The Sunday News
By Dr Mandla Nyathi
THE reality, simple as it is, is that South Africa and Zimbabwe are two independent sovereign states founded on separate values, albeit, not mutually exclusive.
It presents a worrying logical problem to understand what would drive a citizen to have greater confidence in a foreign instrument than they have in their own country.
Remember, citizens can exact their influence on how they want their institutions to run by participating in elections.
Zimbabweans do not participate in electoral systems that determine value and safeguard the value of the rand. So why relegate this important responsibility to a foreign land?
The main backers of this school of thought, so one would logically suspect, know behind the back of their minds that it is only idealistic and would not work. So, what motivates their argument?
The answer is clear to all with a bit of a brain; it will perpetuate the chase for the elusive goose and create easy political opportunities for cheap picking in some constituencies.
The story is not complete before talking about the fears of the status quo remnants: and how their voices will likely drag the nation to a crisis.
Before doing that, a quick reminder of some of the historical laws of reason that proved to be incorrect with passage of time will help put some perspective to this argument.
Three popular examples of inductivity reasoning: that the sun will always rise and set in every 24 hours; that every bread nourishes and that all men are mortal are helpful in that regard.
The case of the sun was settled when Pytheas of Marseilles discovered the frozen sea and midnight sun.
On the case of mortality of men, it changed the Aristotelian theory on the discovery that for example, multiplication by fission is not death and cancer cells can multiply indefinitely.
The bread example refutation is in the case where people have died of ergotism while eating their daily bread. Put that aside for now!
The people that fear change of policy for the sake of change are merely human in any case.
They have nothing tangible that they can hold on to other than fear itself in the literal sense.
In their sense of fear, they risk populating the whole market with fear.
Alarmist language in the same quarters does not help either.
“Total destruction, Armageddon, disaster, and hopeless!” are some of the phrases and words that characterise the language of the lot in this group.
While this would matter less coming from lunatics of the society, it worries most when some of these words are from the persons that represent citizens in the national institutions such as the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Rather than pressurise the implementers of this new policy to stick to the frameworks envisioned by the architect of the policy, fear mongers have turned the focus towards predetermined failure before consummation.
Unless the voices of reason arise to dominate the space, the voices of anarchy will drown reason and drag everyone to a national crisis.
Anarchy is a desirable outcome for the political formations without capacity to argue on policy, on mathematical capacity and sophistication of statecraft.
None of the voices of chaos and anarchy has so far proffered any meaningful alternatives to the document presented by Prof Ncube on the return of the Zim dollar.
Instead, the drowning calls for the rand and US$ that they cannot control and have no idea how these two currencies are managed in their sovereign bases.
The challenge to the whole state of Zimbabwe is how to respond to these noises without dragging ourselves to a national crisis.
If truth be told, this behaviour appears tolerable only in Zimbabwe.
Even in the most liberal of the developed nations, it is difficult to imagine how the state actors would let go for long such despicable immoral behaviour that is bent on dragging the nation to a crisis.
Lastly, there is a section of the once we were there and know it all.
This is an arrogant lot.
It comprises some elements that have previously sat in the Cabinet of this country.
They think they know it all simply because of the ear that they get from some international agencies.
Notably, the former finance minister, Tendai Biti, who did a splendid job firing down the ransacking inflation in 2009 period, was also visible in the media on the subject of the new policy.
While it is normal, and should have expected media interest on his views as the former principal seat holder in that ministry, he has done little to demonstrate statesmanship in democratic developmental agenda.
His positional thinking, derived from the centre of his gravitational arguments on media interviews, resembles that of a gunman.
He was armed with a machinegun to deal with the rampaging inflation problem and collapsing economy ten years ago.
Like a gunman without a safety manual, his views can be dangerous. To remain in control or gain further control, the gunman has to keep firing the machinegun: with no recourse for example to soft skills of engagement and diplomacy.
To conclude, let the citizens of our country avoid talking each other to a national crisis: a crisis that can open an opportunity for the enemies of the people of Zimbabwe to have an excuse to screw the painful measures into our livelihoods and their sources.
Those among us with irrefutable evidence that the new finance policy will not work, bring it above board for dissection and examination by fellow comrades in all relevant forums that seek to support our infant democracy.
Voices of academics should arise and provide alternative sources of information to help our people to make informed decisions. Case closed for today!
Dr Mandla Nyathi is a Zimbabwean academic based in the United Kingdom.
He taught financial markets at the National University of Science and Technology between 2011 and 2018.
