A Business Trip to Zimbabwe

By Geoff Bird

A Port Elizabeth businessman who re-visited Zimbabwe after an absence of 22 years

FRIENDS are quite incredulous that I paid $202100.00 for a dinner for four, including a Greek salad at $11500 and a chocolate mousse for just $5000. The juicy pepper fillet steaks were $41000 each, rather special don�t you think?

No ordinary restaurant, you may say. Some plush joint at the Ritz, or in Monte Carlo?

Not quite, just a very pleasant eatery in a lovely garden setting in a suburb of Harare, enjoyed on a balmy summer�s evening recently.

And yes, those were Zimbabwe dollars � after President Robert Mugabe�s regime had knocked two noughts off the value of their currency, I may add.

With inflation running (officially) at almost 1 600 per cent � economists say 10 per cent compounded per week � goodness knows what the same meal would have cost the following Friday.

And here�s the rub. At the official exchange rate of around Zim$35 to the rand, that meal would have cost me, for I was the host, R5774, without the tip. At the unofficial street exchange rate of Zim$700 to the rand, it would have cost around R290, which is more akin to local prices as there was no wine on the bill.

It�s hardly necessary to add that the rand to Zim dollar exchange rate is something Zimbabwe�s proactive Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono is going to have to reconsider urgently if he wants to attract South African tourists and investments.

That was the reason for my visit � to look at business opportunities.

I worked in the then Rhodesia 35 years ago and last visited the country in 1985. So it was with keen anticipation, and much to the chagrin of business associates, that I decided to explore the current opportunities in our much maligned neighbour.

My line is security so with all the sensational newspaper headlines, I reckoned I could be onto a good thing.

My host was a leading Zimbabwean business leader.

At the time of our meeting, I had no intention of penning my impressions of Zimbabwe, so did not seek his approval to quote his thoughts. I therefore am not at liberty to mention his name, save to say that he has both the ear of top government and business leaders.

We met at the plush Meikles Hotel, a vibrant hub of the elite in the centre of Harare, which must be one of the cleanest capital cities in Africa.

My host was at pains to explain the difficulties under which business must operate in Zimbabwe, the huge challenges such as a shortage of foreign currency, unreliable electricity and fuel supplies, difficult communications and hyper inflation.

But what soon became apparent is that doing business in other parts of Africa is a millennium away from current Western concepts.

In Zimbabwe you succeed by acting creatively, even unconventionally, all within the law I should add. The challenge, therefore, is to rise above these man-made obstacles to stand out above the rest.

Keep your head down, concentrate on the job at hand and leave politics to the politicians, was my host�s advice.

However, these days the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce does not hesitate to criticise government policies that are crippling the economy.

�Criticise the policy and they listen and even act, just don�t attack the politician personally,� he commented.

On the day of our first meeting, he told me that business had been urging the government to abolish it �populist� polices that were distorting the economic landscape.

Two days later the state-controlled The Saturday Herald reported: �States gazettes new maize meal prices.�

It took even my host by surprise. He had explained that the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) purchased maize from farmers for Zim$52 000 a ton and sold it to millers for Zim$600, the objective being to make bread available to the poorest of the poor.

A laudable ideal, but unknown quantities of maize found its way back to the GMB via unscrupulous get-rich fraudsters (and we know all about them in South Africa) at Zim$52 000 a ton, netting the fat cat criminals a cool Zim$51 400 a ton for the round trip, thanks very much.

My host therefore applauded the government decision on the maize price as brave, considering its potential political ramifications, and a big step, he believed, away from the socialist and populist policies of the past that have all but brought Zimbabwe�s economy to its knees.

Zimbabwe faces huge challenges, all well documented, but one of the most heart rendering must the joblessness said to be running at about 80 per cent.

Yet while thousands of people walk the Harare streets with no apparent means of an income, there is little visible evidence of a crisis.

I encountered no beggars at traffic lights and saw no tatty groups of street urchins.

But there is obviously a crisis. Looking to locate an address in the city, I stopped to ask directions from a young policeman in uniform.

Instead, he asked for a lift top the city centre to which I agreed. Without prompting, he opened his heart, complaining bitterly about his own economic plight, the fact that he had no money to buy his �girlfriend� anything nice, nor was he able to afford decent clothes.

He was unimpressed when I tried to console him by saying he at least had work. What use was the job, he said, when he couldn�t even afford basic necessities on his salary.

Waiting to board my return flight at Harare International, I was badgered by two airport employees for a job � for their family members, and even if in South Africa �where there is lots of money,� they schemed.

Harare city is not as I remembered it � it�s far smarter, more developed and an absolute hive of activity, many new and modern buildings and shopping malls have gone up in the intervening years, and the city�s airport is modern and clean.

The roads, particularly in the suburbs, though are in a shocking state and pavements are overgrown.

But these are minor issues compared with the power outages and water cuts.

Before arriving I attempted to book accommodation at an establishment advertised on the web in one suburb to find they were in the middle of a power outage.

I tried another in a different part of Harare to be told that they while they had electricity; they had been without water for two days.

According to The Herald newspaper, power outages of up to 12 days are not uncommon and of course petrol and diesel shortages are commonplace. Even the state mouthpiece is highly critical of national electricity provider Zesa Holdings.

The power cuts play havoc with the economy and especially communications nationally and internationally. In my first 48 hours in Zimbabwe, I estimated that I had only had four hours of cellphone access because the networks of service providers were down.

So, who in his or her right mind would invest in a country with such potentially crippling problems?

Me, for one, given the right incentives and market-related exchange rate for my rand.

The country is just bursting with opportunity and I believe the economy is about to turn the corner, given the huge optimism within the business sector and guidance provided by the National Economic Recovery Council which is seeking �quick-win� strategies.

My thinking is to get in now while the going is tough for Zimbabwe is going to hum once the turnaround begins. And I believe the turnaround is going to be very quick.

For even now it�s not all doom and gloom.

On the flight over I sat next to the managing director of a major hotel and tourist facility in Victoria Falls. Once again I feel I am not at liberty to name him.

I sympathised with him, given the reported drop in tourism numbers in the last seven years. Thanks, but save the sympathy, he said with a smile. He had just returned from an international marketing effort and said his facilities were running at 60 per cent occupancy.

He�s living the good life as do many of the other mega-rich in Zimbabwe. Lots of poor people granted, but there is also a sizeable elite group building mansions in newly-opened secure complexes in Harare.

And finally there is the incredible friendliness of the local people, despite all their hardships. It�s impossible to walk down a street without what seemed like every second person asking: How are you?

President Thabo Mbeki is under fire for his �quiet diplomacy� policy toward Mugabe. I remember a time when there was no similar criticism of John Vorster�s �quiet diplomacy� policy towards Ian Smith�s Rhodesia.

And look what happened when Vorster finally pulled the plug � eight years of civil war.

Perhaps Mbeki is right after all.

On leaving Harare, I just felt we may have to abandon Western concepts of punitive sanctions and find more creative, African ways to overcome a uniquely African problem.

If nothing else but for the sake of all who live and would like to work in that wonderful country.