After Covid-19, Africa must reset its politics

By Rawlings Magede

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube concluded his 2019-2020 budget speech in November last year by quoting famous actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The quotation “What we face may look in-surmountable. But I learnt something from all those years of training and competing. I learnt something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learnt is that we are always stronger than we know”, had serious undertones of narcissism and failure .That Mthuli promised more but failed to deliver on anything must not be a burden that the citizen must be preoccupied with especially during this desperate times. When he was appointed Minister, Mthuli soon got down to work by assuring citizens that he was going to push for macro-economic stability. In October 2018, Mthuli tabled the Transitional Stabilization Program (TSP) whose primary objectives were to achieve stability both in the macro-economy and the financial sector, introduce necessary public policy and institutional reforms to transform to a private sector economy and launch quick wins that would stimulate growth by December 2020.All this was being done under the watchful eye of International Monetary Fund (IMF) supported through its Staff Monitored Program (SMP).

When the SMP concluded on 24 February 2020, the IMF remarked that the monitoring program was now off track due to a number of reasons. Some of the reasons cited include the country’s fiscal indiscipline and the snail’s pace of some proposed economic reforms.Among these reforms include the need to privatize social services and reduce government wage bill. All these measures however were major catalysts in the privatization of social services and led to serious job losses for many civil servants.

Privatization of social services such as health further worsened the situation given that in the past 3 decades or so, the sector has suffered from government neglect. In the 2020 budget, Mthuli allocated a paltry ZW6.5 billion towards health while the Ministry of Defence and Home Affairs got a combined ZW$5.91 billion.The novel corona virus pandemic that the countries the world over are struggling to contain, has exposed government disastrous priorities in relation to the preparedness of our health services to contain the virus. The virus has grounded leading economies with its devastating plunder.Today, government grapples to assure the nation that our dilapidated health infrastructure that has suffered from years of neglect, can save lives. Save a thought for Zimbabwe.

Africa and COVID-19

As of yesterday (17/04/2020), Africa had recorded a total of 19 897 cases .The five countries reporting most cases are Egypt (2 844), South Africa (2 783), Morocco (2 564), Algeria (2 418) and Cameroon (1 016). Economic power houses such as the United States of America have been hit hard. To date the US has recorded 710 272 cases, 37 175 deaths while 63 510 have recovered. The United Kingdom has recorded 108 692 cases and 14 576 deaths. The trail of destruction left by this pandemic especially in western countries may change the face of developmental aid to Africa
Between 2004 and 2005, the UK government through its department that administers overseas aid, Department for international Development (DFID) spent 883 million pounds on aid to Africa alone. By 2007-8, DFID spending on programmes in Africa had risen to 1265 million pounds. Africa receives 32 percent of all aid from America followed by the Middle East at 31 percent and South and Central Asia at 25 percent. The 32 percent towards Africa is a significant amount that goes to cater for humanitarian assistance and economic development and chances are that over the years, this percentage has risen significantly. These two countries (UK and America) are the traditional donors that have been providing developmental aid to Africa in the last decades. In the post era of the corona pandemic, the economies of these countries will struggle as they try to recover

For Africa, besides receiving developmental aid, social services such have long been in a sorry state years before the world encountered serious pandemics such as the novel corona. This has been evidenced by African leaders who either have died in foreign countries while seeking medical attention or others who even today continue to flock abroad in search of better health services. Over the years, long time rulers such as Paul Biya (Cameroon), Robert Mugabe (late) (Zimbabwe),Omar Bongo (late) (Gabon ) have all sought medical treatment abroad. This however was as a result of the poor condition of their own health facilities in their countries. Today, this trend of seeking medical attention has not stopped. Zimbabwe’s Vice President, Constantine Chiwenga spent several months holed up in China where he was receiving medical attention. Such a culture by our leaders exposes how they don’t have confidence in our own health facilities and yet expect their own citizen to receive such treatment. While some elites from across the continent have been beneficiaries of this privilege of getting medical treatment abroad, the current pandemic has stirred debate across many countries on the need to think about the state and capacity of our own health facilities to respond to global pandemics such as covid 19.

Covid 19 has aptly demonstrated that no African country has enough capacity to survive the economic onslaught during the lockdowns that have been imposed on many African countries. The world over, there has been a significant number of people who have recovered from corona virus. The greatest challenge or threat to Africa today is not the pandemic but our insensitive leaders who have neglected the responsibility to improve our health infrastructure.

Today as many African governments are at sixes and sevens as they try to ineffectively respond to covid 19, they continue to extend their begging bowls for more aid to respond to the pandemic. They do this shameful act, with gusto and courage. Revenue generated from our natural resources over the years has been used to prop up regimes and sponsor exotic lifestyle at the detriment of our health infrastructure. This has also been demonstrated by lack of ownership of our development priorities and policies. Instead we have left this immense task to donors.

In the final analysis, Covid 19 presents an opportunity for African countries to self introspect. The days of “one-man-plunder” must now become a thing of the past. We must reset our politics and economies and prioritize quality social services for our people.

Rawlings Magede is a Communication for Development expert who writes here in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on vamagede@gmail.com

Lockdown without income replacement: Zimbabwe got it wrong

By Rawlings Magede President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently announced a 21 day national lockdown that will take effect from 30 March 2020.The lockdown seeks to minimize the risk of Covid -19 infection by ensuring that movements are restricted. Several measures have been put in place to ensure that during this lockdown, critical services are kept running. For all its worth, the lockdown makes sense for a country like Zimbabwe where the number of tests for Covid-19 being done under the supervision of the Ministry of health hovers between 300-350 people. This is a very small number in a country that heavily relies on imports from neighbouring South Africa. While the authorities can revel in the cold comfort that the country has a low rate of infection as compared to other countries, the rate at which authorities are testing for the virus will in the long run prove otherwise.
No one trusts the government! Before the country recorded any corona related deaths, the government yet again went on a public relations offensive by announcing to the world that it was ready to assist China in the fight against corona virus. Such a reckless statement was done without full comprehension of the biting effects of the pandemic .Added to this, the pronouncement was also hypocritical given that country’s public health infrastructure is in shambles. In past national budgets, government misplaced priorities have been exposed aptly demonstrated by allocating substantial budget allocations towards Ministries such as defence and home affairs while underfunding health and social welfare. This is a story for another day. I am not chasing this today.

Today my heart bled as I saw some photos from Mutare doing rounds on social media. The first photo has a police truck loading some confiscated wares from vendors. In another photo, piles of vegetables (possibly from vendors) are being set alight by some unidentified man. While as a country we need to collectively institute preventative measures to contain the spread of the novel virus, our government got it all wrong when it instituted a 21 day lock day without considering a number of factors..The pronouncement was not well thought as it ignored some economic realities such as the fact that the majority of citizens rely on the informal sector for sustenance. What is worrying about Zimbabwe is the “copy and paste” approach by government especially during desperate times. In the case of South Africa, a total lockdown made sense given the country’s population demographics. Added to this, in Southern Africa, South Africa tops the list in covid-19 infections.

As the virus continues to torment governments across the world, it has however become apparent that not all countries can adopt the same responsive mechanisms. Developed countries have a wide range of options aimed at not only strengthening their health systems but also of ensuring that their economies do not slide into an abyss during this period. Several western countries have instituted lockdowns with income replacement where governments pay companies to keep their workers and in some instances offer direct cash transfers to people .Countries that are doing this include Denmark and Canada. This approach however though expensive has been hailed by many as effective in slowing the spread of the virus. On the other hand, developing countries (especially those in Africa) are beset by a myriad of challenges in responding to the virus. These range from little or no adequate resources to respond and a dilapidated health infrastructure.

The lockdown announced by our own government is a lockdown without income replacement. This approach in a country dominated by the informal sector is not sustainable in the long run. How will government cushion vendors and other players within the informal sector? In the case of the vendors who had their wares burnt, how are they going to recover from such loses? While it appears that such action is necessary during desperate times like this, it runs the risk of people going hungry and further worsens the rate of economic traction. While government recently announced a ZW$100 million and US$2 million facility under the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to cushion about a million urban households, the plan appears rushed again as the announcement was not followed up by a comprehensive criteria that will be used in the identification of beneficiaries. Added to this, the announcement was just general as it failed to mark a distinction between workers in the formal and informal sector.

In the final analysis, the 21 day lockdown was not well thought out by the responsible authorities. How will the informal sector be part of a 21 day lockdown when it is the only source of income for them? For businesses that pay rentals, how are they going to cope in light of the lockdown? Was not government supposed to conduct a sectorial mapping and analysis and come with measures that ensure that those in the informal sector are also catered for? I leave this to you dear reader.

Rawlings Magede is a Communications for Development expert who writes here in his personal capacity. Feedback on vamagede@gmail.com