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
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