Austerity For Prosperity: Is This The Right Model For Zimbabwe?
It has now been just over one year since controversial Oxford Professor of Economics Mthuli Ncube took over the reins at Zimbabwe's Ministry of Finance. His plan for a nation desperately in need of answers was the ‘Transitional Stabilisation Programme’ whose mantra is ‘Austerity for Prosperity’. Eight Months into the blueprint and the results so far can optimistically be described as mixed but more accurately as disappointing. The twin deficits bedevilling the current account and budget have largely disappeared, but so have electricity, basic commodities, fuel and a living wage for the majority of Zimbabweans. Theory and reality are somewhat divorced from one another. What’s going on? Is the first African to lecture at the prestigious London School of Economics being too academic with people’s livelihoods? Would you inject a patient in a hospital's Intensive Care Unit with a vaccine? Probably not. The ordinary Zimbabwean was already struggling to ma...