rates in STEM fields which affect profitability, to unavailability of specialist lecturers in such fields. This has resulted in the oversupply of qualified graduates who are into humanities and commerce fields. These are not the type of fields that will allow mass employing manufacturing firms to invest in Zimbabwe, unless if the "graduates" are willing to accept the menial jobs usually meant for less educated human capital. This is another contributing factor to the reasons why Zimbabwe only attracts investment in mostly service-based sectors like retail and why China comes with most of its staff when carrying our most skills-based projects, especially in Africa.

With respect to entrepreneurship, most of the necessary skills that students naturally acquire do not empower them but make them vulnerable, especially in the Zimbabwean context. With an under-performing manufacturing sector and an obese service sector, most viable businesses are those that are complementing the manufacturing sector. Most of the industries that have endured the test of time are the vehicle engineers, welders, construction experts, IT experts, carpenters, engineers, doctors, pharmacists, etc. In a country which imports more toilet paper than harvesting machinery, I'm sure one can visualize how deep the problem is. In 2015, the Ministry of Finance stated that most of the SMEs face viability challenges attributed mainly to cutting edge entrepreneurial skills deficiency. As the economy continued to worsen, SMEs that survived the economic turmoil were those that were driven by skilled human capital managed to stay afloat. SMEs, which were into service-based sectors failed to cope as these sectors are predominantly income elastic, unlike engineers and doctors.

The problem is our education system doesn't produce human capital with the ability to become victors but victims during times of economic turmoil. When these young men and women graduate, they expect to be hired and employed. However, a country's citizens should be empowered to generate their own jobs and their efforts must be complemented by other external factors including international investments. I honestly believe despite the economic downturn, the nature of entrepreneurship that citizens ultimately partake in reflects how well educated and empowered are the citizens of a country. Whilst other unemployed graduates in other countries can create prototypes, ours sell airtime and vegetables. I hope, someone can observe the stark difference in the level of expertise, drive and vision in both circumstances. In other countries, a degree in empowerment tool. an enabler and a tool for growth whilst in Zimbabwe, a degree is an entitlement certificate to what the government must do for you. My point is not to say the government is not directly responsible for ensuring a suitable environment for job creation, but at the end of the day how the citizens make their choices given the current situation which will determine how far they can go.

In the UK, there has been an intense debate on what the curriculum should involve with knowledge, learning, theory being seen as ‘traditional and outdated’ and skills, outcomes, application seen as ‘progressive and modern’ concepts. In the US, only 42% of graduates will find a job in less than 6 months. Unemployment and underemployment rates have doubled since 2007 as more than 80% of employers require candidates with work experience and almost 66% of employees are hired on experience over academic qualifications. If both these scenarios are being faced in 1st world countries, what about Zimbabwe?

I believe, our Zimbabwean institutions of higher learning should focus on skills, outcomes, and application more. We have more than 3 universities with the core function of innovating and investing products which are relevant to the Zimbabwean context. Nigeria and Ugandan university students are now building concept cars but in Zimbabwe it's rare. I understand the Zimbabwean economy comes with its challenges, but the graduate unemployment and underemployment problem remain a global one, which is nothing but worse in Zimbabwe. This shows that not all graduates are likely to get jobs the moment they graduate, even if Zimbabwe suddenly becomes a first world country tomorrow. Having said that, what's the way forward in the meantime, should we continue to celebrate the mediocrity that our graduates represent? Should we continue urging the young people to continue recklessly pursuing degrees which make them more vulnerable? Should we continue pursuing degrees for their sake not how they must empower us to empower others? Is a degree representation of job entitlement or maybe it must signify the level of self worth and value in society?

I'm not ruling out the necessity of securing a degree, but considering the volatile and ever-evolving economy and job market, the choice of the degree and the mindset of the one pursuing the degree now plays a huge role. Most students talk about how their degree will allow them to work for certain organisations. What if the opportunity to work for those organisations is not presented to you, how will your degree empower you as an individual? Merely graduating is no longer a foundation to success, but what you are graduating with now matters. The 21st century economies now need graduates with the right mindset, relevant skills, and courageous attitude. Nothing is surely going to fall on our lap and we have to push for the outcome we desire, in a strategic and visionary way. Evading the potential trap of merely aiming to graduate without any clear plan of how that degree will empower you, is one of the ways. I passionately believe its dangerous to study something which will entirely require another third force to activate for you to recognize the economic benefits.

A degree should enable you to be a "victor" not "victim", with or without a job.