business leaders want to believe in renewal

Zimbabweans vote on July 30, 2018 for the presidential and legislative elections. The winner could be the current president, 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power in November 2017. Everybody is waiting for him to revive the economy ravaged by his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, 94, who remained in power in 1980 to 2017. Everyone, starting with the bosses.
                                

"These elections? Let's finish it as soon as possible … " Exhausted by the crisis years of the Mugabe era (aka Captain Bob), Sifelani Jabangwe hopes that Zimbabwe, a country of some 16.1 million people ( 38% of whom are under 14 years old) will vote calmly to get down to the basics of reviving their economy. Until then, the campaign was conducted without violence.

"We want free, honest, credible elections recognized as such by the rest of the world" explains the manufacturer. Who adds: "We have lost too much time with politics, it is more than time to put the economy back on track."

For Sifelani Jabangwe, like many other entrepreneurs in the country, the time press. His plastic tarpaulin and glove manufacturing business, James North Zimbabwe, is one of the last still operating in Southerton, the industrial area of ​​the capital Harare. An area that the recession has turned into a desert

The destruction of the economy
In the early 2000s, Robert Mugabe had ordered the maneu military eviction of white farmers who still held most of the agriculture from the country. Its reform has destroyed the wheat granary of southern Africa, which also has many natural resources (platinum, diamonds …). It also ruined the confidence of foreign investors and precipitated the collapse of the entire economy. Between 2000 and 2008, GDP (estimated at 16.5 billion in 2016) fell by almost half, the largest contraction of this kind in a peacetime economy.

Nearly 20 years later, activity has not yet recovered. Mass unemployment (between 85 and 90% of the population), hyperinflation (price increase above 1000% per year for 15 years, partially controlled by the introduction of US dollars valid only in the country), capital flight, widespread poverty and the failure of public services, especially health, have become the norm. Life expectancy is 61 years old. Shocked by this shock, Sifelani Jabangwe then reduced its workforce from 400 to 150 employees and refocused its activity on export products to Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda, among others.

Of the winner of the elections, he hopes a restart of the activity. "When the whole economy works and everyone has the means to buy what they want, we all benefit" notes the head of enterprise, also president of the Confederation of Industries of Zimbabwe . "The normalization of our relations with the rest of the world is vital" continues

When "visionary leaders, creative and competent"?
The sanctions imposed by the West to punish the repression of the old regime have ended up ruining the country. "We have been wriggling for years as a result of our own economic mistakes" laments Shingi Munyeza, who runs the South African coffee chain Mugg & Bean in his country.

"The upcoming elections constitute opportunity in gold for our economy " he believes. "72.5% of Zimbabweans currently live below the poverty line. (…) We must rise to the challenge of getting them out of this dramatic situation. "

" I hope we are done with this political class which maintained its domination at the expense of economy and citizens' rights. We need visionary, creative and competent leaders. " sues the entrepreneur.

Since taking over the reins of the country, 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa has been trying to convince foreign companies to return. During his election campaign, he even promised to bring Zimbabwe into the category of middle-income countries.

His main rival, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Nelson Chamisa, 40, is not left out. In the event of a victory, he said, he is making every effort to multiply the country's GDP by more than five in ten years to reach the $ 100 billion annual mark.

Commitments that perplex observers . They stress the enormity of the challenges ahead. "The revival of the economy requires a lot of investment. For that, we must change the business climate which remains very hostile at the moment " emphasizes the Zimbabwean economist John Robertson while evoking the legislative framework and the corruption. "We will also have to bring our farmers back. For the time being, their title deeds are not guaranteed and they need them to get money from the banks. " he adds.

"I want to believe …"
Despite all these obstacles, Abel Kapodogo wants to believe it. Unemployed for seven years, this graduate in sociology survives selling fruit in the center of Harare. "In 2013, the ruling party (Zanu-PF) promised us to create 2 million jobs. I was expecting to have one. I did not see anything, the government let me down. It hurts a lot " he recalls.

But the 30-year-old is sure, this election will change the situation. "This is a unique chance for young people who have been deceived by the party in power if Nelson Chamisa is elected, it will attract investors (…) . I want to believe that this time I will find a job " he explains.