High Expectations From The Mnangagwa Government

At the outset, let me congratulate President Mnangagwa for winning the 2018 Presidential Race. The agenda of the Second Republic in the shape of their visionary “Election Manifesto” is to successfully implement growth-oriented, people-friendly, and consensus-driven policies. The overriding expectation from Zimbabwean’s is that the government will deliver on all its election promises. 

The Mnangagwameter initiative produced an on-line tracker https://mnangagwameter.polimeter.org. outlining several promises. I believe that the new government has plans emanating from the manifesto that are comprehensively prepared, encompassing all facets of our economy and society. The citizenry has high expectations, and anticipate such expectations to be met. All they want is an improvement of their standard of living.

The challenges that President Mnangagwa faces are very tall and he may be subjected to unrelenting political criticism by all those who lost the contest. However, the politics of consensus and collaboration with opposition parties is a sine qua non for achieving desired national outcomes. My hope is that Zimbabwean’s from all political persuasions will commit their full-fledged support to all positive and visionary government initiatives.

President Mnangagwa’s assessment of performance since assuming office on 24 November 2017 is polarising, depending on who is doing the evaluation. While his detractors believe that he had failed to make real progress, his supporters think he performed beyond expectations, and believe that he will do better and consolidate on the gains he achieved in the eight months in office.

And What’s in President Mnangagwa’s In-Tray?
The expectations outlined hereunder are a few aspirations of Zimbabwe’s economy and the society, and may be achieved in a planned manner over the short to medium term. They constitute items of the new President “To-Do-List”.

1. Unite The Nation: After forming a new government the President’s most important task will be to unite the country. This will not be easy after such an aggressive and polarizing election campaign.
2. Economic Recovery and Growth: Three decades of Mugabe’s rule has left the economic development lagging behind many other country's in the region and beyond. The negative heritage will weigh heavily on the President Mnangagwa. His priority will be to put Zimbabwe back on the road to economic recovery and growth.
3. Transparent and Efficient Administration: The expectation is that the government will continue to improve efficiency and bring more transparency in the system. The President is expected to widely set working standards and level of service that government need to provide to the people. It is anticipated government will implement ‘e-Government Services’, which will solve the problem of accessibility, transparency, delayed services, and invariably reduce government officials burden and time, and save the fiscus money. Of great importance will be to provide a grievances and feedback process for services received as this will facilitate informed decision making, informed strategic changes in administration, and provide evidence based assessment tools.
4. Prudent Fiscus Management: State finances are stretched which will make it hard for President Mnangagwa to spending his way to popularity. His austerity policy programmes may raise the risk of deeper economic pain in the near future. The citizenry expects that his government will consider the difficult time and start making sacrifices on their comforts and luxuries.
5. Innovation: Government should come up with new plans for the development of the state. They need to apply various new and modern ideas to take Zimbabwe to new heights.
6. Policy Consistency and Coherence: Government should make less illogical decisions. They have historically made various unreasoned decisions, policy stalling and reversals which were not in the interest of the people. They will be expected to make decisions after understanding the problems of common people.
7. Fighting Corruption: How the President addresses corruption issues will be closely watched in the days to come. There should be an end to the menace of corruption. Corruption is present everywhere in our state be it politics, government, business and so on. It will be a wonderful step by the Government , if they are able to stop this menace.
8. FDI Attraction: Investor sentiment improved in the last eight months, but the Government needs to consistently send positive signals to investors.
9. Employment Creation: Unemployment is at alarming levels and has potential of brain draining our creative talent. Youths who don’t find employment despite their best efforts, get frustrated and lead some into crime and drug addiction. Government should generate more employment avenues for the unemployed, especially the youth. To make this happen government has to help revive the manufacturing sector and focus on manufacturing-led growth. The SME sector contributes to manufacturing, exports and employment in a big way and, therefore, this sector should be vigorously promoted.
10. Expedite Projects Implementation: Government is expected to speed up the pace of different stalled and on-going infrastructure projects. The slow pace of these projects affect the working of the different sectors of the state.
11. Balanced Urban and Rural Development: Overall development of the state is the need of the hour. Government should work equally for both the urban and the rural areas and bring down the disparity between them.
12. Public Healthcare: State-owned hospitals and health clinics at all levels need better service, medicine, infrastructure, and more trained staff.
13. Electricity Generation: Electricity is one of the main problems in Zimbabwe. Most areas remain without electricity for several hours.
14. Sort Traffic Mess: Government should properly address the ever increasing traffic mess in the City of Harare as it is causing a lot of trouble for the commuters. There is need for proper infrastructure in our traffic system to tackle this menace.
15. Clean Water: Clean and adequate water supply is a dire need for the majority of our population. Intentional and long term effort is required from government to address this issue.

I am optimistic that some results will manifest, but we must be mind-full that we are climbing a steep hill and it takes time and strenuous effort to get to the peak. However, if Government develops the right policy mix for the country they may score successes on several of these issues.