eBusiness Weekly
Clifford Shambare
The Shorter Oxford English dictionary that I use regularly, defines a system as, “A set or assemblage of things connected, associated or interconnected so as to form a complex unity; a whole composed of parts in orderly arrangement according to some scheme or plan.”
The latter part of this definition implies that the one who creates a system has a plan for it. And a plan is the first step towards reaching a goal, or aim, or purpose. Behind every goal is a vision or idea, or concept as the case maybe.
So in order for that system to achieve the said goal, its owner has to design it to work towards that goal. This makes a system a living phenomenon, whether its parts are living or dead, themselves. That said, in practice, a system has both living and non-living components.
When it comes to this matter, religious people believe that there is a higher force with a plan for life.
Christians, for example, believe that God is the greatest planner of all time since, according to them, he created the universe, a system that is complex but orderly and functional.
And even science cannot disprove this fact — a fact that has so far, received considerable interest among intellectuals of all hue. For example, in their book “Super Brain”, Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi assert that “most scientists believe in the existence of God”.
Within the universe are many other systems that are subordinate to it. Some of these are natural while others are man-made.
Of our concern here are man-made systems. These can roughly be divided into two categories — that is institutional and economic.
In order for an economic system to function effectively, these two — that is, institutional and economic, categories — should dovetail into each other without the one being necessarily more important than the other.
This means that these systems should be, and actually are, interconnected. This implies that if one develops a fault, the others will respond to that fault, one way or the other, sooner or later.
One of the earliest recorded organised government systems this side of eternity was the Egyptian one
The most fascinating thing about this matter is the mechanism (s) by which the resultant transmission of the stimulus (involved), moves from one sub-system to another; as well as the time it takes for it to manifest itself, or to be felt/ observed at its target.
Depending on the nature and type of a given system, this manifestation process may be readily observable or felt; or it may barely be felt, if at all.
In most cases, the latter situation is the trickiest of these modes of manifestation because it usually results in delayed corrective action by the manager of the system concerned.
Considering the whole matter in its totality, from a religious—specifically Christian—perspective, one finds that below God’s plan and purpose, is the system of government that man—his most important creation—has gone on to create over time. Below Government falls any other of the said systems.
One of the earliest recorded organised government systems this side of eternity was the Egyptian one.
Historically, in terms of size and organisation, the Roman Empire is one of, if not the most organised government designed to rule a large territory.
Fast forward to the time of the colonial governments spanning the period from the 15th century AD or thereabouts, to the present period.
Most, if not all, of them were of European origin. Here we find that in terms of organisation and staying power, the British could easily have been the best. In the process, they formed the British Empire.
And although for practical purposes, that empire is all but dead, its influence is still being felt throughout the world today through a number of avenues — language and government institutions being the most critical of these.
Now, let us zero in on Zimbabwe to analyse how this influence has, and still is, playing out within this country and its economy.
When the British arrived in Central Africa including Zimbabwe, at the end of the 17th century, they set up a government system modelled on the one back home.
The subsystems of this government were the Executive, the Judiciary, and the Legislature. The Press is said to be the fourth pillar of government.
Now, my intention here is not to go deep into how Zimbabwe’s Government systems operate. Rather, it is to examine critically, how the whole system works; how the new Government and all its citizens — both Africans and Caucasians — have fared after the British government relinquished the reigns of the system they had set up in the country.
At first I was tempted to assert that the black Government and the majority, the blacks, are the ones who are currently responsible for running the system here. However, I soon realised that the Caucasians are still very much involved, though indirectly, in running this country/economy.
This line of argument takes us straight into one of the biggest challenges this country is facing — that is, that of the systems’ current failure to achieve a state of harmony between the Government and the private sector, and consequently, creating conditions ideal for real economic growth and progress.
This state of harmony is critical in that (if present) it should enable a smooth transition, from the old to the new system, to take place while at the same time achieving the said progress.
At this stage, some of us may start wondering what I am driving at, talking of transitional issues, some forty years after the departure of the British from this country.
But on looking closely into the situation, we begin to realise that there are many areas where we are still using old systems despite the departure from a colonial to a local, largely black run government.
This of course, is actually not an abnormal situation; nor is it a bad thing. In this regard, consider that some of the oldest cities in the world still have some very old sections in them still in use.
Some of these sections have been renewed to continue functioning and/or being habitable, while others have been preserved as historical monuments. Rome, Athens and Jerusalem are some of the best examples of this state of affairs.
It therefore, follows that, in the process of modifying our current systems, we have to be careful since the change (we may wish) for should be smooth in order not to disrupt the smooth functioning of the whole system.
This implies that discretion may be necessary in the process of carrying out any modification work on any part of any system.
In the same breath, we have to appreciate that if we leave any system unmonitored for some time, it will slowly become redundant and finally die.
In this respect, in Zimbabwe today, we have a very disturbing scenario. We have allowed — or shall we say — let a situation to develop where most of our systems have at worst, either died or at best, are now ailing.
Examples here are most urban settlements systems — that is, buildings, water treatment and sewage reticulation systems, road networks and public sports facilities. The others are the health and education systems, among the main ones.
Along with these is the death of industrial system (s) — that is the manufacturing and distribution systems.
There are a number of reasons for this state of affairs. These encompass among the main ones; a lack of capacity among Zimbabweans — specifically the indigenous — to run these systems; economic sanctions, dysfunctional politics, and corruption.
In order to shed more light on the matter, let us analyse these reasons here.
Zimbabwe’s economy, as it still stands, was founded and run by the colonists long before independence. It does not need much argument to assert that they performed this function very well, even under economic sanctions.
When the black government came along after 1980, it worked reasonably well with the Rhodesians. There are one or two reasons why this was so. One major reason is that the overall system somehow, maintained the status quo.
The other reason was that the black government endeavoured to, and actually, cautiously pushed blacks into the economy with the assistance of some progressive whites. In the process, a good number of blacks were trained in the trades and other critical areas of the economy.
In addition, the country got a lot of assistance and good will from the British and their allies in North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. In the process, it expanded and/or improved the country’s health, education, energy and other infrastructural systems.
Sadly, the exodus of the colonists after the launch of the land reform programme in 2000 — accompanied by the imposition of economic sanctions around the same time — resulted in a serious breakdown of many of these systems.
This situation was worsened by an ironic event — the exodus of the indigenous out of the country in unison with the whites.
As far as economic sanctions are concerned, those who advocated for their imposition have been denying their negative consequences on the economy, but a sober and more critical look into the situation shows clearly, that they do have a detrimental effect on it.
Dysfunctional politics on their part, have had a very disruptive, if not lethal, effect on the economy. Here I wish to illustrate this assertion in a comprehensive manner.
You see, under an ideal democratic system, politicians from both sides should appreciate that people’s interests come first, and not theirs.
This effectively means that any political move by any party should not in any way, lead to the disruption of the economy. Instead the opposite — that is progress — should be the objective of that change.
That said, in the same system, it is possible to have a situation where politicians from the opposition can inadvertently or even unknowingly, create conditions that make it difficult for the incumbent party to function normally.
Usually this a strategy used by those powers that want to unseat a government for reasons best known to themselves. Through such a strategy, existing system(s) are first destroyed in order to build new ones that are compliant to their needs.
This is a strategy that has a long history, starting as early as known organised government. The current super powers have been using it, starting from as early as the end of the Second World War up to as late as the present period, for example in South America.
A closer look into the phenomenon reveals that the promoter’s objective is to loot the subject of that change, of its natural resources.
Corruption on the other hand, is a lethal malady. In Zimbabwe, it has caused considerable damage to the economy, and much suffering among the citizens. This phenomenon has been one of the main causes for the destruction of systems in the country.
In order to appreciate better how this destruction comes about, let us look into a few aspects here.
The transport industry serves as a good example. For this industry to operate efficiently, every component needs to function efficiently and effectively.
These components comprise the institutions — that is, the vehicle testing and licensing systems; the infrastructure — that is the roads, bridges, road signs, and so forth; the actual vehicle, and last but not least, the driver himself.
Because the vehicle testing and licensing system has been corrupted, citizens are now fraudulently awarded driver’s licenses without the necessary driving skills.
Couple this with a condition where there are no road signs, roads and vehicles are in bad shape, and you can easily see the kind of challenges that can arise and the overall harm this condition can render to the whole system.
Add to this, the damage corruption has rendered to the other subsystems in the country and the overall result is a domino effect on the whole economy.
Reversing this trend proving to be a tall order indeed! Sadly, there are some of us who do not even want to see a reversal of this trend.
But there is another irony here; the latter are working towards an envisioned [new] system of theirs or, someone’s wish, but they may not know or even be conscious this fact. Such a project forms its own temporary system(s) whose performance can be judged on its own.
Shambare is an agriculture economist and is reachable on 0713971083
